Making Sustainability Stick

Going to kick this off with a little honesty hour - no, I am not a model citizen for sustainability and I do not claim to be. keote is a fashion brand before it is an eco-friendly brand. But that doesn’t change the fact that the keote itself is inherently a sustainable, waste-reducing product at it’s core. And I have a theory on why it works.

Here we are in the midst of "plastic free July" - an initiative that implores people to choose one plastic item to refuse for the month - be it plastic bottles, packaged produce or single-use plastic bags.

A noble cause. Another noble cause? The 100+ countries and 12 U.S. states that have either fully or partially banned single-use plastic bags. Seems like the solution, yes?

Well, unfortunately, places like California have actually reported an increase in plastic waste since implementing these bans.

The culprit? Reusable bags. That simply don’t get reused.

We all know we should bring our own bags to the store. That’s why we feel bad when we get to the checkout and realize we forgot again.

Now I won't dive into a big spiel about the environment, I think we are all aware enough regarding the sheer level of waste our society creates. And we care, don’t we?

Then why is it so hard to make the “right” choice? Why do we need government bans and one month a year to swear off a certain type of plastic?

Listen, I’m just as guilty as the next guy for having had a pile of mismatched, bulky reusable bags collecting dust in my kitchen cabinet. No matter how hard I’d try to remember to bring them to the store, I'd either forgot or they didn’t fit in my bag. (It’s the reason why I came up with the idea for keote in the first place.)

It’s not that I didn’t care. It was the friction.

The existing reusable bags actively worked against becoming part of my everyday routine.

And yes, compact totes did exist. But I know myself. I crave aesthetics, cohesion, style and thoughtful design in the things I purchase. Otherwise, they just don’t get used.

And if these bags don’t get used over and over again, they can’t be sustainable… I think this approach applies more broadly to the whole reducing-waste conversation.

For example - it’s easy to ditch the plastic water bottles when you love your massive Stanley cup. It’s bigger, keeps your water cold, can be found in your favorite colorway and still fits in your car cupholder. It’s better than the alternative. It easily becomes part of your everyday routine and is a choice you want to make, rather than feel guilt-driven toward making.

It’s similar to how the keote operates. Holds a massive grocery haul, clips onto your keys so you don’t forget it and looks elevated both ways. No friction. Which means the sustainable choice of bringing an extra bag actually gets chosen.

This is what I see in our keote reviews, DMs and the anecdotes from people in my orbit. The “I’m excited to go grocery shopping so I can use my keote” and “I never leave the house without it clipped to my bag”. These are the sentiments that make eco-friendly decisions simply the by-product of a better design.

The theory is that maybe reducing waste isn’t just about finding more willpower or banning one product and replacing it with another, maybe it's about making the sustainable choices convenient, beautiful and embedded in our daily lives.

Not because we feel like we have to do it, but because we want to.

- rachael

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