Industry Profile – Grove

Emily Doyle

An Interview with Emily Doyle, Consumer Scientist, Grove Collaborate

What should we know about Grove Collaborative?

Grove Collaborative is a B-Corp that sells directly to consumers on-line, and recently launched their Flagship Home Care Essentials Brand in Target.  Located in San Francisco, the company has around 250 employees including a development team with 14 staff members.

Grove sells both 3rd party brands and in-house brands.  All the products are fully vetted to meet their ingredient standards, including being safe for humans and the environment. They are also all cruelty-free. In addition to having safe products, Grove also wants to eliminate single-use plastic and be plastic-free by 2025, which is part of their Beyond Plastic Intiative.

Who are your customers?

Grove customers are looking for an easier way to purchase products for their home that they can be assured are safe to use and won’t harm the environment.  They also want products that perform.  There is a lot of concern that “natural” products do not perform as well as other products.  Through accredited third-party labs, Grove conducts extensive performance testing to show that their products are both safe and deliver uncompromised performance.

Grove Collaborative recently won a 2020 US EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award! How did you get started partnering with US EPA’s Safer Choice Program?

Safer Choice is a product certification program with national recognition that is based on the use of green chemistry.  It is a harmonious fit with our goal to make sure that all products and ingredients are fully safe and vetted – any additional certification such as Safer Choice provides additional assurances to our customers.

Can you provide any feedback on your experience with the Safer Choice process?

Grove Collaborative recently had 6 hand soaps (3 gel, 3 foaming) under the flagship home care brand receive the Safer Choice certification.  The head of R&D at Grove Collaborative was already familiar with the Safer Choice certification process so that helped facilitate the process.  Grove worked with toxicologists at NSF International (an approved Safer Choice third-party profiler) to make sure all the chemical ingredients in the hand soaps met the Safer Choice standards.  The formulations are based on green chemistry principles.

What is coming up in the future for Grove?

Grove is working towards having all in-house brands for core products Safer Choice certified including liquid laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, cleaning concentrates and liquid dish soap.  This will enable Grove to offer a suite of core home care essential products that are all Safer Choice certified. 

What are key benefits of achieving Safer Choice certification?

The Safer Choice label is an important part of Grove’s transparent business operations.  EPA reviews the label before it can be put on a product to make sure the label is complete, and all ingredients are disclosed including fragrance and allergens.  This gives an extra level of assurance and transparency to our customers.

“We view our work with Safer Choice as a strong partnership – it has been very beneficial and has led to continuous improvement in the development of future products.”

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