Sustainable Ecommerce

EP27 - Communicating Your Brand’s Impact with Akhil Sivanandan

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!

EP26 - The Keys to Equity Crowdfunding Success with Ace Reunis & Adam Sarfati

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! 

EP25 - Unf*cking The Fashion Industry with Zoltan Csaki

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.

EP24 - Green is the New Black (Friday) With Peter Krideras

Welcome to Episode 24 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast!
Show Notes:  https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep24
Sales season is fast approaching, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday on the calendar in just a few months.   
Classically they involve some of the year’s deepest discounts and can result in a flurry of purchasing. Indeed, if your brand sells on channels like Amazon, Black Friday can bring you a month’s worth of sales in a single day.
BUT, these kind of sales events can be a little problematic for sustainable brands.
Two of the biggest challenges come in regards to questions of how brands can afford such huge discounts if they are truly sourcing ethically with fair pay.  Indeed, should sustainable brands be supporting excess consumption / hyper-consumerism in the name of a sales event?
It’s a slightly knotty problem, and to help me unravel it, my guest today is Peter Krideras, founder of the hugely successful ClickFrenzy event, and now founder of the only sales event in the retail calendar specifically for sustainable brands – called Green Friday.
Green Friday kicked off for the first time last November, and it’s pretty clear consumers want this. In just a few days, their event page saw over 75,000 visits, as you’ll see, pretty much from a standing start. 
So, if you’re of a mind to rethink your Black Friday strategy this year, yet still get your brand in front of as many environmentally-conscious consumers as possible, Green Friday might be the answer you’ve been looking for.

EP23 Being Driven By Purpose with Prisca Ongonga-Daehn

Welcome to Episode 23!
Show notes here:  https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep23
Today I’m joined by Prisca Ongonga-Daehn, founder and CEO at Baresop.
In a nutshell, Baresop make powder-based personal care products, like soap, & body wash. You basically purchase re-usable foaming dispensers and refill them from home compostable sachets, completely avoiding single use plastics.
As you’ll see, Baresop has only been around a few years, but is on a remarkable trajectory fuelled by Prisca’s seemingly insatiable desire to live to her fullest potential and make maximum impact while doing it. 
Aside from the immediate impact of avoiding single use plastics, it’s actually mind boggling how many social projects Prisca’s team are involved in for such a young company. Truly inspiring! 
 
 

EP22 - Welcome To Season 2! 10 Things You Must Get Right To Gain Traction & Impact

Welcome to Season 2!  
Show Notes: https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep22
I am very excited to kick off this new season today! We have an amazing line up of brand founders & innovators, as well as service providers working to make your brand growth that little bit easier.  
Now, over the past few years I’ve been lucky to work with, to interview on the show as well as study and deconstruct the approach of a wide variety of sustainable brands. 
As a result, I’ve seen a pattern of strategies and tactics that help deliver success, as well as traps that some founders fall into that really impede their growth. 
So today, I’m going to share those insights with you as 10 critical things to get right in order to unlock your growth and ensure your brand has the impact you want it to.

EP21 - Using Active Transparency in Your Brand Messaging

Welcome to Episode 21 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast!
Show notes: https://sustainable-com.com/ep21
In today's show I thought it would be useful to summarise a common thread that’s weaved its way through many of the interviews we’ve had so far, and comes up as a challenging topic in one form or another among every single one of the businesses we work with.
That topic relates to messaging and being able to tell your brand story in an open, transparent and compelling way.
This show wraps up season 1 - but we'll be back with season 2 in just a few weeks on Friday 2nd September. In the meantime please do subscribe, leave a rating or review, we really appreciate it!

EP20 - Building a Circular Consumer Brand

Welcome to Episode 20 of the Sustainable Ecommerce Podcast!
https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep20
Reflecting back on the past few years of interactions with brand founders especially some of the guests we’ve had on this show, I’ve become more & more convinced that re-use and circularity represent the best model for sustainability.
In fact, I’ve come to believe that business models that work in this way are actually heralding in a completely new era of ecommerce.  
My guest today can only be described as Australia’s pioneer of re-use.  Jamie Forsyth is the Co-Founder of Keep Cup, which was the brand that basically started it all when it comes to re-usable coffee cups, back in 2009.  
He’s now spinning up another circular economy startup in the grocery category called Returnr and I could not think of a more experienced person to come and chat with us on this topic!