Choose Sustainable Body Care

Lots of body care products, including those for athletes, present as sustainable but are really just participating in something called ‘green washing.’

Companies who engage in green-washing techniques are really just nibbling around the edges and putting a marketing spin on top of policies and values that aren’t really as sustainable as they present.

bluerub’s Commitment to Sustainability

Our values and policies put sustainability first. This doesn’t mean we are 100% sustainable — the biggest challenge is packaging and the options are limited, but we work on it.

We work in five different ways to live our suitability philosophy and bring that to you.

1. INGREDIENTS
   This is the biggest area for ensuring our products are sustainably sourced. While petroleum-derived products, like ozokorite, can be really useful in raising the melting point of products like CHAFE, the cost to the environment is just too high. Huge holes are mined into the earth’s surface and the toxic result is an environmental nightmare.  And who wants to put petroleum wax on their bodies! Yuk.
   
   Other ingredients, like Dead Sea salts, sound great, but the environmental cost is also too high; it’s a finite resource in a delicate eco-system. So we chose activated charcoal from sustainable hardwood for our SWIM products instead, reducing our carbon footprint.
   
   We work with our manufacturers to ensure the ingredient sourcing trail is clear and documented. When new ingredients are introduced, we look at them first for sustainability and then suitability in the product before we agree to use them.  
    
2. LEAPING BUNNY
   By committing to the cruelty-free standards of Leaping Bunny, bluerub sought out a manufacturer who meet those standards, which include an entire supply chain with vendors who have agreed to not test on animals.  This let’s us be confident that we are giving you a more sustainable, environmentally friendly and ethical product.
   
   
3. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
   Our manufacturer has a large solar array and powers a high % of their electricity through solar.  We also ship with UPS carbon-neutral shipping when we can.
   
   
4. SHIPPING
   If you’ve received a box from us, you might have been surprise that we reused shipping boxes from other companies, such as Amazon. We reuse them because otherwise that box would end up in the land fill or spending energy to recycle it. If you received an envelope from us, it was likely from eco-enclose and made from fully recycled material. Plus, the envelope has a 2nd seal and tear strip so it can be used twice - once by us and once by you.
   
   
5. PLANTING TREES
   When you place an order on our website, we plant a tree with One Tree Planted. One Tree Planted plants trees all over the world.  We direct our trees to be used to reforest areas affected by wildfire in California, Colorado, and Oregon.  This is part of our 1% for the Planet commitment.

The biggest hurdle in sustainability for body care companies is, of course, packaging. Because we use essential oils in many of our products (and other oils and butters) we can’t use paper tubes, or some of the new plastic alternatives yet because the oils act as solvents and can eat into the containers.  Not a good look for anyone!  

Glass is the obvious answer, except it’s not. Glass can be made from recycled glass, and reheating recycled glass uses less energy than making first-run glass. But glass is heavy and expensive to ship. Additionally, recycling experts tell us that the recycling system for glass in the US is broken.  If just a few glass jars aren’t recycled correctly, the entire load will go to the landfill.   

So this doesn’t mean we don’t try.

We have used glass for our MASSAGE+ and the roller ball is removable so the entire bottle can be washed and reused (look for larger sizes of MASSAGE+ to come out so you can refill).  We have also used refillable 2 oz squeeze bottles for CLEAN and 2 oz refillable spray bottles of SURFACE. The larger refill sizes are available, which saves you money and reduces the plastic used.

We are also exploring different packaging solutions to reduce our reliance on plastic tubes, which cannot be reused and are not recyclable in many cities.  So MUSCLE and CHAMOIS are now also available in recycled plastic jars that can be washed and recycled or reused. 

 Look for more sustainability updates as we track our footprint.  

Val Sanford

Growing up in Southern California, Val played competitive softball (coached by her father), was a gymnast, swimmer, ran cross country, fished, hiked, kayaked, and as an adult, experimented in rock climbing and golf. In 2010 she was diagnosed with a rare cancer; a liposarcoma was growing on her sciatic nerve. Once this tumor was removed, she has been cancer-free! Left with significant nerve damage, she now has limited mobility. Yet still moves and engages in the world around her. She snorkels, walks, travels, and practices yoga to combat chronic pain and to maximize her ability to keep moving. She works with a personal trainer, acupuncturist, physical therapist, and massage therapist to maximize her mobility. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her dog and gets her fins on so she can swim with the fish any time she can.