Sustainable Ecommerce

EP43 - Lessons from Australia’s #1 Ethical Fashion Label with Nick Savaidis

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.

EP 42 - Keeping Your Powder Dry - Disrupting the Beauty Industry with Gaelle Thieme

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.

EP41 - Design Thinking for Sustainable Products with Simon Terry

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.
 

EP40 - Rethinking Waste Streams - Turning Husks into Cups with Saxon Wright

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.
 
 

EP39 - Sustainable Ecommerce Predictions for 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.  

EP38 - 2022 in Review: Sustainability & Your Brand

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

EP37 - Why Mushroom Packaging Might Be The Next Big Thing

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. 

EP36-Getting to Carbon Neutral in eCommerce with Richie Mulder

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.
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