Meet John Mascari | Co-Founder & COO of Blueland

We had the good fortune of connecting with John Mascari and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
We’ve been building Blueland with the belief that businesses and governments need to lead the way in fighting plastic pollution and climate change (after all, plastic is made from petroleum). As part of this, we aimed to set a new standard for what it means to build a truly sustainable business that is rooted in mission while still delivering effective and affordable products to customers.

Along the way, we’ve also supported scientific research and public advocacy to advance regulation in our industry that would better protect people and the planet from potentially harmful (and unnecessary) plastic packaging pollution. For example in 2023, we joined 15+ leading nonprofits to petition the EPA to regulate the use of plastic wrapped laundry and dishwashers detergent pods and laundry sheets that are polluting our environment and resulting in plastic ending up in our food and water supply.

We’ve also built a large community of over 1 million members that we share eco tips, tricks and resources with on a near daily basis.

Finally, as a Certified B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation that is also Climate Neutral Certified, we are transparent with our practices and impact across all communities that we operate in, which we are also confident helps change the industry for the better by leading by example.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Blueland is reimagining everyday home cleaning products to eliminate single-use plastic packaging, and our commitment to change and our mission has been ingrained in our DNA since day one – that’s always been the most important factor in our success.

We started with cleaning products because the category itself is such a massive source of unnecessary single-use plastic packaging. Think about spray cleaners that only need to be shipped around and sold in single-use plastic because they are traditionally made using mostly water, or laundry and dishwasher detergent pods that are packaged in a single-use plastic film called PVA that is being washed down our drains into the environment and is now showing up in breastmilk and public drinking water. We saw ways to do it better.

Our mission has been our reason for being and the driving force in every decision we make –that means every day there is a north star and a real understanding of “why” we are doing what we are doing. Our deep commitment to our mission has been the reason we’ve been able to build a large and very engaged community following, it’s been central to our ability to recruit and retain motivated, brilliant and kind team members, and for me personally it is the driving force behind why I love spending so many hours working to grow our business and drive greater impact in the world.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love to take visitors to rooftop at Rosetta Hall or Avanti for great views of the Flatirons, Chautauqua Dinning Hall for the best brunch (and more views!). So many incredible hikes but taking friends up the back of Sanitas is still my favorite — the view down Sanitas Valley gets me everytime.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My co-founder, Sarah Paiji Yoo, and I started Blueland because we wanted to make it easy for everyone to make sustainable choices. Before Blueland, Sarah and I were both very alarmed by the impact of all the single-use plastic in everyday products ending up in our oceans and environment, eventually showing up in the food we eat and water we drink. In trying to cut plastic out of our own lives, we were both amazed by how hard it was to buy anything that wasn’t packaged in single-use plastic – even for us as well-intentioned consumers willing to go out of our way. So we thought the biggest impact we could have would be by creating innovative, easy to adopt solutions for all consumers.

So the two of us launched Blueland to re-invent the category, making refillable dry-format cleaning products in compostable paper-based packaging instead of single-use plastic.

Website: https://blueland.coom

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blueland/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-a-mascari-a31a061a/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liveblueland/

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blueland

Image Credits
JÖRG MEYER
Blueland