We don’t need trees to make toilet paper

In this episode of Changing the Bog Standard, host Dan Ilic chats to Elissa Foster, the head of sustainability at Who Gives A Crap, about how consumers and consumables can drive change.

Featuring:

• Dan Ilic - host and investigative humorist

• Elissa Foster - head of sustainability, Who Gives A Crap

What can individuals do to drive change? Support brands that give a crap. Elissa Foster has two decades of experience steering consumer brands towards environmentally responsible practices. She knows that people vote with their dollar and believes that Who Gives A Crap has a role to play in helping to educate and empower people to make choices that will change the world for the better.

One of the problems the company has identified is that people just don’t have the facts. “Two in three people have no idea that toilet paper comes from trees,” Foster says. “People just don’t think about toilet paper that much, and the first step is making people aware.

“There’s other alternative materials, like using recycled paper or using bamboo fibre, like we do, that make perfectly wonderful toilet paper.”

Foster graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a doctorate in environmental science, and formerly worked as the head of product environmental impact at the clothing brand Patagonia. She’s no salesperson, she says, but with her experience in environmental management for consumer brands, she understands that one of the most powerful things we can do for the environment is change the products we spend money on.

Who Gives A Crap is a business and social enterprise that sells 100% recycled and 100% bamboo toilet paper and donates 50% of its profits to improve sanitation in the developing world. “I think it’s an amazing place to be an environmentalist,” Foster says, “because companies can really drive change, and so it’s very inspiring and you feel like you’re actually making change, which I love.”

Foster is aware of how much greenwashing goes on in the business world, and how meaningless words such as “sustainability” can seem, but she has also seen a lot of change. “I think there’s more and more businesses that have a greater purpose than just making profits and are thinking about their social and environmental impacts more.”

Can changing your toilet paper really change the world? Foster thinks so. The more businesses that provide environmentally aware products and services, she says, the more power people will have to choose ethical products, and the more companies that haven’t adopted sustainability practices will be phased out.