Sustainable Ecommerce

Welcome to Episode 75 https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep75   It's becoming increasingly vital to PROVE your sustainability claims.   Yes, part of that is to do with increasing levels of regulation around what you can and can't say.  But when it comes to growing your brand, the part that often gets overlooked is providing proof, in trustworthy, credible and consistent ways, to your potential consumers. We've had a couple of technology based solutions on the show in the past, including Austin Simms from Dayrize back in episode 11, and Akhil Sivanandan from Greenstory in episode 27. Both are great solutions, but to date mostly focused on supporting the fashion and textiles supply chain due to the huge life cycle data sets available. But I recently came across another incredible platform that I wanted to share with you on today's show. Instead of generating transparency for fashion brands, this one is focused on supporting the credibility of thousands of brands in the personal care, cosmetics and home cleaning spaces. So my guest today is Jessi Baker, MBE, founder of Provenance, a UK-based technology platform bringing blockchain level transparency to sustainability marketing. For so many reasons I think this might be one of the most important episodes we've ever done on this show. My gut feel is that 2023 marks an epoch change in sustainability marketing, from the wild west where you can say anything you want, to a more professional era underpinned by regulation and much more enlightened, cynical and educated consumerism.   Proving what you're doing with certifications is just one thing.  You need to be able to surface that up in a consistent, compliant, recognisable and trustworthy way across all your channels and all your geographies. That becomes an ever more daunting prospect as you grow, and one where tools like Provenance offer the next generation in marketing support.

Welcome to Episode 74 https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep74 If you've been listening to the show for a while, you'll likely have picked up that as a keen diver, the ocean plastics problem was one of my key motivators in setting up Sustainable Ecommerce.   So, there's a special place in my heart for entrepreneurs working to solve that problem by using or averting ocean plastics.  When my friend Peter Donnelly from the Sustainability Champions podcast let me know about today's guest, I knew immediately he was someone I wanted to chat to.   Ben Ridding is the founder of Cornish brand ULU Ocean Explorer.  The brand helps people connect with and explore the ocean with their range of dry bags, but it's their journey to using  ocean-bound plastic to make their products that really piqued my interest.  As we dive into the conversation, it becomes clear just how powerful and congruent their brand story is, and as more and more brands talk about using recycled plastic, how important it is to weave in an authentic story of impact to really resonate with consumers.

Welcome to Episode 73 https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep73 Back in the first show of the year, I proposed the brand collaborations were going to be one of the most important marketing strategies for 2023, so I though it was well and truly time we explored what that actually means, and how to do it effectively. Over the years I've had many conversations with brand owners about doing brand collaborations. Some, like Maxim Gellman we heard from in last week's show, viewed them as pivotal to their success, but most have expressed at best a mediocre result, often describing them as a complete waste of time.  So to explore this topic and give you the critical understanding and insights you need to turn your collaborations from Meh to Marvellous, I asked the wonderful Jess Rhufus, founder of Collabosaurus to join us today.  If you're not familiar with it already, Collabosaurus is one of the world's leading collaborations platforms, kind of like match-making for brands.   With experience from seeing just about every type of collaboration across the 10,000+ brands on her platform, as well as seeing how the strategy has evolved over the past decade, Jess brings some refreshing clarity to this topic. Get ready to take notes as you listen to today's show, because the actionable tips come thick and fast!

Welcome to Episode 72! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep72 As we know, authorities around the world are hard at work stamping out single use plastics, especially within the food service and hospitality space.  Reusable alternatives to things like coffee cups have exploded in usage, and are a genuine alternative for the majority of times when you're grabbing some caffeine.  But what happens for spontaneous purchases?  News in NSW recently was that the much vaunted compostable cups were going to get banned because they were starting to contaminate waste streams, and causing just as many problems as they solve.  Carrying re-usable everything, while likely the most sustainable option, frankly just isn't that convenient. So if plastic is on way out, coated paper isn't all that crash hot – what other alternatives could there be?  Enter the concept of edible tableware. We're just starting to see the idea of this creep into Australia with a few brands doing edible cups, but my guest today, Maxim Gelmann is someone who's been pioneering this concept since 2015. His brand Stroodles started with pasta-based straws, but now covers everything from plates to ice cream spoons.    Whether or not the items used actually get eaten is almost beside the point – what I loved most about Maxim and Stroodles is how he sees the brand's role in making sustainability more accessible to mainstream consumers.

Welcome to Episode 71! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep71   On last weeks show we opened a doorway into sustainable logistics with Sendle. James last week just touched on Collection Points, or PUDO points as one facet of their drive towards Net Zero logistics. In today's show, I wanted to dive a little deeper, and help you understand just how important they can be in delivering a better customer experience, how they can help you offer more sustainable delivery options to your customers, and how they may be able to help facilitate a more cost-effective approach to circularity. So, my guest today is David McLean, founder and CEO of Hubbed, Australia's leading Collection Point network.    As you'll disover, not only are Hubbed the provider handling the collection point platform for Amazon and eBay with nearly 3000 locations around Australia, they can also help any brand offer the surging demand for Click & Collect services normally only accessible to hybrid or bricks & mortar brands. With last mile delivery estimated to contribute 50% or more of the carbon emissions for order fulfilment, I do think Collection Points are a critical puzzle piece that all brands should be evaluating.

Welcome to Episode 70! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep70   I thought I'd start with something a little different today, so here's a little riddle:  What am I?  I am used by every single physical product brand in every vertical.  I am essential to your business model.  I am essential to your customer experience yet I am almost completely out of your control. I am one of the largest part of your cost base and one of the largest parts of your carbon footprint. Did you figure it out? Of course, I'm talking about logistics, specifically order delivery. Its something that most brands take for granted, and like I alluded to, simply go with the easiest or cheapest option. Of course these days, Australia Post has made giant strides to reduce their carbon footprint, but the provider that challenged them to do that and to this day is still leading the way in terms of sustainability innovation with their drive towards Zero emissions and support for circularity is of course Sendle.  Today I'm chatting with James Chin Moody, the founder and CEO at Sendle, about their journey from humble gifting company to global logistics provider. We chat about the complexities of Net Zero logistics, about challenging state-run monopolies, and about how Sendle's operational DNA is quite different to other logistics providers, putting them in the driver's seat to empower the circular economy.

Welcome to Episode 69! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep69 There is no doubt that we are now entering the age of increased scrutiny.  Scrutiny from regulators who are increasingly cracking down on false claims, but also scrutiny from potential customers and consumers who are looking to for ways to validate their choices and feel confident that brands they buy from are doing the right things. That usually means 3rd party certification, and by far the fastest growing certification brand in terms of both consumer awareness and brand adoption is B Corp.   You've almost certainly already heard of B Corp Certification, but if you haven't, it's a business level certification that examines the conduct and impact of your business across 5 key areas – including workers, customers, environment, community and governance.   If you're a sustainable, purpose driven brand, its quickly becoming a very important part of your proof landscape, but the benefits of going through the process by no means stop at getting a nice badge to add to your website. To explore B Corp in more detail and help give you a deeper understanding of what's involved, my guest today is Tim Jones, founder of Grow Good.  Tim in fact was the first qualified B Corp Consultant in NZ and is better known as That B Corp Bloke, and since 2014 has helped hundreds of brands of all sizes successfully navigate what is a complicated and often daunting process.

Welcome to Episode 68! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep68 On today's show we take a look at a brand that's turning the sales of sustainably-made bedding basics into social good.  Laura McConnell Conti is the co-founder of GoKindly, a social enterprise that donates 50% of profits to women and non-binary people experiencing housing stress through charities like Juno and Women's Housing.  In our chat Laura shares her personal journey towards starting a business-for-good, and the journey the brand continues to be on in evaluating the most sustainable way to make bedding basics like quilts and pillows, including taking responsibility for end of life. We also explore Laura's commitment to what she calls the Kindness Circle, how that requires conscious decision making at all touchpoints with the brand, and how they've distilled all the incredible things they do down to a simple message that both customers, employees and other stakeholders can understand and get on board with instantly. That my friends, is the very essence of sustainability marketing!

Welcome to Episode 67! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep67 Last week we heard the first part of our conversation with Lucy Jeffrey from Bare Kind, and we explored how she communicates impact, which included some really important lessons for all impact-entrepreneurs.  If you haven't already listened, I recommend you backtrack and listen to that episode first, because it sets us up for today's show.  But the reason I asked Lucy to join me was that in just 12-18 months, she has been phenomenally successful in driving growth through wholesale channels, bringing on over 700 stores.  With profitable growth being trickier than ever for eCommerce brands this year, especially sustainable brands with an inherently higher Cost of Goods, I wanted pick Lucy's brains and give you access to some of the key insights she's picked up on how to make that work. To quickly summarise where we got to in the last episode, Lucy's brand has been growing very well, with 10X growth in 2021 and then doubling into 2022, but largely due to the increasing cost of acquisition together with increases in retail shipping costs, their growth in 2022 came without increased profit. Bare Kind have a largely giftable product set that is heavily seasonal, 60% of their revenue is tied to Christmas sales, so to smooth that out as well as find a more profitable growth strategy, she's turned to wholesale, specifically through wholesale marketplaces like Faire.  In this episode we dive into more details about Lucy's strategy so that you can replicate her success. We learn about how to get the most from wholesale platforms, how to price products for success, and much much more.

Welcome to Episode 66! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep66 Today we're chatting with a founder who's every breath is focused on driving profit to enable her brand's purpose.  Lucy Jeffrey is the inspirational young founder of Barekind, a brand that makes a range of animal themed bamboo socks. With every sale, 10% of profits from go directly to supporting conservation projects protecting the featured animal. Now, I asked Lucy to join me on the show, not just because she's growing a really awesome sustainable brand, but because I became aware of the phenomenal success they've been having with wholesale, and I wanted to pick her brains about that for strategies you could use in your brands too.  However, I was so fascinated by our discussion that we accidentally carried on for over an hour, so to make the content a little more manageable and fit in your day, I've decided to split the recording over 2 episodes. Today's episode then focuses on Profit and Impact. There are some really interesting lessons I want to share with you about how Barekind communicate their impact, which are immensely important to understand if your brand is strongly purpose-driven. Towards the end, we touch on how important wholesale has been to building a bigger profit base for the brand, which of course enables more impact.  Then, in next week's show, we'll come back to the second half of our interview where we'll explore the exact strategies Barekind are using to get into over 700 retail stores. I'll be ruthlessly quizzing Lucy for tips and tricks for success in wholesaling, and we'll learn how you can get your hands on even more insights to take your wholesale strategy to the next level.

Welcome to Episode 65 of Sustainable Ecommerce! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep65 If you were to take the time to go all the way back to Episode 1, you'd hear my original definition of Sustainable Ecommerce.  While my knowledge of this space has certainly exploded thanks to all the amazing guests we've had on the show, chatting to today's guest forced me to look all the way back to those foundation principles and remember that above all else, sustainable ecommerce is about managing balance. It's about managing the balance between profit and purpose. It's about managing the balance between growth and sustainability, between analysis versus action, between building knowledge internally versus hiring external talent, between supporting small, local and uncertified providers vs validated overseas brands, between enthusiastically sharing how your product is better for the planet vs avoiding greenwashing at all costs. So, my guest today is Hayden Brass, founder and CEO of Zea, a sustainable health & wellness brand with the goal to improve the quality of life and enrich the wellbeing of 10 million people globally by 2030.  Today's conversation is a fascinating one because Hayden shares insights into just how pervasive that balance is, across all facets of his brand. He also candidly shares many of the challenges he's faced in the struggle to maintain the balance, especially when you're striving for growth in both business and impact.

Welcome to Episode 64! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep64 Today we're chatting with the founder of another brand making very deliberate, conscious decisions to reduce their footprint and help their customers live more sustainable lives. Prue Rocci is the founder of Rocc Naturals, a dental care brand aiming to make more nutritious toothpaste without the lasting impact on landfill.  In fact every year, over 1.5billion tubes of toothpaste end up in landfill, and being made in a non-recyclable way, there they stay for over 500 years.  Rocc has combined a complete reformulation of their paste with biodegradable tubes that break down in just 6 years.  The brand has been on the market for just a couple of years, and quite impressively managed to secure national distribution through Coles in their very first year.  Chatting with founders who think about sustainability just as much as growing their brand is always fascinating, and if getting into the big chains is something on your growth horizon, this episode is definitely one for you!

Welcome to Episode 63 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep63 One of the most important and challenging aspects to sustainability marketing is ensuring your story is authentic.  You can and should get science-backed proof in the form of certifications, and I'm working on a mini-series to help you with that later this year. While those elements are important, they're not the full story.  To choose your brand, customers want to know that your products are both better functionally AND better for the environment.  Proving sustainability claims with science does just that, without focusing on proving how your product solves the customer's problem. So today we're exploring 2 other forms of proof that check off both of these two problem sets by talking with a founder that I think is doing this particularly well.  My guest today is Sue Campbell, an Aussie entrepreneur building her solid shampoo brand KIND2 over in the UK.  Being bootstrapped, like many brands cashflow is extremely tight, which means spending 10's of thousands on Life Cycle Assessments was out of sight, yet Sue knew that customers were never simply going to take her word for how her shampoo was both effective and Kind to the Planet. And to solve that she's always placed a strong focus on acquiring the 2 forms of proof we're talking about today.  The first is social proof, and of course we're talking about reviews and testimonials.   And the other one is sustainability awards.  Of all the brands we've had on the show so far, I think Kind2 probably has the biggest trophy cabinet, which is no small achievement given she really only has a handful of products.  What I'm excited to share with you though is the strategic approach she takes to getting those awards.

Welcome to Episode 62! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep62   Obviously its inspiring and sexy to chat with the founders of brands that have been built from the outset to solve sustainability problems. Whether that's actively using up recycled materials and eliminating trash or working on minimizing food waste or turning into something of value, they always make for compelling episodes. But I never want to lose sight of the fact that every brand has an important part to play in how we collectively build a healthier planet. So, I think it's really important to cast a hero spotlight too on the brands who's core Purpose lies outside sustainability, yet still weave conscious, sustainability-focused approaches into everything they do. And today's guest is a brilliant example of that.   Bridget Carmady is the Founder of Clemence Organics, a skincare brand built on the backbone of certified organic ingredients and Bridget's experience as a Naturopath.   That's awesome in itself, but if you isolate the brand Purpose from how Bridget navigates the choices she's making on everything from suppliers, to primary packaging, to logistics, you'll see exactly what I mean when I say that any brand can make conscious and sustainable choices.  

Welcome to Episode 61! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep61 As brands we can help consumers live more sustainable lives in many different ways. Perhaps central to our value in that regard is what we make our products out of, the materials we choose to use.  So, I'm always very excited to discover new sustainable materials, especially in the fashion and apparel space.  One particular area I've been reading up on is the emerging field of plant-base leather alternatives.  You may have heard of products like Pinatex made from Pineapple leaves, and Cactus Leaf Leather, which has been taking European fashion houses by storm over the past year or two.  In my humble opinion, neither of these two vegan leather alternatives hold a candle to the Leaf Leather I want to introduce you to today.  My guest is Sridevi Blair, founder at Karuna Dawn, a new ethical and sustainable brand bringing Fair Trade bags and accessories to the Australian market.  I don't want to get too carried away in my personal excitement about her leaf leather products, because doing so would detract from the overall story of her brand and the importance of the ethical choices she's making across her various suppliers, which we also explore in this episode. Nevertheless, Karuna Dawn's leaf leather products are among the most beautiful things I've ever seen!

Welcome to Episode 60! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep60 Frankie Layton is the founder of the Dirt Company, among the earliest of this new breed of brands in the laundry and home cleaning space truly redefining what it means to be sustainable in this category. As a founder of an early stage brand, it can be so confusing to know the best pathways to grow and evolve, but reflecting back on this conversation with Frankie I'm forced to concede that if I were starting a sustainable brand from scratch, I would approach it just like Frankie did.  If I was designing and improving new products, I would follow Frankie's methodology.  If I was leading a DTC brand really looking for better ways to operate, I would try to live up to Frankie's commitment and finally if I wanted a shining example of how to ensure my brand's Purpose was congruent end to end, I can think of few better brands to model out.

Welcome to Episode 59! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep59 You might be forgiven for thinking that I'm becoming a little obsessed with brands that turn waste into value, and you'd be right! Last week we had Goodcitizens, aiming to Untrash the Planet by turning post consumer plastic into desirable eyewear. This week we have another incredible Aussie entrepreneur, who's getting even grubbier (pun very much intended) by using insects to turn food waste into protein and fertiliser.  Phoebe Gardiner is the Co-Founder of Bardee, and AgTech start-up from Melbourne who's managed in just 3 years to scale operations up to processing 40 tonnes of food waste every single day.  Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to Greenhouse Gas emissions. It's estimated that every tonne of food waste averted from landfill saves nearly 2 tonnes of emissions, so quite aside from the alchemy of turning waste into value, Bardee's operations are already materially contributing to our struggles towards Net Zero. So much so, that they're the first insect tech project in the world to become a recognised & certified Carbon Offset provider.

Welcome to Episode 58! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep58 It's so tempting isn't it, to believe that other brands and other entrepreneurs have all the answers and so have had an easy path to success.  We've all been sucked in by the alluring stories of hockey stick growth. Few brands like to share the real story lest it tarnish their investable image.  But when you're a purpose driven brand, honest & transparency about the realities are far more powerful.  Imagine openly promoting your 2500+ failed attempts to make your first.  And imaging the emotional challenges of 752 days in which your commitment is tested, your leadership is needed to keep your team motivated, your values are challenged, all the while your bank balance is draining.     What does it take to build an internationally recognised, ground breaking brand from that kind of standing start? To answer these questions, my guest today is the hugely inspirational founder of Good Citizens, Nik Robinson.   Together with his wife and 2 children, all equal shareholders in the business, Good Citizens makes eyewear where the frames are made from 100% post-consumer plastic, and in doing so are executing their Purpose of Untrashing the Planet.   There are a number of things I hope you'll take from this episode. Firstly, just how hard it really is to make things out of recycled plastic. I hope you'll excuse some somewhat self-indulgent questions about the details of how they make products, having been down this path myself I was fascinated by and somewhat in awe of what they've achieved with their manufacturing process.  And if nothing else, I hope that you pass a BS filter over claims made by many brands about how their products are made from recycled materials. But in many ways, this episode is the story of how Purpose, and especially the Robinson family's commitment to each other to see that Purpose through, has sustained them through what continues to be a turbulent journey. And far from being back-room idealism, Good Citizen's mission drives everything they do and has enabled a story so compelling that they were able to secure a front window spot at Selfridges in London before they even fully launches, and get invited to speak to the leadership at Tesla, Google and even at the UN. I hadn't intended the show to about Purpose especially.  But as we were chatting, and my mind increasingly opened to the question of whether Purpose is in fact the key to overcoming adversity and generating resilience as a founder.  Please do listen right to the end for my take on that, having had this amazing opportunity to chat with Nik.

Welcome to Episode 57 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep57 Last week I got to chat with Nikki Ciancio, from Blaek Store, who's been focused on re-inventing retail and build a model that supports consumers as we all move to a more circular economy.  I loved having that different perspective on things, and so this week I though it would be cool to get another angle on things, this time with a Corporate Gifting business.  Michelle Smith is the founder of Curated With Conscience, a gift box brand that, as the name implies is doing the hard work of seeking out brands with ethical, sustainable and purpose-driven stories that match the growing needs of business to work with vendors that align with both their own values as well as their ESG directives.  As you'll see, far from being an opportunist, frankly like many of the hamper and gifting brands that have sprung up in the past few years, Michelle herself is driven by a deep sense of Purpose, and its abundantly apparent that it's those values that have both driven her business growth to date, as well as what will see her through the current challenging economy that we are all experiencing.  

Welcome to Episode 56 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep56 This week we return to sort of normal programming by chatting with the founder of a sustainable retail store. Nikki Ciancio is the Co-Founder of Blaek Store, a retailer store attempting to define a better model model for supporting consumers on their journey to sustainability.  Of course, Nikki's brand is doing the hard work of carefully curating sustainable and ethical brands to sell in store, making Blaek a go-to destination for buying better on the Northern Beaches, but much more than that, she's providing the consumer service structure needed to help us move towards a circular and lower-consumption economy with recycling, recommerce and repair services needed to keep items in circulation for longer.   What's especially interesting to me is that they think of themselves as a fashion retailer, and so they really are forging a new type of sustainability store.  In the show today, Nikki shares her experiences in forging new type of retail store, as well as her opinions on exactly  what sort of information brands should be providing to help consumers make better purchasing decisions.

Welcome to Episode 55 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep55 This week's show is the fourth one in our mini series on rethinking waste.  So far we've touched on ocean plastic and how Plastic Bank is rethinking that as a resource is generating significant social and economic opportunity. And we've looked at mechanical recycling of textiles with Upparel, and how they are actively stitching together supply chains for the recycled fibre, then chemical recycling with Blocktexx where blends are being split out and turned into new PET chips and organic paste to be used in soil regeneration projects. So today we move onto footwear.  110 million pairs of shoes are imported into Australia every year, and basically without rethinking used footwear as a resource, they all end in landfill.   My guest today has been spearheading the recycling of shoes since 2010 and I think you will agree has an extraordinary depth of experience and pedigree in the business-for-good movement.  John Elliott is the founder of Save Our Soles, they're the organisation behind every shoe collection box you maybe have seen or used at stores like Foot Locker, Rebel Sport and just about everyone else. We learn about the Save our Soles process in today's show, but with John's deep industry experience I found the whole conversation fascinating, even if it does get a little philosophical in places.  

Welcome to Episode 54! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep54 This week is our third episode in our mini-series on waste, this week we look at absolutely emerging technology in relation to chemical recycling of textiles. Chemical recycling per se isn't new.  There are a few amazing companies overseas like Renewcel that can take cellulosic textiles and recycle those into new yarn. But until now, there has never been a solution to blends. Enter my guest this week. Adrian Jones is the co-founder of Queensland-based chemical recycling company BlockTexx. Despite being what I think you would still call a start-up, they've already proved they can handle 85% of the typical textile fibre types, and are handling about 4000 tonnes of textiles this year. They have developed an incredibly exciting technology that I think we'll see becoming more and more important part of the textile recycling supply chain in the years to come.

Welcome to Episode 53 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep53 Today's show is the second episode in our mini-series on rethinking waste, and we turn our focus from plastic to mechanically recycled textiles, taking a look at the downstream uses for the recycled material and how you can get involved.  Now you may be aware of some of the alarming statistics of this already, but the average Australian throws out 23KG of textiles per year, giving us the dubious honour or being the second largest consumer of textiles per capita in the world, behind the US. And if you sum those number up, with 26.3 Million people in Australia, that adds up to something like 604 million KG of textile waste every year. Clearly, as brands we need and responsibility to change this equation. So to help on that path, my guest today is Michael Elias, founder of Upparel. As you'll hear, the demand for domestic recycling of textiles here in Australia has enabled Michael to transition from ecommerce brand selling subscription socks to Australia's largest mechanical textile recycler, in just a couple of years.   A little like Plastic Bank that we spoke to last week on the show, Upparel have a strong focus on transparency and traceability when it comes to knowing exactly what your brand is recycling, and where that recycled material ends up.  Perhaps most relevantly for the topic of this series, one of the most exciting parts of Upparel's ecosystem is how they're constantly innovating and working with downstream partners to rethink ‘waste textiles' as a resource, replacing other virgin materials in a range of products from the fillers in boxing bags to home insulation. That means that whether your waste problem related to overstock, returns, deadstock, post consumer product or even staff uniforms, Upparel has a solution to help you keep material out of landfill.

Welcome to Episode 52 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep52 My guest today is Shaun Frankson, co-Founder of Plastic Bank.  They're a Canadian technology company on a mission to stop plastic before it reaches the ocean.  To date the partnerships they've enabled between brands and coastal communities have prevented almost 4 billion bottles worth of plastic from entering the ocean, 88 million KG. They're not just collecting that plastic from shorelines and dumping into landfill though, they're fundamentally rethinking waste as a resource and turning it back into recycled flake at scale. While big brands can get involved and actually work with them to secure a predictable source of fully traceable averted plastic to help replace virgin plastics, any brand in any region can get involved, make an impact in the plastic pollution problem as well as huge social impact in the lives of families and communities most affected by the issue.

Welcome to Episode 51 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep51 This week we go a little further afield and we cross the waves to the US for our founder interview.  Mckenna Haz is a young Canadian entrepreneur, building a sustainable activewear brand call SEAAV.  Now activewear is an immensely crowded market with giants like Underarmour, 2XL, Lululemon and countless others, not to mention a raft of yoga-specialist brands, which is the space Mckenna started in as recently as 2020.  The fact that in the face of that competition she's seen significant success already, and indeed been able secure venture funding to scale, suggests she's doing some things really really well.   Now, looking from the outside, I had a fair idea that the magic was in the way she's leveraging her sustainability-oriented brand story.  Some of you may know that we've recently completed a huge marketing effectiveness assessment of 500 brands, and ranked them all according to how well we think they're communicating to the market.  Despite being a small fish in the very large activewear ocean, Mckenna's brand SEAAV came in the top 10, which immediately tells us that she's really doing a great job of slicing up the message so it's effective in the customer journey. But I was excited to chat with her on the show to hear from the founder herself about how important story is, and how she's leveraging that story to drive growth in everything from following to sales. What follows I think is a really unique insight into how this sustainability story thing can be leveraged, not just on the store, but in attracting influencers, investors and building community.  

Welcome to Episode 50 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep50 Link to Post: https://tinyurl.com/fiftyeps It's no coincidence that we've accepted HeapsGood packaging as our first sponsor.  Aside from being one of the easiest onramps for a brand to start doing this more sustainably, sustainable packaging is actually a really important element and vehicle for your brand story. Yet as we started to review the data from our huge analysis of 500 sustainable brands, we discovered that the VAST majority are either missing the opportunity to leverage that opportunity, or failing to communicate what they are doing to their customers.  That's bad because not only is packaging a pain point for eco-conscious consumers, but there's evidence now that those same customers are seeking that information when choosing brands to buy from. So I've invited Adam Sarfati from HeapsGood back on the show this week, to talk about that this specifically, provide some guidance on the realities of sustainable packaging options, and some exciting news to share around using packaging as a story telling tool that I know you're going to want to take advantage of.  

Welcome to Episode 49 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep49 My guest today is the founder of another powerfully purpose-driven brand in the home cleaning and personal care space. Bonnie McQueen is the founder of Keeper Clean, a startup focused on helping consumers reduce single use plastics.  I really do think Australia is leading the way in this area, we've had a few brands running in this space on the show already, each a little bit different in their implementation.  To me Bonnie's story epitomises the ‘must do' spirit of a sustainability entrepreneur, and I felt her passion for influencing change and educating customers is truly inspiring. I also found that her approach to social media is instructive. She is committed to actually being seen as the face of the brand and creating content that resonates with and educates her audience on sustainability.  In my view she's doing an incredible job of leveraging her influence as the leader of her brand for the health of our planet, and that's an approach I think we can all learn from.

Welcome to Episode 48 of Sustainable Ecommerce! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep48 Over the past few months I've been chatting with brands not just here in Australia & NZ but also in the US and UK, and it's been really interesting to contrast the focus point for sustainability between the hemispheres. Just purely from my own observations, the attention down under is a lot more on waste reduction and the plastics problem, whereas in the northern hemisphere and the UK in particular, it's on the pathway to Net Zero.    Now, we've already covered carbon neutrality a little bit on the show.  I did a kind of carbon offsets for dummies guide all the way back in Episode 7, and then we had an actual expert, Richie Mulder from Carbon Halo come on in Episode 36, who explained in much more detail how to get to Carbon Neutral. But seeing this significantly elevated focus on Net Zero from UK brands has left me feeling a little bit like we might be dropping the ball down here.  When I asked a few eCommerce brands why they hadn't done more to tackle their carbon footprint, the answer was some flavour of “It sounds really complicated and I don't know where to start”.   Knowing the theory is a far cry from actually getting going. So is there in fact, and easy way to gets started.  I went on a bit of hunt, and I think my guest today actually has a solution.   Afonso Firmo is one of the Co-Founders of NetNada, and Australian startup designed to make the complex world of carbon accounting dead simple.  So, without stealing any thunder from Afonso, if baselining your footprint and getting your brand onto the pathway to carbon neutrality and maybe even Net Zero is something that's been on to do list, this is the Episode that's going to give you the keys to doing that.

Welcome to Episode 47 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep47 It's time to talk about customer experience. Specifically, the experience your customer gets through their buying journey. Obviously a great experience helps you convert visitors into buyers, and buyers into raving fans, but the rub is that its notoriously difficult to get a true read on how your customers actually feel about their experience, especially people who didn't purchase.   And what about customer's perception of your sustainability? If you're a sustainable brand you MUST get your story across in a way that eco-conscious consumers can understand it – but how do you measure that? How can you be sure your messaging is giving them the information you think it is? Well, enter today's guests.  Andy Evans is the Co-Founder of Humii, a Mystery Shopping Network designed to give online retailers and ecommerce brands unparalleled end to end visibility of their customer experience. Andy's joined today by Mariele Osthus, Head of Strategy at Humii, and together we take a look at how customer experience evaluation performed by their mystery shoppers is helping brands of all sizes highlight some astonishing gaps in real life customer experiences.  Plus, we explore how their extensive data set is enabling customers-eye view of how a brands UX stacks up against their competitors, in a way that's never been possible before.  And, please do listen right to the end, because we share a very exciting announcement about a world first program being run right here in Australia to help sustainable brands specifically.

Welcome to Episode 46! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep46   My guest today is Jo Mercer, founder or start up slow fashion brand Matilda Life.  Jo has spent her entire career in retail, and is perhaps most famous for her highly successful Jo Mercer Shoes retail chain.  She's coming back into market now with a lifestyle women's apparel brand built around the DNA of Australian made, ethical and sustainable. We talk about the strongly and passionately held values that are the driving force behind Matilda Life, and what it means being a values driven brand.  Not just in what they make and sell, but also in how that weaves though all of what they do, including things like how they're setting up their upcoming bricks & mortar store, how they choose partners and perhaps most crucially, how they intend to influence customers towards a healthier and more sustainable approach to purchasing clothing. After chatting with Jo, I'm left with the enduring belief that Matilda Life, despite still being a tiny startup, serves up a great model for the fundamental values any ethical & sustainable brand can follow.

Welcome to Episode 45! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep45 As niche markets go, pet ownership is definitely one of the juicier ones at least if the rise of gigantic pet store chains over the past decade or so is anything to go by.    There is a lot of noise and perhaps speculation about the environmental footprint of pet ownership, focusing mostly on the plastic pollution from pet toys and accessories to alarming estimates of the carbon footprint attached to the production and shipping of pet food, specifically meat as the protein source.  There are definitely counter arguments that per food is often made from meat by products, including offal which would otherwise be sent to landfill or burned, so I don't think we have an adequate handle the impact yet.  One thing is for sure though, as the population of pets soars, we should be looking for more sustainable alternatives, and my guest today is doing just that.   Stephanie Stuber is the founder of Anipal, a Victorian brand pioneering the use of both seaweed protein and insect protein in dog treats.   Whether or not the estimates of environmental impact of meat-based proteins is correct, both the  solutions being explored, Anipal very successfully I might add, have a many many times smaller footprint.  I think this is fascinating space that out of absolute necessity and apparent ease of production is absolutely one to watch over the coming years.

Welcome to Episode 44! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep44 My guest this week is Laura Nixon, founder of NZ-based oral care brand Solid. Laura started up Solid after becoming alarmed by the sheer volume of plastic being produced in oral care industry, not just in toothpaste tubes, but also in the single use PPE used in clinics across the profession.    Solid only got going 3 years ago, but already you can find their products in stockists across NZ, and they have huge plans for expanding to new markets this year, as well as an imminent upgrade in their production facility.  More on that of course through the show. I know that in our household, we made all sorts of incremental improvements in single use plastics, from refillable home cleaning products, to personal care items, toilet paper and so on, but one untouched area for us to date has been toothpaste, so it was exciting to be able to hear more about that as well as get the inside track on the cutting edge of this space.

Welcome to Episode 43! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep43 My guest this week is the Founder & CEO of one of Australia's longest running ethical fashion brands, Nick Savaidis from Etiko.  Nick has been in the social enterprise for decades, since the early 1990's in fact. That experience and dedication to ethical sourcing shows through in Etiko,  who have been winning just about every award there is since 2005, taking out the Australian Ethical Fashion Report top spot every year since it started in 2013.  Interestingly, they chose to boycott that report in 2022 along with brands like Outland Denim, and we'll explore why in the show. In this episode, Nick explains the rich history leading up to founding Etiko in 2005, and we explore key things brands should think about regarding fair trade, as well as some interesting partners Etiko work with to power their take back schemes.

Welcome to Episode 42 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep42   My guest this week is Gaelle Thieme, founder of Dust & Glow, an innovative beauty start up.  I say innovative, because she's shaking things up in not just one but two dimensions of sustainability. Firstly, she's helping consumers avoid single use plastics by providing infinitely recyclable aluminium keep bottles and home compostable refill sachets.  But she's also formulated her hair and skincare range to powder-based, thus saving water, and removing a significant carbon footprint from the logistics part of the supply chain.  Now, we've seen similar models used by brands like Resparkle & Baresop, but as you'll see the way Gaelle's products work is slightly different again, bring a whole new set of compelling functional benefits into the mix.  I haven't seen anyone else in the Beauty space doing what's Gaelle's doing. She generously takes us through her journey to date, from setting up a kind of chemistry lab in her kitchen during lockdown, through the trials of finding a manufacturer that would even try to work with her, and then forward to today with a full year of brand activations and expansion to the UK well under way.   For me this was a fascinating behind the scenes look at a young purpose-driven brand totally rethinking an industry, and I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Episode 41! Https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep41   In last week's show we explored how Huskee's product design process has been critical to enabling their Huskee Loop programme, where they can effectively take back end-of-life Huskee products and recycle them into new products without any specialist machinery, anywhere in the world, even though they're made from discarded coffee husks. It was a great example of how design thinking is essential to enabling both recycling and the circular economy. With that in mind, I thought it would be great this week to delve a little deeper into things to be thinking about when creating sustainable products. My guest is head of design for product design agency People & Things, who specialises in helping sustainable brands breathe life into their ideas.  We're going to talk about design thinking, about how to get best results from your design partners, how to think about creating your product to make it easier to recycle, and we do a kind of deep dive into plastic.  

Welcome to Episode 40! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep40 In today's show I get to chat with Saxon Wright, founder of a product that I use almost every day – the reusable Huskee Coffee Cup.   Now, as we head into 2023 there are heaps of reusable cup brands all aiming to make a dent in billions of disposable cups that end up in landfill or floating around the place every year, and by and large they all follow the model laid down by KeepCup all those years ago. But Huskee are a little different. Firstly, they're the only brand I know at least that are tacking not just the disposable cup problem, but the vast piles of organic waste created by the coffee industry, in their case by turning the waste stream of discarded coffee husks into a value stream for the farmers by actually including the husk material in their injection moulding process. But while you can purchase their cups as a retail customer as I have, their primary focus is on providing them as a reusable alternative for cafes and restaurants, thus tackling the issue at scale. Saxon takes us on a fascinating behind the scenes look at how Huskee came about, some of the many challenges they faced in bringing this remarkable product to market, and where their focus is as we head into 2023.    

Welcome to Episode 39 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep39 Welcome to 2023 & welcome to the new time slot for Episode release, going forward we're going to be publishing on Monday mornings instead of the Friday afternoon slot we're been using to date. Given this is the first show of the year it seems like a good time to have a bit of fun and make some predictions for the year ahead, but more importantly chat about what you can and should do get prepare your business for success.  So for each of today's predictions, I'm going to strive to give you some practical things to be thinking, planning for and taking action on so that you stay one step ahead.  

Welcome to Episode 38! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep38 In this final episode of 2022 we look back over the year and pick out good news pieces and key events that are shaping the progress of sustainability. We also run through a quick thought exercise to help you review your progress this year, celebrate the wins and show gratitude for the people, places and things that have made it all possible. If you're a regular listener of the show - we'd like to thank you too, and ask for your feedback! To let us know how we can make the show even better in 2023, please add your thoughts to the Linked In post below. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/giles-smith-australia_sustainability-podcasts-entrepreneurship-activity-7008203205968879616-dCSm

Welcome to Episode 37! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep37 There is no doubt that as an industry, both by making physical products and shipping them to customers, we have some challenges around packaging.   We've already had some great sustainable packaging suppliers on the show including the Better Packaging Company as well as HeapsGood, but the sharp eyes among you may have noticed the logo for this podcast includes Mushroom mycelium block. Back when we were just starting up the podcast I thought that mushroom packaging was one of the coolest and most interesting material development concepts in the sustainable ecommerce space, and I still do. For that reason, In our last interview of 2022, I wanted to take us back and explore this space a little further.  My guest today is Amanda Morgan, Co-Founder and CEO of Fungi solution. Their mission is to divert material from landfill are repurpose it in the production of alternatives to single use plastics.   In this interview we learn just how important fungi can be in both the reduction of trash as well as fighting climate change, and of course how you can incorporate mushroom packaging in your supply chain. 

Welcome to Episode 36! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep36   I'm sure like me many of you were watching the COP27 proceedings with a certain degree of bemusement.  Frankly, it's continued to be a talk-fest with lots of nodding and naval gazing, but very little done.   The only notable accomplishment of this years conference, which I feel pained to note added to carbon emissions, was the establishment of the so called Loss & Damage fund which aims to make economic reparations to the regions most impacted by climate change to date.  It would seem that the fund is targeting climate-induced losses of just over $500B, for which the industrialised nations will pay the bill, though they have not yet agreed how it will be split.  Some smaller nations tipped some coin into the hat, but the 2 biggest polluters US and China are yet to agree to anything.  Coming back to Net Zero, the UN assembly previously agreed that to get control of climate change we collectively need to get to Net Zero by 2030.  By latest reports, we're a long way off, in fact on track to have increased a further 10% emissions by then.  And, we're not leading in Australia by any means.   In October last year the Morrison Government unveiled plans to reach Net Zero by 2050, and after all the talk for decades, less than half of Australia's biggest companies even have Net Zero plans in place. The fact is though that even as smaller independent brands we have a part to play. It is simply no good throwing stones at the greenhouse.  If it were as easy done as said, we wouldn't be in this position so rather than merely urge everyone to play part, I wanted to bring you something more practical. My guest today is Richie Mulder, founder of Carbon Halo, and Australian startup helping SMEs get Carbon Neutral.  In the show I ask Richie to lay down some definitions for us so we can understand where our operations as eCom brands fits in the grand scheme of things, and help plot a bit of a pathway to help you reduce your carbon footprint and start on the path to Carbon Neutral and maybe ultimately Net Zero.  Listen all the way through because at the end Richie gives us some free tools to get a baseline of where we're at now, which of course is essential to know before you try making improvements. su1eYxhThPVTAee0jC3d  

Welcome to Episode 35! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep35 I do love the little veggie garden we have at home.  There's something super nice about plucking some fresh herbs and greens eating them moments after harvest. Plus we haven't been buffeted by lettuce-flation since the floods. But I'm lucky enough to live on a big plot, millions of Aussies simply don't have the opportunity to grow fresh herbs and greens, until now!  My guest today is Dilhan, co-founder of Urban Plant Growers.  They are helping Aussies with food security, food waste and reduce the carbon footprint of food miles with their very cool hydroponic indoor plant solutions.   As you'll hear their solutions for fast, water efficient, and highly predictable food growth are changing lives from the big smoke to about as Outback as you can get.  Santa, if you're listening, I want one!   Want to get access to our new online course?  Check it out at https://sustainable-ecom.com/purpose-marketing-playbook-online/

Welcome to Episode 34! Show Notes: https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep34 I just love chatting to really inspiring entrepreneurs who are just driven by passion and purpose, not just to build a brand,  but to make a real impact.   I also think it's really fascinating chatting to people at all stages of their business journey. So I hope you'll forgive me for sounding like a kid in a candy shop when I say that today's guest is bringing multiple levels of innovation to the beauty industry, is a living ball of passion for her impact inspired by being a breast cancer survivor herself and we get to peak in to her brand literally weeks after she's opened her online store.  Tania Jolley is the Founder of purpose-driven brand Lashes of Change.  She takes us on a journey from the seed of an idea, through personal calamity, fighting an industry supply chain that said it couldn't be done, to launching Australia's first refillable beauty brand.  I truly hope you find our discussion as inspiring as I did!

Welcome to Episode 33! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep33 Sustainability and ethical supply are two very different topics, yet at the same time its hard to imagine being one without also doing the other.  Some organisations take their purpose to a whole new level where they're thinking about sustainability, but the core of their business is founded as a social enterprise, designed from the ground up lift the living conditions of people in their supply chain.  My guests today are two remarkable women, Jessica & Hannah from Earthworthy, a really beautiful social enterprise bringing jute homewares to Australia and supporting the lives of female artisans from Bangladesh who were injured in a factory collapse.   We chat about sourcing in Bangladesh, what a remarkable fibre Jute is, how business buying is rapidly shifting towards sustainable and ethical supply and best news of all, how you can work with Earth Worthy to include their products in your brand offering under white label.   

Welcome to Episode 32! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep32 Just recently, I attended Purpose Conference here in Sydney, and one of the key insights that came out of listening and chatting with the founders of sustainable brands, was just how important it is for brands to activate their customers and engage their community towards making an impact. With that front of mind, I was delighted to get the opportunity to chat with Tom Ferrier, founder at Greener, a tech start-up that aims to connect sustainable brands with mainstream consumers so that we can reduce climate change with every dollar spent.   Like me, most consumers want to do better, but don't really have any idea what their starting carbon footprint is, nor do they understand the simple things they can change to reduce it.  The Greener app is designed to bridge this gap, helping both consumers and SME brands make impactful changes and shop better.   I love things that make it easier to do better, and what could be easier than an app that allows me to buy better in just a few taps?  Plus – it's a fantastic avenue for sustainable brands to get in front of new, mainstream customers without a single dollar spent on ads!

Welcome to Episode 31 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep31 We are now entering November, for most brands one of the biggest months of the year for ecommerce sales, with big events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, not to mention Singles Day, Thanksgiving and so on.  I hadn't originally planned to do a show about Black Friday, because honestly how to smash it is covered in just about every other ecommerce podcast. But just in various conversations over the past few weeks I've been quietly asking around among sustainable brand owners as to what they are doing for Black Friday this year.  I guess what I was expecting was a polarisation of views, from brands that have decided not to participate and are quite vocally against the event, and other brands who had a well thought through strategy for how to participate.  What I really wanted to find out was why they have chosen one camp or the other. Naturally I did find some of both, but what surprised me was the number of people who were still on the fence, who simply couldn't decide what to do about it.  Now there's risk in either approach.  As we'll discuss shortly there are potential brand congruency issues with taking part which could lead to brand damage. On the flip side, you risk losing the opportunity to acquire a flood of new customers, and potentially disappointing some people who were looking forward to purchasing from you during the event.  But in some ways, not making a decision is the worst of both worlds, & could lead to doubling that risk, especially if you leave it to the last minute to participate. That's likely to result in an undercooked promotion, poor sales result AND questions raised about whether it matches your values. So if you find yourself undecided, or if you're yet to plan through what to do about the big events at the end of this month, this show is for you.

Welcome to Episode 30! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep30 Last week on the show, we briefly touched on ways to improve our carbon footprint as well as save costs outside of things in your direct product supply chain.  This week I'm chatting with Kate Limbach Clarke, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Felix Mobile, Australia's first Carbon Neutral Telco.  Aside from the fresh approach Felix are bringing to sustainability in the telco space, they also have a really interesting approach to Active Transparency, specifically a strong focus on how the customer can have ongoing impact through using their service.  In a world where so many brands fear to promote the great work they're doing, its encouraging to see something like a Telco building brand as a direct result of impact.  

Welcome to Episode 29 of Sustainable Ecommerce! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep29 I do love it when I get to introduce you guys to some of the people who have really inspired and influenced me over the years. We had Zoltan Csaki a few weeks ago, and today I'd like to introduce you to someone else who's been quietly guiding me for years.  Chloë Thomas is a UK-based eCommerce expert & former agency owner who's been around the game even longer than me!  She's written multiple books on the subject, is regularly asked to be a keynote speaker and hosts not 1 but 2 ecommerce and marketing podcasts, chalking up well over 500 episodes!  In 2022 she's repositioned her show the eCommerce Masterplan to have an increased focus on Sustainability, which of course make for a very interesting dynamic given her insights into what's happening in the Northern hemisphere.  Naturally when two podcasts hosts get together we pretty much immediately go off track, but do keep listening to the end because the UK has always been ahead of us in Australia, and what is happening there is often a good yardstick of what's to come down here.

Welcome to Episode 28 of Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep28 When it comes to single use plastics, one of the key areas of focus for government intervention over the past few years has been shopping and produce bags. Of course, retailers and supermarkets have been spun off in all different direction over the past decade, from biodegradable to re-usable but through it all one brand has been helping to change the game by providing collapsible produce bags designed to keep on you for whenever you need them.  My guest today is Hayley Clarke, Managing Director of WA brand ONYA. They have been leading the charge against single use plastics since 2004!  Today the brand provides re-usable shopping bags, produce bags & beverage containers as well as a range of compostable waste bags.    They were one of the earliest brands in Australia to gain B Corp certification, have become a 1% for the Planet member and ensure their workforce is climate positive through Ecologie.   It's a rare privilege indeed to get to share in the stories from inside a sustainable brand that's been running for over 20 years and I hope you enjoy learning from Hayley as much as I did.

Welcome to Episode 27 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! Show notes: https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep27 A few weeks ago on the show I was talking about the importance of making your impact super tangible so that customers can see exactly what impact their purchase will have.  At the time I was waxing lyrical about what a great job Boody was doing by using an app called Greenstory. Well, today I'm joined by one of the co-founders of Greenstory – Akhil Sivanandan.   We chat about how Greenstory impact measurements are grounded in science, the importance of making impact understandable and relatable, and positive effect to store conversion brands experience when working with Greenstory. And of course we also talk about how you can follow in the footsteps of great brands like Boody and use Greenstory to get this level of impact transparency working for your own brand!

Welcome to Episode 26 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep26 This week I have a kind of double treat for you, not just because my guests Adam Sarfati and Ave Reunis are Co-Founders of sustainable brand, but because they've started up 2 sustainable brands – Threadheads and Heaps Good Packaging. On the one hand, we've good Heaps Good, a sustainable packaging company as they describe it, helps to put the eco in to ecommerce. It's a business that's build from the ground up to make a difference. And on the other hand, we've got Threadheads, a 2020s phenomenon in pop-culture apparel, making conscious choices across their business to run things sustainably.   Now if that wasn't enough fodder for the show, the reason I asked them to join me was that collectively they've completed not 1 but two equity crowdfunding campaigns in 2022, and I simply couldn't think of more experienced people to ask for top tips on ways to use that channel to raise capital for your eco-friendly brand.  We ended up chatting about all sorts of stuff, because they couldn't help themselves but dangle enticing tid bits of information as we were chatting, so there is literally gold all the way through this! 

Welcome to Episode 25 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast! Show notes: https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep25 Unless you've been living in nudist retreat for the past decade, I'm sure you'll be aware that the fashion industry has a particularly bad rap when it comes to sustainability.  With fast fashion, rampant over production, synthetics and a whole host of other systemic issues that are literally baked into the supply chain.  In fact, the fashion industry collectively is know as having the second highest carbon footprint, behind Oil & Gas.   But of course, there are brands out there trying to change all that, and my guest today is an absolute champion for the cause. Zoltan Csaki is CoFounder of Sydney Based fashion brand Citizen Wolf, and their mission, literally stated, is to "Unf*ck the fashion industry"! As you'll see they've recognised that overproduction is one of the biggest problems with the industry as a whole, and over the past few years have been building out a new model for the industry based on a new take of made-to-order. But with organic fabrics, carbon positive production, free repairs for life and now a fully circular product lifecycle, they are literally setting the new standard for sustainability in fashion.    In my opinion, all of this makes them one of the most ground-breaking brands of the last decade, and it was an absolute thrill to chat with Zoltan.