Closing the Loop: Kristin Fracassi Of Root and Splendor On Embracing the Circular Economy
An Interview With Russell McLeod
Don’t stop at a circular economy but implement daily sustainable practices at your place of business. Like the areas I mentioned above, there are so many small and easy things to adopt as a lifestyle for your business. Start with refillable water for the team, start small and grow from there.
In our current economic model, we see a lot of waste and inefficiency. Products are designed, used, and then discarded, often creating environmental and economic burdens. The circular economy offers a solution by designing out waste and keeping materials in use for as long as possible. This shift can lead to innovative business models, sustainability, and economic resilience. How are companies making this transition, and what can others learn from their journey? I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristin Fracassi.
Kristin is the founder and owner of Root and Splendor, and a mom to 4 active and wild at heart boys. Root and Splendor specializes in manufacturing, packaging, and fulfilling 100% plant based, non-toxic and highly effective laundry essentials, and other home and body products. Using only essential oils for their vibrant scent profile, focusing on transparent ingredients, sustainability is at the forefront of all that they do. Every product utilizes sustainable packaging but is also available in bulk and closed-loop sizes to eliminate single use containers and to keep packaging in circulation as long as possible. They partner with close to 400 refill stores (and growing!) around the country, and across numerous industries, who buy in bulk for customers to fill/refill their favorite Root and Splendor laundry detergent, stain remover, room and body sprays, hand shield and bug shield. Root and Splendor has grown organically by word of mouth to become the nationwide brand they are today.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
If you were to tell me as a child that I would own a laundry soap company or even own my own business when I grew up, I would have said “no way, not a chance”! I was a people person, and I loved the outdoors. I was called into social work as a young adult and was incredibly passionate about it. Spending my time counseling parents in crisis at a children’s hospital, assisting women in their decision to parent or place their child for adoption, or supporting youth with emotional challenges was how I spent the days in my early career. Then my husband and I started having children…boys — lots of boys — and I had the joy of being a stay-at-home mom. We also started homesteading, raising animals, fermenting sourdough, and I started making some of our own home products. Doing deep dives into ingredients was where I discovered natural did not mean safe. So many commonly used natural ingredients still have some of the same harmful side effects as synthetic ingredients, leading to cancers, respiratory problems, skin irritations and much more. I felt really duped as a consumer because I thought natural was a safe option for my family, and I had blindly trusted the products we could find at our day-to-day stores. As I faced my boys’ mountains of dirty laundry, I decided to take matters into my own hands to create safe + effective laundry products that could deep clean our clothes, while not sacrificing our health or that of the environment. After 5years of R&D, and with the help of formulation chemists and scientists, Root and Splendor was born in 2020.
Could you share with us your journey and the pivotal moments that led you to focus on the circular economy within your business?
Root and Splendor standards are to use plant based and safe, non-toxic ingredients for our products and to achieve premium efficacy results. It only made sense to house these wonderful products in sustainable packaging. I wanted our products to speak our values through every aspect of our business. While most laundry detergents are housed in large plastic jugs, I knew we needed to be in more sustainable packaging. But, wow, this was hard to find, and we searched the market high and low for packaging that fit our values. One day, walking down the aisles of a national chain, I saw a boxed wine…I knew then that Root and Splendor should utilize similar packaging.
Through countless interviews with packaging companies and another deep dive into sustainability of packaging, we learned that bag-in-box packaging reduces the carbon footprint by 800% when looking at the full life cycle of the package, compared to a rigid plastic jug. This was a massive improvement in what standard laundry soap is packaged in and there was no reason not to choose this for our brand.
We knew it wasn’t enough just to have sustainable packaging, but wanted to play a part in eliminating single use containers all together. We decided the very first stores we would call on to try and sell our products would be refill shops. These stores buy in bulk from us, and their local customers head into the stores with their own containers to fill up their favorite products. Then the customer goes home to use their product and returns for more when their container is empty. They fill and refill and eliminate the need for single use containers. Going beyond refilling, when our bulk refill partners finish one of our products, we send them a prepaid label and they send us their bulk container back to clean it out and refill — keeping the bulk packaging in circulation as long as possible for a closed loop economy.
What experiences in your background have shaped your understanding and commitment to sustainable business practices?
We are a value driven company putting people and environment above profits. I’ve always had a passion for the outdoors and feel most at ease when I’m in nature, camping, hiking, etc. As a result, I have always felt a desire to take care of our earth. But my love for people also solidified the need to take care of people in the same way. I knew if we were to launch this company, our core values would be having excellent customer service, making honest products, using non-toxic ingredients that work and help keep people safe. We are called to be stewards of this earth and to take care of each other, and we try to live that out in all that we do at Root and Splendor.
Can you tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced in your career that has influenced your approach to business and sustainability?
During our 5 years formulating, I was also able to identify our standards for packaging and business operations. Looking back, it was a really great opportunity to develop our values before the company even launched, therefore we’ve always known our roots of who we are. Our biggest challenges have been because we are solely owned, self-funded, and a small business. Especially with choosing sustainable packaging, most suppliers would not work with us at all due to our low MOQ’s. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream, trying to find sustainable packaging suppliers that would work with us. I ended up finding companies that also focused on relationships and people and that’s how we started. It makes me love and cheer on the small businesses. I love partnering with mom and pops and independents because we really get to know the buyers and store owners.
How has your company evolved to integrate circular economy principles, and what role have you played in this transformation?
Since our launch in 2020, we have stayed true to our goals, despite the high cost of packaging, and continue to offer circular options to our bulk refill customers. We keep every bulk size packaging in circulation for as long as possible and we love keeping a tally on the container to see just how many lives it has had. For example, our laundry soap comes in various sizes, including 18 L of laundry soap in a bag in box, all the way up to 30 and 50-gallon drums. For our Room and Body Sprays and Wilderness Collection, we have customers keep their large amber glass jugs and instead of sending that back and forth, we fill and refill reusable bags and keep those in circulation. That way when the customers get a new full bag, they just empty the contents into their glass jug and send the bags back to us. One extra step we take, to cut down on carbon footprint, is encourage our refill partners to stock up on as many bags as possible before sending them back. That way we aren’t getting just one used bag at a time, but rather we are getting — often our own shipping boxes — stuffed full of bags with 10, 15, 20 bags at a time, to wash out and refill. It’s so cool to see it in action! Our refill partners love our circular economy options and they are incredible and essential partners in this!
What does ‘closing the loop’ in the circular economy mean to you, and why is it important for businesses today?
Most packaging has a linear life cycle, meaning once the product is finished being used by the consumer the package goes to the landfill; the packaging is no longer serving a purpose. For instance, a chip bag, the customer eats all the chips and the packaging goes to the trash. The package cannot be used again. While we’d love to believe that a lot of packaging goes to recycling centers, the recycling program is extremely flawed and only about 10% of what goes there actually gets recycled. Therefore, that package, even at the recycling centers, also no longer serves a purpose and has reached its end of life.
A package that is circular means that rather than being discarded at end of life (end of use), that package is going to be reused, refilled, or repurposed, to give it another life. It can be refilled and emptied repeatedly, closing the loop, rather than a linear life cycle. For instance, a bottle of laundry soap, the customer uses all their laundry soap and the package can be taken back to a refill store to fill that laundry soap container up again and again. And this cycle continues as long as possible preventing that package from its end of life as long as possible.
I think it’s so important for businesses to offer their products in bulk options, eliminating the need for single use containers whenever possible. Consumers are wanting sustainable options now more than ever. They’re starting to become aware of the packaging and plastic crisis, so it is so important for businesses, across all industries, to start thinking about what they can do to adopt circular options.
Does designing products to be circular increase the cost of the product? What are the challenges of balancing cost with creating a circular product that has demand?”
Sustainable packaging is more expensive, unfortunately. Although customers are wanting it, there’s still not a crazy high demand for it. It’s not as mass produced and more difficult to obtain, and the supply chain has been deeply affected in the last 5 years. Our profit margins would be significantly higher if we chose a typical container for our laundry soap, for instance. But, like I mentioned earlier, we chose early on to put people over profits, so this is an area we were unwilling to sacrifice. It is completely worth it for us, and we are finding that the consumer loves it. We are honored to be able to offer it.
Can you identify the 2–3 critical mistakes companies often make when transitioning to a circular economy model?
Transitioning to a circular economy is a big undertaking. One thing I would caution companies is it takes time for retailers and consumers to catch on. For instance, when we first launched our company, even though we offered closed loop, there were hardly any companies that took us up on the offer. It’s taken a lot of training and reminding them that this is a service we offer, and they now participate more and more. We currently have more reusable 18 L bags in stock at our warehouse than new 18 L bags, it’s so cool!
The other area I would mention is that it takes a lot of effort for your team to get these packages back and refilled. It’s not the most fun job in the warehouse to wash out, dry, and refill a used bag. It’s kind of a headache as a matter of fact, so I encourage companies to be totally committed to their circular economy. Be committed to this and give it a go; in the end I think you’ll love it. Like with everything else in life, just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
How does your company address the entire lifecycle of a product, from design to end-of-life, to ensure circularity?
Oh, this is a great question and one I feel passionate about. I think a typical consumer, and even consumer packaged goods as an industry, puts an over emphasis on “end of life” — where the product goes when we are finished using it. Such as, is it recyclable or does it go to the landfill? While end of life is an important piece, that leaves out the whole origins of the package — how the package is made, how it’s stored, transported, stored again, filled, and then used by the consumer. Each one of these steps in the life cycle contributes to pollution and the carbon footprint of a package. Therefore, we should not be looking just at “end of life.”
Focusing on the entire life cycle of a package is what led us to choose the bag-in-box for our laundry soap. It is a flexible plastic bladder inside a compostable or recyclable cardboard box providing an 800% reduction in carbon footprint when looking at the full life cycle of the package. To provide a visual of a reduction in pollution and energy needed for this type of packaging, imagine how many truckloads and pallet walls 3,500 plastic jugs for laundry soap. It is a lot! Now for the bag in box, 3,500 units comes on a pallet of 4x4x8 ft, takes up minimal space in our warehouse and only one tiny section in a truckload. That’s all! You can only imagine how much more energy consumption occurs when the plastic jug is produced, stored at the manufacturing facility, transported to the company filling in, stored again until it ships to the consumer, and so on….and then it makes its way to end of life. That is the full life cycle we are talking about and that is why we are thrilled with an 800% reduction. Our packaging is not perfect, but it’s a massive improvement from industry standards.
What innovative strategies has your company implemented to reduce waste and promote resource efficiency?
This is another passion area for Root and Splendor. We recognize that it should not be just our packaging that is sustainable, but our full lifestyle at the warehouse. We have adopted and implemented several different strategies to operate more sustainably. For starters, our laundry soap doesn’t have any added water in the formula. Whereas other brands have up to 90% water, Root and Splendor adds no water (it’s a by-product of one of our raw materials). We intentionally formulated an ultra-concentrated laundry detergent as it aligns with our values of caring for the environment. Water is the earth’s most precious resource and there was no need to waste it diluting our laundry detergent. Therefore, our laundry soap requires only 1 Tablespoon per load to get our premium and 3rd party lab tested efficacy results.
Other day-to-day practices include reusing all packaging material that comes into our warehouse. For instance, shrink wrap on pallets. While it’s easy to just go toss that in a garbage bin, we cut that up and reuse it in our packaging. Same with the backings of our labels. Rather than disposing of those, we crumble each backing and use it for fluff to protect our packages. Anytime we send a package out to a consumer with this as the wrapping, we include a small note letting them know we are reusing labels and to encourage them to reuse it as well. In addition, we don’t ever buy plastic to protect our packages, but rather kraft and eco-friendly wadding. While it’s more expensive for us, it’s just another step that helps us live out our values of taking care of the environment.
Other little practices, which are small, but have big impact, is providing our team 5-gallon water refills instead of individual and disposable water bottles. Every team member brings their own water bottle for refilling throughout the day, or they can grab a glass from our kitchen to use. In the same way, we offer silverware and melamine plates and dishes instead of disposables, as well as fabric napkins for the team. Our team is so excellent at reusing, that as a company (remember we also manufacture) we go through — at the most — one kitchen size trash bag of trash a week. We even give our 50-gallon raw material drums for our community to use as rain barrels, feeding troughs, and more!
What role do partnerships and collaborations play in your efforts to close the loop and create a more sustainable business model?
Our partners are essential to help in our sustainable efforts! We definitely value our relationships with them so much. A huge bonus is a ciruclar economy keeps the relationship alive — there is a reason to talk with your customers on a regular basis! There are more and more bulk refill stores popping up around the country and they are tremendous partners for us in our desire to be sustainable! We’d love for you to go support them (we add more partners all the time), but you can find the closest refill store to you here: https://rootandsplendor.com/pages/store-locator.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Circular Economy Based Business”?
1 . Be committed to your plan! It takes a lot of work to get used packaging back, so once you draw up the plans and implement it, be committed. It’s hard work so don’t give up!
2 . Cold call and educate! You’ll have to put forth effort to teach your consumers (direct to consumer or wholesale) about your model and try to bring them along. You’ll need to educate them on the importantce of a circular economy and try to engage them as partners.
3. Give it time. Many will be resistant to the idea of a circular economy strictly because they don’t have the time. So stay active and involved and reintroduce the idea to them when the timing is right. Bepresent, educate, remind them, etc.
4. You purchase the label for the returns. Don’t rely on your partners to buy the label. But if they can send you dimensions and weight of the packages, you can purchase and email them the label for printing and getting it back.
5 . Don’t stop at a circular economy but implement daily sustainable practices at your place of business. Like the areas I mentioned above, there are so many small and easy things to adopt as a lifestyle for your business. Start with refillable water for the team, start small and grow from there.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
We are grateful for the opportunity to share our story and hope we have inspired others to make some steps toward sustainability. We’d love for you to follow along on Instagram or Facebook @RootandSlendor. You can also browse and shop our incredible products at: https://rootandsplendor.com/. Our laundry essentials are a game changer! They are so powerful at removing odors and stains and deep cleaning clothes (even stinky athletic ware and delicate baby clothes), but also smell amazing. You’ll love your new laundry experience!
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Russell McLeod is an experienced business leader, social entrepreneur, and mentor. A champion of profit with purpose, the circular economy and of collaboration for positive progress.
Russell is the founder of Mightyhum a Toronto-based impact enterprise dedicated to supporting growing organizations. And, while it’s not a requirement, the Mightyhum team has a passion for collaborating with purpose-driven businesses. Mightyhum specializes
