I’m not a communist,” says David Bronner. “However I feel the fundamental container inside which capitalistic forces function needs to be constrained.”
We’re sitting in his sunny workplace on the headquarters of Dr. Bronner’s, his household’s Vista, California-based enterprise in North San Diego County. He’s sporting purple glitter nail polish, a baseball cap, and a Hawaiian shirt with the corporate’s motto: “All-One.” His speckled canine, Appa, named for the flying bison within the cartoon Avatar: The Final Airbender, snoozes at my toes.
Bronner, 53, is named the hippie CEO of the 78-year-old pure cleaning soap firm. (He likes to say the letters stand for cosmic engagement officer.) Almost each product within the Dr. Bronner’s lineup, which has expanded to incorporate lip balm and toothpaste, bears a text-heavy label primarily based on David’s grandfather Emanuel Bronner’s philosophy of uniting the human race: “In all we do, allow us to be beneficiant, honest & loving to Spaceship Earth and all its inhabitants. For we’re ALL-ONE OR NONE!”
