What Does it Mean to be Pro-Planet?
Anyone else ready to collapse under all the different Green terms popping up lately? Sustainable. Conscious. Carbon neutral. Carbon negative. Carbon positive. Pro-planet?
Is your head spinning yet? 👀
Eco buzzwords are starting to feel overwhelming at this point, and we understand. Green is the new Black so greenwashing is on the rise as “green” has become the new gold that lines the pockets of many businesses.
Here’s the thing though, while we love that supply and demand for sustainable products have taken off—the truth is, it’s a flawed, unregulated term and its usage by corporations even moreso.
Technically, “sustainability” calls for us to do “less harm” to the planet in an attempt to “slow down” the damage we’re causing. That’s a crucial step in healing the planet and we should all be striving for that as individuals. However, it is our belief over here at Hot Jupiter that businesses have the unique ability to take things a step beyond just slowing down the damage we create.
Ahem. That’s where pro-planet comes in. Stay with me, fam. Here’s the juicy part.
When we say we’re pro-planet, versus just sustainable, we are aiming to not just slow down the damage, but to flip it, reverse it, and use our money and resources to make things better. It’s a regenerative approach to sustainability that aims to give back to Mama Earth more than what was taken from her.
Let’s break it down.
As a brand, we are working towards offsetting more damage than what was caused, not only canceling it out, but utilizing profits from the business to restore, replenish, and revitalize. We define having a pro-planet approach as our way of stepping things up a notch from a sustainable business model to a more regenerative business model. Sustainable values, while critical to have, lean on the sole objective to do less harm, whereas our pro-planet values lean on the additional objective to create more good.
Look at it like this. We don’t want our communities to merely survive. We want our people to thrive. That’s why as a business who cares about people, planet, and animals - we didn’t create a brand just for the sake of creating a brand. We first thought of a solution to fill a need in our underserved communities. We then thoughtfully crafted our entire business model around utilizing the profits generated from our products to restore the resources used for those products, replenish the environment those resources were taken from, and revitalize the communities we serve.
Sad reality—it is estimated that we have less than ten years left to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis we’re currently facing. So our people and planet no longer have the luxury of time on our sides. That’s why businesses must acknowledge their responsibility to be more than just sustainable.
It is imperative that businesses have the greater goal of using their power and privilege of a profit-generating brand to protect our current and future generations. If we aren’t setting up the customers we serve to thrive, why are we even here?
In a nutshell, here are our goals to implement a pro-planet approach:
1. Reduce What We Take. Packaging is only a small fraction of the entire life cycle of a brand’s impact. 3 of the main ways we plan to reduce:
- We reduce waste via creating multifunctional products, using less packaging, and utilizing recycled materials.
- We are looking into how to reduce water consumption (water is the cosmetic industry’s most used ingredient despite there being a global water scarcity issue).
- We are looking into how to reduce energy consumption by adopting ingredients manufactured with renewable energy.
2. Return What We Take. We are exploring ways to use organic, vegan materials from regenerative farms and utilize renewable energy that is continuously replenished.
3. Retrieve What We Take and Reuse It. The Hot Jupiter Orbit Program follows a circular method that allows for refilling and recycling.
- Firstly, we avoid placing all the responsibility on you to recycle by doing our part to package Hot Jupiter products in PCR (post-consumer recycled) materials. This tackles recycling on the front-end versus solely relying on you to recycle for us. Purchasing PCR products creates a demand for cleaning up existing waste and repurposing it into packaging.
- Secondly, we offer refills which significantly reduces your carbon footprint. After you finish our product, you can remove the inner component and purchase a refill that comes in reduced packaging. Lastly, we’re partnering with a take back partner to recycle product parts that cannot be easily reused or curbside recycled.
4. Reinvest in People, Planet & Animals. This is where the pro-planet part really kicks in by regenerating more than what we took. We do this by:
- Partnering with 1% for the Planet which automatically redirects 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the environment, including grassroots environmental groups making a difference in Black and Brown communities.
- We are looking to support organizations that exist to protect the most vulnerable, including marginalized communities, areas heavily impacted by environmental degradation (which include issues like biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, land degradation, pollution, and water scarcity), and exploited animals.
- We also generate social capital which is often overlooked in marginalized groups. As a Black and South Asian owned business who recognizes the inequities facing our communities, we plan to use our business to provide jobs, inspiration, and investments that empower our people and bolster our shared economic system, addressing many injustices in the process.
Being a pro-planet brand also means acknowledging that there is no such thing as perfect sustainability. It means remaining open to consistently doing the work to research, learn, evolve, and prioritize action. This isn’t a one and done thing. Being pro-planet means not only highlighting the work we’ve done, but also sharing the work-in-progress. Our goal is to be a certified B corporation that meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability to balance profit and purpose.
The issues facing our planet will only be solved when individuals, governments, and businesses ALL work in tandem. For us all to make a pro-planet system succeed, we must prioritize working toward racial equity, a healthier environment, stronger communities, and the protection of animals. And as a business, we can achieve this by using profits and growth as a means to a more beautiful end.
There you have it fam. Pro-planet explained. At the end of the day, we are all doing our best to navigate the complex world of sustainability.
It’s messy.
It’s confusing.
It’s imperfect.
But we’re here for the challenge. Let’s go!
