Most Clean Brands Are Missing This One Thing: Someone Who Knows How to Do the Work

We’re deep in the age of greenhushing, brands are quietly backing off sustainability talk, worried that saying anything invites a lawsuit, a gotcha headline, or a regulator’s attention. We are simultaneously in the era of cleanwashing, brands who are built on the premise of ingredient safety but they haven’t done the work.

Doubling down on safety is the right move: packaging rigor, ingredient screening, contaminant testing, third party validation are more important to consumers and our health than ever. Despite some annoying chatter on social media from perfectionists and dismissers (personas I dive deeply into in my book CLEANING HOUSE), the peer-reviewed science is clear: toxic chemicals are still widespread across many consumer goods categories.

Staying committed to human and environmental health isn’t just the right call for future generations—it’s good business. It gets you ahead of regulation instead of scrambling to catch up and reformulate when state or international governments ban toxic chemicals. And properly investing in a safety program also protects businesses from legal and reputational risks.

The good news is the market still strongly favors brands who are proactive in addressing chemical safety risks, as evidenced by the consumer behavior trends and ongoing bipartisan support for this issue across the country.

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Of the business leaders I talk to, the genuine commitment is there around safer materials and products. What’s missing is the infrastructure behind it, which isn’t nice to have, it’s necessary to protect your business.

I talk to founders constantly and advise colleagues building “clean” and “non-toxic” brands. And the pattern I keep running into is this: very few business leaders have prioritized resourcing safety work. It gets treated as a value everyone absorbs, a line in the onboarding deck, even if it’s the company’s mission and North Star.

The Founders I chat with, sometimes say they are the internal expert, because they are passionate about creating a new cleaner version of an outdated industry.

Confusing passion and personal research with expertise is a dangerous proposition when starting a company built on a clean promise.

The unfortunate reality is many clean brands (feel free to email their customer care teams or check LinkedIn) don’t have anyone on staff who is there to review ingredients for safety, establish a testing program to address contaminants, or truly help guide complex decisions around safety. Meanwhile these same companies are throwing money at non-toxic, clean marketing campaigns, hiring growth marketing teams…

No, but it does mean they are naive and risking their brands reputation.

Real safety work that gives leader brands permission to claim leadership within their industries: chemical review, formulation vetting, regulatory tracking, credible substantiation of claims, future proofing testing, unapologetically thinking about contaminants, is a specific skill set.

It’s not something a marketing lead or ops generalist picks up on the side, no matter how well-intentioned. It needs a person, or a team if this what you have built your brand around, with actual headcount behind them, or a consultant brought in specifically to build the program and give it teeth.

Companies will hire a growth marketer, a supply chain lead, a head of paid media without blinking. But ask who runs their “clean” or safety program and the answer more often than not is, no one. I can think of a few companies for example that walk the walk: Counter [Beauty], Credo, Ritual (full disclosure I work there), Patagonia, Coyuchi, and a few others.

I’m not here to harp on any brand that positions itself as clean or nontoxic. But you have to be able to back it up—with a real program, real expertise, and real resourcing behind it. Skipping that step isn’t a shortcut, I see it as a liability sitting quietly on your balance sheet, waiting for one bad story to make it very, very loud. And for a lot of companies, that’s not a reputational hit they can walk back from.

If you’re building a mission around safety, the question isn’t whether to invest in it. It’s whether anyone on your team actually knows how.

I can promise you, the expense of digging out of a PR news hit, blogger testing scandal, or greenwashing consumer petition is much more expensive than a headcount or consultant who has your back.

(If you’re a founder, CEO, or journalist wondering who to hire or work with, reach out via LinkedIn, there are many talented people in this field I can make introductions. And if you’re a sustainability professional, and want to learn how to build a credible safety program, enroll in the Pro Membership at Hilde).