The Clean and Green Club

Some companies are just discovering that taking sustainability measures actually increases profits, and therefore they may as well join the gang. Other companies have sustainability as a core value; it’s built into their DNA. And some, like this moth’s Spotlight business, are designed from the ground up to move us toward sustainability; it’s the reason they’re in business in the first place..

We Beat the Mountain is a company formed specifically to create markets for recycled products and thus reduce the “mountain” of trash piling up at landfills. Thus, the rather odd-sounding name actually does make sense.

Visiting the site, you don’t even feel like you’re looking at a catalog; you’re joining a movement! Consider the copy on We Beat the Mountain’s home page:

We Beat The Mountain – Join The Movement Now!

Think about the items you have bought over the last few days… Go on, take a minute… How many of those items are made of recycled materials? And how many of those items could be made of recycled materials?

We Beat The Mountain is an organization that aims to reduce the trash mountains all over the world. Products that are no longer in use, such as retired car tyres, plastic bags and bottles, aluminum cans and old wooden products can easily be converted into new products. This is exactly what we are doing!

We Beat The Mountain is a symbol, powered by people who care about the planet. We won’t let the world go to waste and will change garbage into something useful. We create, produce and sell products of 100% recycled materials for functional use.

We Beat The Mountain is more than a brand of sustainable products; it’s a movement. Join our movement and thereby support our initiative for a better world. See ‘How to Join?’ for more information.</blockquote>

An inner page points out that it’s not enough to be recycled; they want to be cool, too: “We Beat The Mountain creates products that are made from recycled trash. Elements like trash, recycling and sustainability are the core of our brand. But so are cool design, beautiful and useful products, which will become true wannahaves.”

I like their attitude!

This venture is quite new and only has two products so far (as I write this in late June, 2010): a laptop protector and a suitcase—but they definitely pass the cool test. The company is based in the Netherlands.