In the United States, 99% of the materials we consume end up in landfills within six months of purchase. Most products are, in fact, designed with obsolescence in mind. Typically, these products are produced using a mix of over 100,000 synthetic and highly toxic chemicals – not exactly “user-friendly,” despite what the marketing message may tell you. They rely on mass, centralized production, and travel thousands of miles to be distributed and sold.
We are rapidly depleting the $36 trillion worth of planetary resources, including those that we are so obviously dependent on: fossil fuel and water. Frighteningly, we alter our climate and habitat in the process. Greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 70% since 1970, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) they will rise an additional 25% to 90% over the next 25 years if we keep our "business as usual" mentality.
As our resources deplete they will only become more expensive; as the climate changes, global GDP will be taxed with mitigation and adaptation strategies, while businesses will incur the cost of carbon taxes. This is in no way smart, beautiful, or in anyway desirable. EQUALLY IMPORTANTLY, IT DOES NOT IN ANY WAY,MAKE SMART BUSINESS SENSE.
However, the existing green consumer market is fragmented and made up of many small grass-roots businesses that have emerged from a passion to do 'good business', but that often lack a cohesive marketing or management capability to compete in a mainstream market. On the other hand, large consumer companies that work hard to redefine their intent in order to adapt to a changing world, while creating authentic sustainable consumer products, still carry a legacy of poor environmental and social performance. They suffer systemic barriers to sustainable innovation and the ability to drive step-change throughout their business, because they are large.
The market is ripe for genuinely sustainable and innovative companies. OZO is poised to put its nimble size, sustainability leadership and knowledge of the emerging green market, to directly challenge the current ways of doing business. In turn, OZO businesses will become highly attractive for acquisition by large consumer goods companies.
OZOlab was formed in response to these challenges.