Method On Creating Change

In an interview in Grist, Method founders Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan explain why they have engaged large retailers to bring better products to the mainstream.

GRIST Tell me about the decision to sell your products in mainstream stores.

Lowry: If you want to use your business to create change, you need to create change where the change is needed — and that is with people who are unaware of even the fact that we have these issues, or even worse, they’re people who have decided that the trade-off that they’ve been told they must make in order to live a green or a healthy lifestyle isn’t worth it. We’re trying to show people that if they had a misperception that green had to cost a lot of money or green had to be difficult or green had to be penance-oriented or–

Ryan: Can’t come in bright colors –

Lowry: Right, then that’s wrong. And it’s not only wrong with our stuff, which helps maintain your home, but also that assumption is wrong with the way that you decorate, the foods that we eat, the experiences that we have — so top-to-bottom in the home. You can do it, and it’s actually really easy. Because if it’s not easy, people aren’t going to do it.

Ryan: Plus, these retailers really got behind us and helped us push that change. Target was a great partner in that and Costco’s been a fantastic partner … We didn’t want to go try to steal share from the other natural cleaners; we wanted to go where there were no natural cleaners at that time.

Lowry: One of the things that I think we’re really proud of … is [how] the success that we’ve had in bringing green- and health-focused products to the mass market [has] actually changed the market much bigger than our own footprint.

An interview with the founders of Method green home-care products | Grist