I’ve been working on something quietly with my friend Justin MacNaughton, and I’m excited to finally share it with you.
We’re launching The Good Shelf Standard, a podcast exploring the products we bring into our lives and the people working to make them better.
The idea began after Justin and I met at a panel discussion. We started chatting about the environment, consumer products, and what a regenerative approach could look like. Could the things we make and buy help restore the resources they depend on? What would it actually take to get there?
Those questions stayed with us. And they reach well beyond beauty.
Think about how many products move through our lives every day. What we use to wash our clothes, what we put on our tables, what we bring into our homes. Each has a story that starts long before it reaches a shelf and continues after we’re finished with it.
I’ve spent years making decisions about products as a founder. I also stand in store aisles reading labels, trying to figure out which choices make sense. Having experience on one side doesn’t mean you have every answer on the other. That’s why we wanted to have these conversations with experts in their field.
The Good Shelf Standard looks at consumer products through four lenses: Product, Packaging, Purpose, and Profit.
What goes into a product, and why? What happens to its packaging after we use it? How do a company’s commitments show up in its everyday decisions? And how do you build a financially healthy business that can keep doing the work?
Profit belongs in that conversation. Better ideas need funding, customers, and businesses that can last. My former CPA self would have questions if we left that part out.
Justin and I will be talking with founders, material innovators, investors, and others working through these challenges. We want to understand the decisions behind their work, the tradeoffs they’re navigating, and what still needs figuring out.
Here’s a first look. Episode 1 drops Monday on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast.
For me, this connects to so much of what I share here: paying attention to how we live, what we bring home, and what we choose to support.
I’m curious about what’s possible. I’m also interested in what’s practical, what’s already working, and where we need to ask more of the products and businesses we rely on.
You can learn more at thegoodshelfstandard.com.
And I’d love to know: What’s something you’ve always wanted to ask about the products you buy?
With love,
Indie