A statement from our founder:

Options for Life biodegradable cleaning products are fine products. Not only are they much safer than conventional cleaners, they are, in client test after test, among the top performing green products on the market.

But the real innovation and excitement of Options for Life is the company’s mission and mode of operation.

Having traveled the world as an advocacy consultant for the United Nations, I came face to face, in country after country, with widespread material poverty. Poverty that significantly lowers the chances of women having successful pregnancies. Poverty that dramatically shortens the lives of the children they do deliver.

I say material poverty to distinguish it from emotional or spiritual poverty. Anyone who has ever lived or traveled in a poor country will attest to the extremely pleasant nature of most of the people they encounter, despite their living conditions.

This said, some may say, “Well if poor people in developing countries are so happy, let them be.”

Well, because people have learned to live with poverty, doesn’t mean that they and their children should be doomed to poverty. Would you begrudge them the same educational, curative and income-generating opportunities you have?

The mission of Options for Life is to reduce poverty. Our strategy is simple: bring the production of goods back into the community.

Our primary challenge is to do so in a profitable (for everyone involved) and sustainable way.

I used to think industrial or commercial globalization was a good thing. And, it may still not be altogether bad. But the benefits that were supposed to accrue to multinational company shareholders, their customers and the countries they operate in have yet to materialize. In fact, 400 of the Fortune 500 companies have reported disappointing earnings (to say the least) with too many of them looking for bail out monies from their very own customers. Meanwhile – even with handouts -- hundreds of thousands of jobs are being cut and product and service prices are rising.

To add insult to injury, some US based multinationals are lobbying to have job outsourcing (to other countries) rules and regulations relaxed in the interest of being able to operate more profitably and quicken the return on taxpayer’s forced investment.

The backbone of the US economy and the economy of most developed economies is strong small to medium-sized businesses. They employ most of the people and they and the people they employ pay most of the taxes. It’s small to medium-sized businesses that Options for Life wants to help proliferate, both in the United States and abroad.

Walter Coddington
Founder
Options for Life, LLC