Our blog promised interviews with “difference makers” in sustainable packaging and I can think of few who have had more widespread positive impact than Rider Thompson. He has posted several of our articles on his Sustainable is Good and written articles about us, so now it is my extreme pleasure to now be able to interview him and share his work with our many friends and customers.

DS: Rider, can you tell our readers how you first became involved in this area and what prompted you to start your first blog?
RT: The idea to start Sustainable is Good actually came about as a combination of a number of my interests. I’ve always been concerned and interested in environmental issues – things like consumption and waste, use of resources etc. I come from a background with many ties to advertising and design so I’ve been exposed to that piece – Sustainable is Good is a combination of my interests all focused on a topic that brings them together – packaging. Nowhere do the worlds of conservation, design waste and consumption come together better than packaging. Packaging is a tremendous source of waste just look at your weekly trash to prove that point most of it is packaging of one sort or another. I think packaging is an area where companies/manufacturers, environmental advocates, consumers and government are beginning to come to together and this will continue in the years to come. Plus packaging is fascinating it plays such a significant role in marketing and a consumer’s decision to make a purchase. Today with an increasingly larger group of consumers factoring sustainability into their buying decisions – packaging is at the forefront and is one of the main areas we’ll see these issues play out.

DS: You now have one web site focused on packaging and a second one focused on product. In today’s world, isn’t that line increasingly fuzzy and how do you decide where to post a story?
RT: That’s correct I started a 2nd site dedicated to products back in March. Originally Sustainable is Good covered both packaging stories and greener more eco-friendly products. As the site grew we developed readers interested in both topics. Some came to the site for packaging information and stories and others for product info. I saw an opportunity to create a 2nd site focused on products where we could devote more of a focus and also allow the main site to continue its focus on packaging and design.

DS: In terms of packaging materials, where do you believe the greatest gain has been made in terms of sustainability and where do you think the best is yet to come?
RT: Honestly I think the greatest gain in terms of packaging materials has come in the form of awareness. I feel like we’re all still trying to figure out the best most efficient methods and materials for packaging and how to get items in the hands of consumers. But over the last year especially we’ve seen a significant increase in the awareness of sustainability issues in packaging. The awareness has come both on the manufacturing end as well as the individual consumer. As you know Dennis, sustainability is the hottest things right now in retail packaging – just about every major company in the US is trying to incorporate elements of sustainability into their packaging – either in terms of the physical packaging or increased efficiency of packaging operations in production/transportation. Likewise consumers are actually starting to pay more attention to packaging. Their increased attention may come in the form of greater appreciation for innovative efficient design, or displeasure over the use of a certain materials or possibly over too much packaging.

DS: Rider, you have done an exceptional job of exposing specific examples of eco unfriendly and excessive packaging. Do you feel this is a responsibility for you and have you ever experienced any severe negative response to your always honest and straightforward opinions?
RT: Excellent question and an interesting one. Issues of excessive packaging are increasingly becoming items of interest for me and for consumers. I am interested in covering these stories not so much for the physical excessive packaging – which is obviously a key part of it but for the fact that consumers are now starting to recognize these situations as problems and do something about it. So it’s more the culture change I am interested in covering. Even 1 or 2 years ago the average consumer wouldn’t necessarily recognize excessive packaging as a problem – they might think it was a little odd but they wouldn’t conceptualize it in terms of being wasteful or unnecessary. Conversely – manufacturers and companies seem to be genuinely interested in addressing excessive packaging issues. As you know many contract with 3rd party companies for shipping – and are sometimes unaware of their practices until a consumer raises the issue. Excessive packaging was never really a negative for a company until just recently – because think about it – excessive packaging always protected the product – right? And often that was all people cared about. Now people are realizing – hey I can protect the product as well or even better but I can also be more efficient, save money and be more socially responsible. So it’s really the culture change that interests me.

DS: One of the biggest problems in sustainability is the lack of clear and consistent definitions for eco terminology. How do you believe that will eventually be managed and who is going to have to lead the charge?
RT: Great question, If I had the answer to that one you’d probably know it by now! Seriously, there is tremendous need for standards in the whole natural organic, green product arena – no question. The challenge is these products cover so many different areas like food, personal care cosmetics, clothing, accessories, supplies etc etc. So how do you come up with terms that apply across all these areas? The answer so far has been you don’t. This breeds a whole series of standards and terms developed by each industry or segment of the market – and they may or may not have cross application to other areas. The result is similar to what we have now – a functioning mess! I think the most effective approach is to have an organization like the FTC get involved (which they have) in the discussion to try and work through the claims and terminology and develop a basic set of guideline standards.
From there I believe it’s going to be individual standards that are going to lead the way. Some examples of well recognized credible organizations already “certifying” or standardizing green products and packaging are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade and others.

DS: As a subscriber and regular visitor to your blog, I can’t help but ask about the new “Martha’s Circle” logo on display. What can you tell us about that and how you think it will benefit what you do?
RT: We recently joined Martha’s Circle, which is a network of blogs run by Martha Stewart. I was flattered to be approached by Martha’s Circle, who recognized our original high quality content was something that fit with their interests. I look forward to a developing relationship with Martha’s Circle and have always had tremendous respect for Martha Stewart. Martha is an amazing businesswoman, she’s remarkably intelligent and has always incorporated elements of sustainability into her beliefs and operations.