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A few surprising industries affecting the concept of sustainability in a positive way

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businessIn the last ten years, sustainability has become a very important element in the business processes in many industries. For instance, all-natural and organic have become trendy terms in the food industry. Companies which are part of the paper industry, often like to highlight their efforts for recycling paper. In fact, even industries that have been associated with pollution for many years as the automotive industry are becoming eco-friendly.

The majority of consumers respect their efforts and they are doing their best to support sustainability. However, what most of them don’t know is that there other industries where this concept of sustainability is supported in a positive way. This is a short list of a few surprising industries where eco-friendly practices have been used for a few years now.

1. Fashion

When we are talking about sustainability, the fashion industry is probably one of the last industries that come in your mind. As a matter of fact, we have read a lot about their polluting practices in the last decade – they use toxic compounds, dangerous dyes, they don’t care about excessive amounts of materials etc.

However, not all of these companies are like that. A few years ago, a few well-known brand names like TOMS, Stella McCartney, and H&M have included some useful environmental practices in their work. For instance, they have stopped using animal products, they have placed their focus on sustainably sourced textiles and even started printing clothing labels with the help of ink based on soy!

One of the challenges of the fashion industry today is to optimize the work of textile mills, especially in emerging markets.

2. Death care

The so-called death care industry didn’t create much pollution in the past and didn’t need many resources. However, about a century and a half ago, this sustainability was reduced. The use of large metal-based caskets (instead of wooden ones), the use of formaldehyde (a dangerous compound for the environment) and non-bio degradable underground vaults has taken its toll. In addition, the cemeteries are becoming larger.

The good news is that more and more people are showing interest in environmentally-friendly solutions for death care like caskets that can be fully degraded after some time, burials outside cemeteries, and other unique solutions that can’t hurt nature. What’s interesting is that there are many cemeteries that are now offering traditional and green burial solutions.

3. Mattress

The rapid advance of technology has allowed the mattress industry to come up with some great models of mattresses. However, the increased use of hazardous materials, toxic elements, large warehouses and use of fossil fuel in the process of production and shipping are bad for us.  Recently natural latex mattresses are gaining popularity for being eco friendly.

One way in which some companies in this industry are helping is through eCommerce activities.

4. Wine

The process of wine making is usually kept as a secret which is quite logical. However, we all know that the traditional process of making wine includes the use of pesticides that are bad for nature, fossil fuels for distribution and potentially harmful packaging materials.

Some winemakers have introduced sustainable practices not too long ago. They are focused on making completely organic wine, using packaging made of biodegradable materials and eCommerce to avoid pollution caused by long shipping times.

In most situations, all these sustainability initiatives and activities are motivated by both environmental concerns and expenses evaluations. However, the result is always the same – positive effects for everyone. It seems that the concept of sustainability is now present in a record number of industries which gives us hope for our future and the future of our children and planet.

Contributors

Contributors

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