The Most Ethical Condoms on the Planet? Sir Richards Condoms
Image credit: Sir Richards Condoms
From giving out free condoms to fight climate change to condoms that help preserve the Amazon, TreeHugger has plenty of stories on how safe sex can also help save the environment. But a new venture, set to launch this summer, may just take the concept of the ethical condom to new heights. Sir Richards, a fledgling social venture, is pledging that for every condom purchased, another will be donated to non-profits in the developing world. But that's just the start of their social mission—when it comes to ethical, these guys think, ahem, big. The company is in the fairly early stages of development (there is a long lead time for FDA approved condoms), and we won't see product hitting shelves until later this summer. For now, folks can keep up with the initiative via Sir Richards Condoms Facebook page, or they can get a more detailed scoop via an interview with Sir Richards' founders over at Elephant Journal.
Besides their efforts to distribute free condoms in the developing world (apparently less than 10% of the global demand for free condoms is met each year), Mathew Gerson and Mark Kreloff are also pledging to make the marketing of their condoms more women and gay friendly than the average sleezy, macho campaigns of their competitors. And they are also exploring sustainable packaging—currently the box that the condoms come in is recycled [UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: Mathew Gerson just emailed me to clarify that it is actually just recyclable, not recycled, right now.], but the foil wrappers themselves are FDA mandated—so there is little that can be done in the near future. But the pair are also looking at embedding wildflower seeds into the boxes too.
The folks at Elephant Journal are clearly zealots, and are unwilling to let the Sir Richards folks rest on their admittedly impressive laurels—in fact the interviewer pushes Matthew and Mark to contact Terracycle about developing one of their signature recycling programs (for the wrappers, not the condoms!), an idea that the guys seem very open to. They also reveal that they are working hard to become both Fair Trade and FSC certified—although the current supply of FSC and Fair Trade latex is way short of demand, so it's going to take time.
But beyond each of the individual "ethical checkboxes" that Sir Richards seems to have covered, it's the intent behind the company that is most inspiring—these guys are clearly exhibiting the passion and drive that green or ethical business was supposed to be all about in the first place—not selling sustainable stuff for the sake of status or fashion, but rather taking your business, whatever business that may be, and looking for the absolute maximum leverage you can have to make the world a better, fairer and more interesting, fun place to be.
