Chapter 1
How Good Became the New Cool

A Day in the Life of Conscious Consumers

In 2016, when we cowrote this first book, the number of brands that were both good and cool were just a handful.

But today, it is possible to live in a world where everything you buy and consume is not only sustainable and socially conscious-but also cool and aspirational. Here's a snapshot of a day in the life of a fictional conscious consumer couple-Aaron and Keisha-to bring this to life.

***

Aaron wakes up at 6 a.m., snug in his Four Leaves bed linen. The alarm chimes softly on his (PRODUCT)RED iPhone. He quickly turns it off before it wakes up his partner, and walks into his kitchen where the coffee machine is brewing a fresh pot of Grounds and Hounds, his favorite blend, which also supports pet adoptions. He pours himself a cup and looks at his phone. On the Tesla app, the Powerwall battery shows a full charge from the solar array on his roof, keeping his family safe from the possibility of power outages, increasingly common in Southern California.

He scrolls through Instagram while he drinks his coffee, checking out the Good Is the New Cool site for inspiration, noting a supercool Lomi home composting device that has gotten great reviews. He's been looking for a way to utilize their organic food scraps for their garden, alongside their LettuceGrow hydroponic system. He also checks out a story on greywater systems, and how they can help utilize the hundreds of gallons a day used by households to irrigate their fruits and vegetables, as well as a story on urban beehives.

He decides to do their weekly grocery shopping and logs on to his laptop. They are out of Blueland water-free laundry tablets, so he adds them to the cart, as well as Mood Tea (which raises money for mental health), his favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor (a collaboration with Chance the Rapper that supports his Socialworks nonprofit), and Moonshot crackers, a pioneering regenerative agriculture brand.

Into his cart goes Chobani's Hero Batch yogurt (supporting veterans), Hellmann's Mayonnaise (fighting food waste) Stacy's Pita Chips (supporting women-owned businesses), Boxed Water, and Triscuit (investing in solving food deserts).

He also buys a bottle of Air Co vodka (made from CO2) as well as a bottle of La Caudrilla wine (with profits going to the farmworkers who made it) as a housewarming present for their friends. For their own house, he chooses from the One Hope Wine club with money going to their favorite breast cancer charity. And finally, he sees a notification for their Loop delivery of household goods in zero-waste packaging, arriving later today.

He gets ready to go for a run, lacing up his Adidas Parley for the Ocean sneakers made of ocean plastic, over his Bombas socks. As he runs around the neighborhood, he sees the plethora of electric cars in his neighborhood-everything from high-end Mercedes and BMWs, to more modest Volvos and Toyotas. He sees his neighbor has bought a brand new Ford F-150 Lightning electric pick-up truck and makes a mental note to ask him about the experience. He's heard it can even power a home in the case of an outage.

He gets back home and dumps his running clothes in the washing machine, using Dropp's plastic-free laundry tablets. In the shower, he uses his favorite Right to Shower gel (which supports mobile shower units for the homeless), followed by Lush shampoo bars.

He takes a look at his wardrobe, deciding what to wear today. Should it be the vintage Kenzo sweatshirt he bought on Depop? The One Golden Thread regenerative t-shirt, his Unless Collective work shirt, or the limited edition King Owusu sweatshirt from GalerieNumber8, which specializes in up-and-coming African designers? He decides on the Naadam sustainable Mongolian cashmere sweatpants, a sweatshirt from Madhappy, a social enterprise which supports mental health, layered over a Patagonia t-shirt.

He contemplates his footwear choices: TOM's espadrilles, Rens sneakers (made of coffee), but finally decides on his Allbirds x Adidas lowest carbon footprint sneaker. He picks out his eyewear: a pair of stylish Warby Parker frames for regular glasses and Covalent carbon-negative sunglasses. He kisses his wife, Keisha, as he heads out of the door and drives to his day of meetings in his new Rivian electric pick-up.

Keisha sits down at her Chopvalue desk and powers up her Macbook Air. She's been meaning to check up on their investment portfolio for a while. She logs into Aspiration to check on their Redwood 401(k), invested in a fossil-fuel-free portfolio. She checks on their Nico REIT, invested in real estate in their local community in Echo Park, and their C-Note portfolio, which gives loans to underserved communities. Via an equity crowdfunding platform, they are also invested in Boxabl, a revolutionary start-up that is creating affordable housing that unfolds in hours. She notes that their Tulipshare activist investment fund is mounting a new campaign to persuade Coca-Cola to move to a circular economy model. And finally she checks their Lemonade home insurance, where she sees how much has been given back to their favorite charity.

She heads for her lunch meeting at the Butcher's Daughter, an ultra-hip plant-based restaurant. As she drives down the crowded street in her Polestar electric car, she sees the local Shinola store, and that reminds her that she wanted to get a watch for her dad's birthday present-she loves the brand because it's bringing jobs back to Detroit. At lunch, she eats an Impossible Burger, while her guest eats a delicious vegan zucchini and ricotta pizza.

That evening, she takes a break in her day by doing a session on her Breathwrk app, which donates a free membership to someone for every person who joins. She decides to do some online shopping. She checks out For Days, a circular fashion brand, as well as Mate, an LA-based woman-owned sustainable fashion line, and Triarchy, who make her favorite water-reduced denim. She browses The Real Real to find inspiration for cool vintage fashion, as well as Cise, who makes her favorite "Protect Black Women" handbag.

She stocks up on her personal toiletries: her Bite toothpaste, her Oui Razor, her Last Swab cotton buds. She checks out the new mascaras on Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty make-up site where 1% of the proceeds go to mental health. She buys some more of her favorite Thinx period underwear, as well as some home goods: Public Goods conditioner, Grove Collaborative dish soap, and Who Gives A Crap toilet paper, which funds sanitation projects around the world.

For their son, she checks out Thred Up to find a cool vintage AC-DC t-shirt that he's been asking for, and also buys him a Fair Harbor pair of swim shorts made from recycled plastic. She puts all her shopping either on her Aspiration Zero credit card, which plants trees with every purchase, or her Greenwood debit card, which supports Black communities.

That evening, they both relax with a glass of rose from La Fete Du Rose, a Black-owned business, and catch up with their son about each other's days while they cook from their weekly order of Seatopia sustainable aquaculture products as well as vegetables from their Imperfect foods order.

They watch the documentary We Feed People about Chef Jose Andreas and the amazing work of World Central Kitchen. At night, they change into their favorite Pangaia seaweed fiber pajamas, before retiring to bed.

To quote Anne Lappe, every dollar they've spent today is a vote toward the kind of world they want to live in.

Millennials and Gen Z Have New Expectations of Brands

Looking at the news headlines today, it would be easy to fall into a state of deep despair. Stories of extreme climate change, preventable diseases, economic inequality, social injustice, and the failure of our key institutions-government, banks, and corporations-dominate the news cycles and social media feeds.

Yet from traveling around the world and talking with young people, it is clear the millennial (those born between the early 1980s and the mid 1990s) and Generation Z (born between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s) generations have a real sense of optimism about the future of this planet. How can that be?

For many in the media and marketing worlds, millennials have been viewed as the "me" generation. However, for a generation that has proven to be connected and compassionate to the experiences of others around the world, a more appropriate title may be the "we" generation.

Growing up in a time when everything, including traditional values, politics, and economics, is collapsing and being redefined around them, millennials are experiencing a unique confluence of empathy and empowerment. Connected via myriad social media platforms and mobile devices, this generation has been able to see and share experiences of troubles and unrest in real time, creating a "glocal" sense of shared struggle with their peers around the world.

There is also a collective feeling by young people that these adverse conditions were created by a previous generation of adults who screwed it up for everyone. However, these young people are not playing the role of the victim; rather, they are seizing the opportunity to do something about it-to help make things better, while along the way redefining societal norms and disrupting business as usual.

Younger generations want experiences over...