Loonen and the rise of consumer safety as status symbol

With environmental regulation in retreat, startup brands are finding they can profit by selling clean water, clean air, and more to the rich. Clara Sieg found inspiration in birds. A venture capitalist with a history of backing consumer-facing brands, Sieg had been increasingly concerned with the consequences of drinking polluted water. So last year she founded a “perfectly pure” bottled water brand—one that draws water from a spring; purifies it to filter out microplastics, forever chemicals, lead, pesticides, and other contaminants; and sells it in slim glass bottles that are entirely polymer-free but for the thin lining inside their aluminum twist tops. She named her company Loonen because, she likes to explain, the presence of a loon serves as a signal that a lake ecosystem is healthy. “Researchers actually use [loons] as bio-indicators for water purity,” Sieg told the Feed Me newsletter writer Emily Sundberg in an interview last month.