Sustainability

It sort of seems like "sustainable" means something different to every person who uses the word. The way we see it, sustainability, like a lot of other things we often treat as binary, is a spectrum. Here's a real life example: we know that electric vehicles are the way to go in the future, but making more of them requires doing a lot of mining to source the lithium needed for electric vehicle batteries. There's some good there, but also some challenges. It's not cookie cutter simple, or picture perfect, and we're justifiably wary of brands who pretend sustainability can be condensed into a hashtag.

We think sustainability is a spectrum.

As much as our (very human!) brains want to make things black and white, sustainability is incredibly nuanced. There are so many factors that don't meet the eye, or learnings we can only gather after the fact!

Our spectrum system allows us to define sustainability in a finite, easy to grasp way-- even if it's still beautiful and complicated.

We have some pretty strict sustainability requirements we ask our brands to meet before we feel comfortable selling their stuff. Once a product does make its way onto Goldune, we give it a rating on our sustainability spectrum.

At the minimum, everything here is safe and sustainable. At the maximum, a lot of the products we carry go so far as to actually drawdown and sequester carbon from our planet, achieving actual carbon negativity. We did the homework so you wouldn't have to.

We do things differently around here.

Community

Shopping sustainably is inherently more expensive and less accessible-- and most people are left out of the dominant narratives around sustainable living.

We do our best to make free resources for our community-- customers or otherwise. You can find them on our Instagram or join our members-only community on Facebook for folks who want a shame-free, judgment-free, inclusive place to talk about climate + sustainability. (We also host a mean book club with sustainability focused reads that you'll actually enjoy.)

As we grow, so does our ability to help our community! We've partnered up with some of the brilliant brands we work with to give away sustainable essentials and care packages to victims of climate-related catastrophes and climate refugees in need. Know a community struck by climate change we should help? Drop us a line at hi@goldune.com.

Circularity

The best kind of economy is a circular one, which is why we hustled to launch a circularity and buyback program less than 6 months after we opened up shop. When you're done with eligible products, you can shoot us a note at hi@goldune.com-- we will buy back select products after you've used 'em and give them a second life for sale at a discounted rate on our site, or you can mail us back used products from our Circular collection so we can responsibly dispose of or upcycle them. Once you pop 'em in the mail, we'll send you a code for $15 off your next order.