Ed LaPlante and Anne Altor, owners of One Earth Body Care (Photo Courtesy of One Earth Body Care)
Ed LaPlante and Anne Altor never set out simply to create another line of natural body care products. Instead, the husband-and-wife team behind Campton-based One Earth Body Care built their company around a larger question: How can everyday products better care for both people and the planet?
That mission recently earned the company statewide recognition as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2026 NH Micro-Enterprise Business of the Year.
“Our goal is to connect self-care with care for the earth,” says Altor, an ecologist whose scientific background shapes every product the company develops.
The business grew from an unlikely beginning. While working as an environmental consultant in Indiana, Altor began making skin balm for fellow rock climbers to soothe cracked hands. The product became popular in climbing gyms, prompting her to experiment with soaps and other personal care items. As she learned more about common body care ingredients, she became increasingly troubled by their environmental impacts.
“I started to realize there are a lot of conflict ingredients in these everyday products,” Altor says. “There’s palm oil linked to deforestation, plastic packaging, and other ingredients that aren’t great for humans or the planet.”
Founded in Indiana in 2017, One Earth Body Care evolved from a side business into a full-time venture. LaPlante, who owned a chimney business in Indiana partnered with Anne to help transform their sustainability dreams into a dynamic business. The couple relocated to NH in 2020, bringing their inventory in a small trailer and spending months traveling to craft shows throughout New England and building a loyal customer base.
Today, they manufacture shampoo and conditioner bars, natural deodorants, healing balms and skin care products in a small workshop near their Campton home.
Their formulations reflect Altor’s background in ecology and soil science. She researches every ingredient, favoring coconut-derived cleansers over palm oil and sourcing organic or Fair Trade ingredients whenever feasible.
“We do everything we can to avoid palm oil,” Altor says, citing the widespread rainforest destruction caused by palm plantations in Southeast Asia.
Among the company’s fastest-growing products are shampoo and conditioner bars, which eliminate plastic bottles and the cost of transporting products that are mostly water. “Most people don’t realize that about 80% of traditional shampoo is water,” LaPlante says. “We’re shipping plastic bottles that are mostly water around the country.”
Although sustainable products often cost more than mass-market alternatives, the couple hopes their work helps demonstrate a different approach to manufacturing. LaPlante says lasting change will require rethinking economic systems built on “this basic capitalist, endless-growth model” and creating policies that encourage genuinely sustainable products.
“We’re hopefully contributing designs for products that are very effective and can be made a different way,” Altor says. “We need different systems that make truly sustainable products more accessible.” For more information, visit oneearthbodycare.com.
