There's sort of a test that we run for that where the creative people here within Method are ensuring that from the packaging to the vibrancy of the color, to the form, the entire design itself is something that's going to be something that gets people excited.

JB: Regarding the product performance, you mentioned competing with the mainstream companies, and with more mainstream companies launching their own greener versions of their cleaners, have you been affected by that? Has it become competition for you?

AL: We really haven't been affected by the entrance of a lot of the big companies entering into the green space. It creates a little bit of competition over shelf space just because there's just a massive proliferation of green brands right now. But if you look at what's being launched, everybody's launching the same product.

The packaging's very similar. The branding's very similar. And the products themselves, what's in the products, is nearly identical. What they're missing is a couple of things. Number one is the proprietary chemistries that create the performance that we've got. So, for example, in our auto dish product - we have a product called Smarty Dish - that's the only product that doesn't have phosphates and bleach and will actually outperform the ones that do. And that's because of the proprietary chemistries that we've got. They're missing that.

And then they're also missing the fact that this is a product that's a lot more than just a green alternative to the toxic stuff. And so what we see with a lot of those new entrances is it's not hurting us, it's actually hurting the toxic stuff that often those same companies make.

JB: To go back to what we were talking about with the changes you've made to ingredients and packaging, regarding the whole of any of those changes and decisions you've made, have there been any going into it you had a preconception of whether it would be easy or difficult, and the end result was opposite of how easy or difficult you thought it would be?

AL: Yes. I'm sure. That seems to happen - it seems to happen all the time. You have an idea of substituting a product or an ingredient and it turns out to be more difficult.

I'll give you one example. Propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is a material used in personal care extensively. It's derived from petroleum. But aside from that, it is a relatively innocuous material. But it's derived from a petro source.

We actually worked with a supplier to come up with a bio source for propylene glycol, and it's basically chemically identical. But there were some problems in the way that it worked with the formulations in terms of how viscous they were and how they felt and things like that.

That was something when we found the alternative for propylene glycol that was actually bio based - was a natural propylene glycol - we got real excited. We thought, “Okay. This is going to be great.” And then it ended up being a whole series of lab work needed to be done in laundry products and in personal care products to make sure that that natural propylene glycol actually worked in the formulation. So I would say that that happens on almost every material.

Sometimes it's easier than you think, but it really seems like most of the time it's a little bit more difficult than you think to make those types of substitutions.

JB: All right. Well, we look forward to seeing you at Greener by Design later this month.

AL: It'll be my pleasure to be there. I can't wait.