Composty - CarbonBright

Composty: Pioneering sustainability in home cleaning products

COMPANY SIZE

<10 Employees

INDUSTRY
Retail | Home Cleaning Products

GEOGRAPHIC FOOTPRINT
HQ in Kingswinford, West Midlands, UK

Meet Composty, a family-run company focusing on environmentally friendly and affordable cleaning products in the UK. With a vision for a more sustainable world, founders Helen and Matt were motivated by the birth of their daughter and set out on a mission to offer an eco-friendly and affordable alternative to traditional cleaning products.

INTRODUCTION

Plastic is responsible for 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally and over 400 million plastic sponges are disposed of in the UK every year. These plastic sponges take over 500 years to decompose in landfills! Composty solves both problems: eliminating plastic and diverting waste from the landfill. Composty has created compostable products and packaging to eliminate plastic and waste from the equation, working with a number of sustainability experts and institutions to achieve their goals.

In partnership with CarbonBright, Composty conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study focused on their compostable sponges to ensure their guiding sustainability values are met.

CHALLENGE

Using compostable materials is one way to reduce environmental impact, but Composty wanted a deeper understanding of all emissions associated with their sponges. The challenge was accurately identifying the sources of environmental impact using data to understand how their compostable sponges compared to traditional plastic sponges. Composty was determined to pinpoint areas where they could further reduce their environmental footprint, from sourcing materials to disposal, all while ensuring transparency for their customers. Composty needed a solution to accurately measure and assess the life cycle emissions of their products to support environmental claims.

SOLUTION: USE CARBONBRIGHT’S AI-DRIVEN PLATFORM TO AUTOMATE PRODUCT LCA’S

Using CarbonBright’s AI-driven platform, Composty performed a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment for their compostable sponges, analyzing emissions at every stage from raw material sourcing to end-of-life disposal. A science-based approach empowered Composty to evaluate their product’s environmental impact and compare their emissions to traditional products using credible data to communicate to stakeholders and customers alike.

RESULTS

Leveraging Carbonbright’s platform, Composty conducted a science-based Life Cycle Assessment for their sponges. CarbonBright enabled Composty to assess the life cycle model of their sponges with accurate results in a more efficient manner than traditional approaches, reducing time and manpower to conduct the study.

The study identified the impacts of each category in a Life Cycle Assessment, finding the majority of Life Cycle Emissions are associated with Consumer Use, creating an opportunity to educate customers on proper use to fully reap the environmental benefits of the sponge. However, when excluding Consumer Use from the analysis, Composty was able to identify areas with the highest environmental impact in other stages of the product life cycle. Notable insights from the study included:

A composty sponge uses 90% less space than the traditional plastic sponge when shipped, which drastically reduces packaging and transportation related emissions.

Disposal and end-of-life consumer education has a significant impact. Disposing the sponge through compost results in more than 70 times lower emissions and is beneficial for soil health when compared to disposing the sponge in the landfill.

The analysis allowed Composty to identify opportunities for improvements across their supply chain and communicate these decisions to stakeholders using data-backed insights.

Composty’s collaboration with CarbonBright streamlined their sustainability efforts and reinforced their mission to offer sustainable alternatives. CarbonBright demonstrated its ability to efficiently perform a Life Cycle Analysis and simplify sustainability practices within the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry. CarbonBright’s real-time emissions calculation, credible decarbonization communication facilitation, and actionable areas for emission reduction identification empowered Composty to make informed decisions towards a sustainable future.

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