Anyone who campaigns for environmental change encounters the excuse that one person can’t make a difference. In all fairness, they have a point. A bachelor who tosses his newspaper in the trash won’t stop deforestation by recycling the New York Times; and a mother who switches to detergent without phosphate won’t prevent all contamination in local lakes. They might point to democracies and say in a country of 300 million citizens, one vote doesn’t matter. But the truth is that any reduction in pollution, however slight, has an environmental impact, and a collective group can make a visible change. Communities campaigning against industrial pollutants can clean up local creeks, but companies buying wholesale green products have a huger impact.
Regardless of what it provides, every business already has to invest in bulk supplies: disinfectants, soap, and other cleaners—if not for resale then at least for the upkeep of facilities. One household buying a concentrated cleaner does better the world by reducing packaging, but a whole corporation using concentrated products compounds that change. Buying in bulk a product that avoids synthetics and harmful dyes can similarly have a grander impact on the pollutants that enter local water systems.
Beyond this direct environmental progress, buying wholesale green products in bulk sends a louder message to cleaning supply companies. If a small business in Eugene, Oregon switches to green hand soap, eco friendly products appear to be nothing more than a niche market. If a multinational corporation makes green hand soap standard for their multiple offices, a higher demand for earth-friendly products will be felt, and suppliers will change their methods accordingly. It’s said there’s responsibility in power, so for companies and organizations that have the power to make an environmental difference, it may just be they have a responsibility to do so.
