3 Ways Brands Can Help Consumers Integrate Sustainability in the Home

In the Unit­ed States and around the globe, peo­ple are becom­ing more mind­ful of ways to incor­po­rate sus­tain­able liv­ing prac­tices into their dai­ly rou­tines, and eco-friend­ly choic­es are now a pri­or­i­ty for some con­sumers. Unsur­pris­ing­ly, this plan­et-first men­tal­i­ty also affects deci­sions home­own­ers make when con­sid­er­ing home improve­ment projects.

Although the term ​“eco-friend­ly” was orig­i­nal­ly coined for prod­ucts that did not active­ly harm the envi­ron­ment, today’s con­sumers seek prod­ucts that can have a pos­i­tive influ­ence as well. As end-users attempt to reduce their impact on cli­mate change, brands must ensure their prod­ucts are held to the eco-friend­ly stan­dard con­sumers are look­ing for.

Brands in the home space are inte­grat­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty into prod­ucts in the fol­low­ing ways:

• Build­ing with alter­na­tive materials
• Man­u­fac­tur­ing with reduced car­bon emissions
• Using nat­ur­al pow­er sources

These prac­tices are not only increas­ing con­sumers’ brand loy­al­ty, but they are also help­ing increase acces­si­bil­i­ty to sus­tain­able prac­tices on the purchaser’s end. Keep read­ing for a quick sum­ma­ry of each of these trends.

Alternative Materials

The use of nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents in clean­ing prod­ucts and cos­met­ics has been around for quite some time. Gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty, how­ev­er, is the use of alter­na­tive mate­ri­als for oth­er types of prod­ucts in the home. Com­pa­nies today are uti­liz­ing not only mate­ri­als that are biodegrad­able or that have a low envi­ron­men­tal impact but also mate­ri­als pre­vi­ous­ly con­sid­ered waste.

Exam­ple: Home tiling brands are incor­po­rat­ing mate­ri­als such as recy­cled plas­tic, elec­tron­ic waste, biowaste and even fish scales into spe­cial­ty ​“bio tiles” that help con­sumers feel like they are liv­ing sus­tain­ably with­out hav­ing to sac­ri­fice the lux­u­ries they’re accus­tomed to.

Reduced Carbon

Sub­sti­tute mate­ri­als aren’t the only oppor­tu­ni­ty for home and build­ing com­pa­nies to make more envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious choic­es, and the pro­duc­tion process itself is one of these areas. Some man­u­fac­tur­ers have already com­mit­ted to a ​“zero-car­bon” pro­duc­tion process. This could be done by means of engi­neer­ing a car­bon-neu­tral emis­sions process or by uti­liz­ing what’s com­mon­ly referred to as car­bon off­sets — activ­i­ties that off­set the dam­age done by car­bon emis­sions, such as plant­i­ng trees.

Either way, con­sumers want to side with brands that can help them reduce their envi­ron­men­tal impact with each pur­chas­ing decision.

Natural Power

Much like the pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned approach­es, a shift toward renew­able ener­gy is not a new trend; solar and wind ener­gy cap­ture has been grow­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty for decades. How­ev­er, in 2022, sus­tain­able ener­gy has become more acces­si­ble for at-home con­sump­tion, and brands that invest in these inno­va­tions will earn the trust of earth-friend­ly consumers.

Exam­ple: The Coarse Pot­tery Air-Humid­i­fi­er resem­bles a radi­a­tor made from clay. Users can add water to the humidifier’s basin, and droplets will grad­u­al­ly rise and evap­o­rate through tiny cav­i­ties near the appliance’s top, there­by moist­en­ing the air and elim­i­nat­ing the need for electricity.

By adopt­ing sus­tain­able man­u­fac­tur­ing, sourc­ing, and design, com­pa­nies in the home and build­ing space can win the trust of home­own­ers con­cerned with their own envi­ron­men­tal foot­print. To learn more about emerg­ing eco-friend­ly prac­tices, log in with your HIRI account to read our full Sus­tain­abil­i­ty at Home report.

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