About Us

 

We see a world without packages and all of the waste. A world where the only thing we need to throw away is our guilt.  We want to create this world, together, with you. To get there, we want to let you know what we believe in.

We believe:

Impact comes first. We designed the entire company thinking about the best possible way to reduce plastic waste and have the lightest footprint possible. Our research has shown that reusable packaging solutions beat all others on every single environmental indicator. So we are going ALL IN on reusables to achieve the highest possible reduction in single-use packaging waste. And because we are committed to the lightest footprint possible, we are operating locally.  Focusing on local products and logistics (without heavy reliance on airplanes and cardboard boxes) lightens our overall carbon footprint significantly. 

Transparency is everything. It’s possible that even the word “green washing” has been green washed. It’s hard to know what is and isn't sustainable for our planet as it feels like everything is marketed as “eco” or “sustainable”  and we don’t even know why! So we will show you with words and pictures what “behind the scenes” at Oz actually looks like. And if you need more, let us know and we will give you as much information as you need.

Oz won’t be perfect and we don’t expect anyone else to be either. We are embarking on a journey in new territory - a world of reusable packaging that doesn’t exist in any way, shape or form in any kind of institutional or structured way in our society. For this reason, there will be bumps along the way and we will learn as much as we can in the process. We chose the Japanese Ensō as the symbol of our company and is represented in our logo. It is a sacred symbol in Zen Buddhism meaning circle and is said to leave the artist fully exposed at one particular moment in time as it is drawn with just one brushstroke. It symbolizes many things: the beauty in imperfection, the art of letting go of expectations, the circle of life, and connection. We could think of no better symbol to represent this company since we are operating in the field of circularity and trying something entirely new.

Finally, many people ask us about our name! It originates from our belief that we have the incredible opportunity to create a new world, a metaphoric “Land of Oz.” We believe reusables are the future and we are excited to be part of creating this future. We are also having way too much fun with Wizard of Oz references. When Dorothy clicks her red shoes saying “There’s no place like home” - we LOVE IT! During a time when global business titans are flying to the moon, our company is focused right here at home, planet earth.

– Kate Verlaan, Founder & CEO. Mom to two girls, Annabel and Eliza (ages 6 & 8).