Sustainably-sourced condoms

This week's current event relates to our topic of "greening the value chain" and also ties into Valentine's Day. I found an article describing the efforts of a few German entrepreneurs in making a sustainable condom. But the larger goal for them is to create "a business model founded on open-source information and transparency" (Borromeo).

The company is only currently able to make condoms that are 10% sustainable, but the goal is for the condoms to be 80% to 90% sustainable in 5 years time. While the product isn't one of the most sustainable products on the shelves, the people at Einhorn stress that the goal is to be honest and upfront with customers, offering all information on the company website. There are still many hurdles to jump in order to sustainably source the materials needed. The main genius behind the idea, Waldemar Zeiler, has stated:

"The fact we’re selling condoms doesn’t really matter ... It’s a product and proof of concept for what we are doing. We bring a standard product to an online market, brand it properly, go through its value chain and make everything in that chain as sustainable as we can and then publish all the information about our product online – even the bad stuff because somebody out there will know how to make it better" (Borromeo).

In order to get closer to this goal, the founders of Einhorn traveled to Malaysia to visit farms and learn about the condom making process from Klaus Richter, a man whose family has been in the business for decades. The company says its ultimate objective is to create a natural rubber cooperative; almost all condom companies can't even name the farm that their latex comes from (2 Unicorns).

In addition to changing the way companies detail their value chains, Zeiler wanted to start the Entrepreneur's Pledge, which is based off of the Giving Pledge for philanthropists. The Entrepreneur's Pledge asks serious entrepreneurs "to fund at least one social business and give 50% of the profits to a good cause" (Borromeo). Einhorn has been established in this way, and 50% of its profits go to non-profit projects like youth sexual education (2 Unicorns). Zeiler and Einhorn are ambitiously trying to change the status quo, while at the same time injecting humor into the business plan.

Here is the video detailing Einhorn and its mission:

Works Cited

2 Unicorns + a Dog - Einhorn Condoms. YouTube.com. Einhorn Berlin, 3 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BtmJCT5RZY>.

Borromeo, Leah. "The Rubber in Your Rubbers: The Condom Company Making Sexy Time Sustainable." The Guardian.com. The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsustainable-business%2F2015%2Ffeb%2F11%2Frubber-condom-sex-einhorn>.