Why is it important to make soap more sustainable? How do you do that? How can sustainability be built into a high-touch, design-centric brand? And if you do it right, what does sustainability strategy do for a company?

These are the questions that Method's greenskeepers started with and they're the questions we'll explore in this column. We'll look at how our sustainability strategy is shaped, executed and refined across nearly every function of our company -- from designing products and choosing materials, manufacturing and distributing via our supply chain, engaging employees and building trust with our advocates and customers.

But first of all, who is Method? And why are our adventures in sustainability relevant?

Method is a San Francisco-based maker of cleaning, laundry and hand wash products. Roommates Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan started Method in 2001 after realizing that the cleaning product category -- characterized by ubiquitous, stinky, outdated products made from materials with long lists of worrying side effects -- was ripe for innovation. Also ripe for change was the notion that business itself was part of the problem -- that a profit motive was necessarily at odds with sustainability.

The origin of these beliefs lay in the founders' backgrounds. A chemical engineer by training, Adam formerly worked for the Carnegie Institution's climate science team. Sensing that the glacial pace of climate policy movement would stifle his passion to advance sustainable development, Adam saw entrepreneurship as a more dynamic and effective path. Eric knew from his branding background the power that design and innovation had to reinvent products, categories and industries. So they set out to reinvent how people cleaned, keeping sustainability firmly in mind.

From the very beginning, one of Method's core focuses has been on the long list of questionable chemicals widely used in conventional cleaning and personal care products. From phosphates to chlorine bleach to the variety of antibacterial treatments found in many hand washes and cleaning sprays, Method's formulation team started compiling a list of chemicals that didn't meet their health and environmental criteria, referring to it as the Dirty Ingredients List.

Next Page: Why Method believes cleaning products shouldn't come from dirty chemistry.