by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Ben Droz
Do not call Jessica Alba a starlet. Many people might know the 34-year-old as an actress from Sin City, The Fantastic Four or TV’s Dark Angel; but these days, Alba is all business and she wants you to know it. Alba is the co-founder of the The Honest Company, a consumer products company aimed mainly at child and childcare products that emphasizes natural materials and ethical consumerism. Now before you start thinking this is another Hollywood vanity project, the Honest Company has grown exponentially since its founding in 2011 and is now valued near $1 Billion. Alba and her partners take this growth seriously; she was recently on the cover of business mag Forbes, and that’s only the beginning.
Photo credit: Forbes
Alba and the team are looking more broadly than their own company these days, coming to Washington recently with a delegation of companies under the umbrella of the American Sustainable Business Council, to advocate for reform on chemical use in consumer products including the long awaited overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
“I really just went about developing and creating the business and all of its attributes around what I wanted as a consumer and what I felt; the needs weren’t being met, my needs weren’t being met and people’s needs weren’t being met…to have effective, safe, beautifully designed and affordable products to live a healthier life” said Alba, talking about the genesis of the her company, an idea she started to dream up while pregnant with her first child. “Everybody wants a safe and healthy world, especially for children. They are the most vulnerable the most susceptible to adverse effects on how these chemicals can affect their health,” she added as she described the importance of the changes she came to Capitol Hill to demand during meetings with several high ranking members of Congress.
Members of the American Sustainable Business Council
Alba specifically wanted to make sure that her own presence was not hoisted alone and that she came to DC as one voice of many who support these reforms. Chris Gavigan, Chief Product Officer at The Honest Company pointedly remarked, “The reception has been incredibly open and available to the fact that you’ve got a coalition of businesses coming together to raise their voice, and businesses that are representative of millions of consumers… [And] consumers equals voters for them. And voters are important for them to connect with.”
David Levine Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
David Levine, the CEO of The American Sustainable Business Council was on hand as well to point out that consumer ignorance, based on trust is the exact reason why these reforms are critical to the marketplace and that is has been too long since these issues were specifically addressed. “[These companies] have found that consumers believed that the products out there were safe; if they were in the marketplace that the government must have already regulated them and made sure that the products we have were regulated.”
Jessica Alba Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
TSCA was passed in 1976 and so logically, just given the changes to the world around us, a refreshed look at the issue seems to make sense. “We’ve been doing this work on TSCA for three, four, five years…this is really the most exciting point we’ve been at” said Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of Seventh Generation, a green cleaning product company. And it sounds like Hollender was right and the voices of the team were heard. Science Magazine reports that a bill cracking down on labeling of toxic substances sailed through the House of reps passing 398-1 on Tuesday. This follows on the heels of a Senate committee also passing legislation through committee to tackle a complete rethink on how we approach toxic substances.
Take up your voices and be heard, it can make a difference: This time it did!
