Sustainable Ecommerce

Ep51 - Using Sustainability Story to Grow Your Brand with Mckenna Haz

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.
 

EP50 - What’s the Real Story with Sustainable Packaging? With Adam Sarfati

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.
 

EP49 - The Must-Do Spirit of a Sustainability Entrepreneur with Bonnie Macqueen

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.

EP48 - Making Carbon Accounting Easier for eCom Brands

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.

EP47 - Do You Really Know How Customers Perceive Your Sustainable Brand?

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.

EP46 - Building a Brand That Truly Reflects Your Values with Jo Mercer

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.

EP45 - Time For a Treat! Exploring Insect & Seaweed Protein in Pet Nutrition with Stephanie Subbe

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.

Ep44 - More Paste, Less Waste: Rethinking Oral Care with Laura Nixon

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.