Globally, only 9% of plastics are recycled each year. So, what happens to the plastic that is not recycled? Did you know that Europe consumes 4-6% of its oil and gas resources in the production of plastics? According to WRAP, it takes a whopping 75% less energy to make a plastic bottle from recycled materials compared to producing it from scratch. But what would happen if we increase our recycling efforts and build a circular economy to reduce plastic waste?

Wait… What's the Buzz About a Circular Economy? 

Imagine a world where nothing goes to waste! That's the magic of a circular economy. It's a regenerative system that aims to keep resources in use for as long as possible, extracting maximum value while minimising waste generation. When it comes to plastic waste, a circular economy focuses on creating a closed-loop system where plastic is recycled, reused, or repurposed instead of ending up in landfills or polluting our beautiful oceans. And that is exactly what we do at Delphis Eco. Did you know that so far, in 2023, we have saved a whopping 19,709kg of virgin plastic from being produced? Not only this but through using recycled plastic material, we have avoided an outstanding 30 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted. **

The Plastic Problem

Plastic waste is like a villain threatening our environment. Huge amounts of it end up in landfills, and sadly, many find their way into our oceans. This pollution harms our beloved marine life, disrupts delicate ecosystems, and contributes to the global environmental crisis. Embracing a circular economy for plastic is the key to breaking this harmful cycle.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 In a circular economy, we can do our bit by reducing our plastic consumption. By making mindful choices and opting for sustainable alternatives, we can minimise the amount of plastic waste generated in the first place. And when plastic waste does come knocking, recycling swoops in to save the day!

Innovations in Plastic Recycling

To make the circular economy for plastic a reality, we need cutting-edge recycling technologies and infrastructure. Think advanced sorting systems, high-tech recycling processes, and brilliant innovations that turn old plastic into new treasures. These superpowers help us transform discarded plastics into raw materials for new products, reducing the demand for virgin materials and the environmental impact of plastic production.

Rethinking Consumption and Design 

A circular economy inspires us to rethink how we consume and design products. Manufacturers play a key role by creating easily recyclable items, using recycled content, or exploring fantastic biodegradable materials. By supporting these eco-friendly products, we ignite the growth of a circular economy and reduce plastic waste in style.

So this Plastic-Free July, let's rethink our consumption of plastic and opt to buy PCR plastic, just like our Delphis bottles, made from recycled milk bottles, which are 100% recyclable. By recycling plastic waste, reducing our plastic consumption, and redesigning products with recyclability in mind, we can steer clear of landfills and protect our breathtaking oceans. Let's join forces, spread the word, and create a future where plastic waste is minimised. Together, we can make a lasting impact for generations to come. Let the adventure begin!

** Disclaimer: Our calculations have been independently verified by Climate Partner.

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It's Composting Day, a perfect occasion to celebrate the practice of reducing waste and creating nutrient-rich soil for your plants. Composting is a simple process that anyone can do, and with a few tricks and tips, you can make it even more effective. What better way to begin your composting journey than by incorporating sustainable household products like the Composty’s pop-up sponges into your routine? Composty's sponges are crafted from 100% natural cellulose, derived from wood pulp. These eco-friendly sponges can be thrown into your compost pile along with your food waste, ensuring they break down naturally over time. To enhance your composting experience, we'd like to share some of our best composting tips with you! Choose the right compost bin: Selecting the appropriate compost bin is crucial for successful composting. Consider options such as a traditional compost bin, a tumbling composter, or even a worm composting system. Choose the bin that suits your space, budget, and lifestyle. Add the right ingredients: To create nutrient-rich soil, incorporate the right ingredients into your compost bin. This includes brown materials like leaves and twigs, green materials like food scraps and grass clippings, and water. Aim for a 2:1 ratio of brown to green materials, and maintain proper moisture levels without making the compost too wet. Avoid certain items: While composting is an excellent waste reduction method, it's important to avoid certain items in your compost bin. These include meat, dairy, oily foods, pet waste, weeds, and diseased plants. These items can attract pests, generate unpleasant odours, and slow down the composting process. Use compostable sponges like our friends at Composty: Incorporating compostable sponges, such as those offered by Composty, helps reduce waste and enhances the effectiveness of your composting process. These sponges are crafted from natural materials like cellulose and cotton, and they can be composted alongside your food scraps and other organic materials. Turn your c?ompost regularly: Regularly turning your compost is essential for proper aeration and speeding up the decomposition process. Use a pitchfork or compost-turning tool to mix the materials and promote airflow. Aim to turn your co mpost at least once a week, or more frequently if you notice slow decomposition. Patience is key: Composting requires patience. Depending on your compost bin and the materials used, it may take several months to a year for your compost to be fully ready. However, the end result is well worth the wait—nutrient-rich soil that will nourish your plants and promote their growth. By following these simple tips, you can save money, reduce waste, and create nutrient-rich soil for your beloved plants. Composting is a straightforward and effective way to make a positive impact on the environment. This National Compost Day, we are delighted to collaborate with Composty to offer our followers a chance to win an Eco BBQ Bundle featuring a range of Composty's eco-friendly sponges. Head over to our Instagram page for the rules on how to enter. Happy Compost Day! Continue reading

As a proud Royal Warrant holder, we are honoured to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III and with the coronation of King Charles just around the corner, it's more important than ever that we focus on sustainability. As millions of people around the world gather to watch the coronation,  let's set a positive example for sustainability. By simply using eco-friendly cleaning products, we can reduce our environmental impact and show the world that we're serious about promoting sustainable practices. The future Monarch, King Charles, has been a long-time champion for environmental protection and sustainability, so it's important that we support his efforts by caring more about our environment.

And what better way to do that than by using eco-friendly cleaning products to tidy up after those street parties? To celebrate, we are introducing our brand new Street Party Bundle that's perfect for your post-party clean-up. And the best part? It's eco-friendly, so you can feel good about making a positive impact on the environment while you clean up.

Our street party bundle includes a range of eco-friendly cleaning products that are tough on dirt and grime but gentle on the planet. From multi-surface cleaners to glass cleaners to disinfectant sprays, our bundle has everything you need to get your streets looking spick and span again after a wild party.

But it's not all about the coronation and street parties– sustainability is important for the long haul. As an ambassador for sustainable practices, King Charles will encourage positive change in areas like renewable energy, waste reduction, and conservation. By using eco-friendly cleaning products, we can all support these efforts and create a better, more sustainable world. So let's all do our part to promote sustainability, protect the environment, and create a healthier world for ourselves and future generations. 

So whether you are hosting a street party, a house party or you want to celebrate by becoming more sustainable, let's make a positive impact on the environment while we clean up after our epic street parties!

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This January, we have listed our top tips to make your new year more eco-friendly. By simply swapping some of your day-to-day habits and purchases, you will be well on your way to a planet conscious 2023.

 

It all starts at home.

When cleaning after the holidays, our products are the ones to choose to stop the nasty chemicals from getting into the environment, impacting your health and the health of aquatic life. But what a great way to go that one step further and switch your cleaning equipment to compostable alternatives, like Seep's ones. Seep offer a range of compostable gloves, sponges and even bine liners to help you keep on top of your eco-cleaning and ensure that no micro-plastics go out into the environment.

Planning a holiday?

This year choose a conscious stay away with the planet in mind. Room2 by The Lamington group is the world's first hometel brand moving to fully net zero. We are delighted to support their business in becoming more sustainable by providing them with our planet-friendly range of cleaning products!

Skin and Beauty

Switch your skin and beauty products to products with natural ingredients and recycled packaging like the ones offered by Grumm! They even provide a razor cartridge recycling scheme, taking care of the recycling for you. From purifying Facial cleansing bars to Beard Wash bars, they have all your necessities to leave you fresh this January without compromising. 

Dining out!

We know this month's focus is mainly on your health, so why not treat yourself to delicious and healthy food at the Apricity restaurant in London? Apricity is a sustainable restaurant offering a conscious dining experience from its menu to its dishes; they have the environment in mind. 

Giving back

With the cost of living at an all-time low this January, families around the country are struggling to eat. So this January, why not give back to charities like The Felix Project? The Felix Project is a charity that distributes surplus food to vulnerable people in the UK and is a great way to give back this January.

Need more inspiration for an eco-friendly 2023? Why not try the 'In Good Company' app? Wherever you are in the UK, this app finds you trusted and reviewed shops- from social enterprise coffee shops and sustainable restaurants to zero-waste shops and even eco hair salons. All your options at the click of a button! To download, please click here.

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 Christmas… A time for families to come together, exchange gifts and eat to their heart's content. But what impact does our overindulgence and shopping habits have on the environment? During the holiday season our carbon footprint is 6% more than the rest of the year, so how can we make our Christmas a little bit greener? Every pound you spend this Christmas is a vote for the world you want to create, so here are Delphis Eco's top tips for a Christmas that doesn't cost the Earth.  

 

Should you go for the real tree or get the plastic one out of the loft? 

Every year there is a debate about whether people should ditch their real tree and go for a fake one. Or ditch the Christmas tree altogether. Research has found seven million trees are thrown out every year in the UK, releasing copious amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Artificial trees can be reused on average 7-20 times, which is better for the environment as it saves fresh trees from being chopped down and can save you money! 

  

But if you want to buy a real tree, know that the carbon footprint is lower than that of an artificial one. A popular alternative is opting for potted trees, which can be reused and replanted. Another option is replanting your Christmas tree in your garden or converting your old tree into beneficial woodchip mulch by putting it through a shredder which can reduce its carbon footprint by up to 80%. It's a win-win! 

 

Spread the Christmas magic 

At Christmas, we know the pressure is on to buy the perfect present for your nearest and dearest, but just under a half of us Brits admit that we have received gifts we don't or will never use. But the only good can come from buying gifts from small businesses, being mindful of sustainability and going for gifts with less packaging. 

  

According to Gov.uk we use enough card packaging (and material) at Christmas to cover Big Ben nearly 260,000 times. That is mind-boggling! Were you aware that to make 1 tonne of paper, around 24 trees must be cut down? So why not get creative by making e-cards to send your Christmas wishes by text if you want to give a great gift to the planet? 

  

The main event 

Christmas is the ultimate time to overindulge by eating our body weight in pigs in blankets or stuffing. But all that overindulgence means that around 270,000 tonnes of food are thrown away at Christmas every year. That's five million Christmas puddings, seventy-four million mince pies and two million turkeys, according to the Big Issue. And if that statistic doesn't make you want to spit out your eggnog, the government reckons that the number of poultry we throw away yearly is enough to make eight hundred million Boxing Day curries. Unbelievably, a herd of 636,000 reindeer weighs the same carrots thrown away by UK households annually.  

  

Fareshare is a charity network focused on reliving food poverty and food waste in the UK, was awarded 1.9 million pounds in 2019 from Defra. With the funding, Fareshare could redistribute even more food to those who need it. Their work also prevented 2,000 frozen turkeys from Gressingham Foods from going to waste in 2019, almost double the number redistributed the year before. So why not donate some of your leftovers to them? 

  

  

What actions are we taking to do our bit? 

Around 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be thrown away and not recycled in the UK this Christmas – which is more than the weight of 3.3 million Emperor penguins. One way to lower your contribution to the plastic plight is to buy products made of post-consumer recycled content. Ultimately you can only purchase the products available to you, and here at Delphis Eco, we offer refills on a range of our products so that you will be all kitted out for the festive season. 

 Here are our top ten Green Christmas tips: 

1. Use eco-friendly cleaning products that don't harm the planet but get the job done!
2. Donate your untouched food item to your local food bank  
3. Eat less meat - Christmas is the perfect opportunity to try something new 
4. Try out your local refill shop to dodge the unnecessary packaging at your supermarket 
5. Buy your food from suppliers that use minimal packaging 
6. Get all your food in one trip or order online if it's more convenient  
7. Buy loose fruit and veg to avoid unnecessary single-use plastic
8. Try and reduce your food waste by buying only what you need 
9. Invest in some reusable wax wraps and foil liners (foil is recyclable in most cases but check with your local authority)
10. Store your leftovers in the freezer

Written by Ellie Meredith

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As COP27 ends, we reflect on the discussions surrounding the global climate change conference and what we can take away to tackle this global fight. The annual conference presents opportunities for all stakeholders, government leaders and activists to discuss strategies to reduce climate change. The international conference gives global leaders and shareholders the platform to discuss ways to minimise the effects of climate change and the potential impact it could have on the planet. 

COP27 highlighted a solution-focused approach to minimise global surface temperature. Unlike the most recent Climate Week held in New York, which emphasised the ongoing global climate issues.

Now climate change specialists are urging global leaders to develop strategies to mitigate the global warming effects on the planet. There is an emphasis on governments working with businesses to accomplish this. Connecting with countries globally to work together is paramount, and this needs to happen with everyone in the same room. 

Previous COPs emphasised businesses were moving together at the same pace, working together to deliver environmental change. However, with global temperatures reaching record-breaking highs, the race is on, and there has been a shift to urge companies and countries to act as fast as they can.

COP27 bought speculation concerning whether the COPs are the best way to direct positive action against climate change. One word that circled COP27 was ‘greenwashing’ (deceiving customers by falsely advertising natural, green and eco-friendly products). The growing demand for sustainable products in the market means that everyday brands are renaming, rebranding and repackaging products to keep up to date with customers’ needs, but without holding sustainable values at the core of the business. COP27 presented the opportunity to mitigate greenwashing and bring awareness to the issues at stake when deceiving consumers. The conference reminded us that we each have the responsibility to make conscious decisions, an integral part of our lives to make a significant change.

We at Delphis Eco are proud to have sustainability at the forefront of our business values, and as a certified B-corp, we make all business decisions with the planet in mind. 

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Climate Week NYC saw world leaders come together along with the planet's biggest CEO's to find solutions to global warming. With global temperatures at record-breaking highs this year, the signs are here, and the time to act is now.  Continue reading

I love the summer because you can invariably count on long days packed with sport. This year is a right feast, with the Euros, Wimbledon, Lions Tour and Olympic Games all packed into a few short weeks.

The thing that I’m always fascinated by is the fantastic team ethics of top-class competitors. Even those in ferociously competitive individual events such as track cycling or athletics are supported by huge networks of backroom staff – such as nutritionists, coaches and physios – to help them get over the line.

Business is the same. Success certainly is never down to one person or idea, but typically is about taking the combined might of a collective to achieve a dream. And it usually requires both a ‘carrot and a stick’ to get the best results.

I make no secret that I want my company, Delphis Eco, to be a winner when it comes to being for the planet and for profit. And to that end we need to lead our entire team including suppliers to become net positive businesses – who care about the planet, people and profit.

We’re already a B-Corp business, which means we can demonstrate a high moral and social compass. Our products are EU Ecolabel certified to prove they do not harm the environment or users and come in 100% recycled plastic bottles. We were founding signatories to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s (EMF) Plastics Pact and among the first 100 companies globally to back  Global Optimism’s The Climate Pledge. We are also signed up to The Race to Net Zero and The Prince of Wales’s Terra Carta. I am proud of every single initiative and support them passionately.

Being an eco-friendly business can’t be the end of things though. In our drive towards net zero emissions we are already working hard on what’s called our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Basically, that’s all the greenhouse gas that we produce directly through our facilities, vehicles and energy use. More difficult is Scope 3 – these emissions include all our supply activity, not strictly ours, but directly related to our products.

The letter that landed on the desks of the respective CEOs of our suppliers addressed these emissions. Think of it as a mission statement about how we all move forward to reach a net zero target. It effectively asked them to join our journey and now the ball really is in their court as to how we get there.

We work with a tight selection of businesses and, typically, have chosen those along the way that have similar ideals to us. For example, as I’ve mentioned before, our printer for our labels is the greenest in the world, using eco-friendly inks and cutting-edge processes. So what we are asking of these guys won’t be too much of a struggle, but for others it will be a huge challenge.

You see, what we have suggested is that all our suppliers come on an eco-journey with us, cutting their own carbon emissions and improving the green credentials. We will be conducting audits to see how they are progressing – and holding them to account on promises.

I’ll admit that years ago you could not have expected the type of businesses we work with to have given these issues much thought. But things have moved on. Today, there is no reason why a factory in the Midlands can’t have solar panels on its roof to decarbonise its power needs.

This all sounds a bit draconian and Big Brother, but it really isn’t. The feedback we’ve had so far has been amazingly positive. Now’s the time to realise they are called ‘business partners’ for a reason. The ‘partnership’ comes in the form of a two-way exchange of views and ideas. We are helping with advice and contacts but have also set clear goals about what we expect.

Having a greener and more holistic supply chain requires bold action and may mean some short-term increases in costs. I like the famous IKEA example best – the Swedish giant unilaterally decided to only sell low energy LED bulbs and de-list all non-LED bulbs, which over time completely changed the lighting market. The good news is that LED bulbs have dramatically come down in price and are a normal thing in every home.

We expect to see changes in behaviour across our supply chain, and this will feed further along into thousands of other companies – the suppliers of our suppliers.

It’s all about the action of the collective. Teamwork makes champions.

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Dressed for work in a suit and a tie, I’m probably the last bloke you’d consider to be an eco-warrior.

But the longer I am involved in the world of environmentally conscious manufacturing, the more I realise that there is a real fight to get involved in. And it is time that everyone picks a side!

Down at the frontline of the war on waste, it is a dark and dispiriting place. And as with all battles, the picture is confusing and difficult to explain. But I’ll try here, using my experience as a guide.

At Delphis Eco, I’ve made a point of trying to do the right thing from the off. Producing cleaning products without chemical nasties was always going to be a challenge simply because the industry wasn’t set up for it. But developing recipes that suppliers could work with was just the starting point.

My interest in green products really grew during my former life in banking and ethical investment. Seeing pictures of mountains of plastic waste in poverty-stricken Third World countries was a particular eye-opener that made me question the traditional thinking of capitalism’s industrial model – the destructive linear economy of ‘Take-Make-Waste’.

So, as well as all the other challenges of starting a business, ensuring our products were packaged the right way has always been important.

We wanted plastic bottles that were 100% recycled, so off we went, chasing waste collectors, rubbish dumps and plastic suppliers only to be told our dream wasn’t possible. When we did find a small business that was recycling London’s plastic milk bottles – and was able to help us – they rather inconveniently went bust.

Still, out of adversity came an even stronger desire to succeed. And if milk bottles were the way forward, it presented another opportunity – to reuse ‘home-grown’ waste products, rather than plastics that had been sent halfway around the world to be processed before coming back. In the circular economy, keeping this production in the UK was the holy grail of ‘greenness’.

Of course, waste collection firms thought we were mad, but when they realised we were serious they agreed to separate used milk bottles for us. The same too for our bottle blower, who initially insisted this plastic wasn’t of good enough quality to go into their plant and needed lots of convincing. There was some complicated science too (all to do with molecule length, in case you’re interested!) but we overcame that by making our bottles slightly thicker. Sure, they are slightly heavier as a result, but UK recycling and manufacture means zero carbon miles, which far outweighs the emissions cost of importing recycled raw materials from China.

At the same time, our supplier is now getting considerable interest from a whole host of other manufacturers about their 100% recycled plastic, opening up the prospect of new jobs and new investment. And as more potential customers make the switch, the processing should get cheaper meaning better prices for all of us.

So there has been some interesting learning on this journey. First off is perseverance. When it comes to the environment, you encounter plenty of ‘old world’ thinking. Asking to do new stuff in different ways will typically be met with a shake of a head or sharp intake of breath, so the secret is to have a thick skin and a total belief that you are doing the right thing. We’ve pushed boundaries and changed opinions by convincing suppliers to work with us – mostly by paying more than to get the technology up and running and shown them why it will be financially beneficial for us all in the long run.

Secondly, and on a rather more depressing note, is the fact that the whole recycling arena is one of smoke and mirrors. The present packaging waste regulations essentially incentivise companies to watch plastic waste be exported to poorer nations for recycling. Given the UK is fast running out of landfill capacity, it’s no surprise the government is happy to see plastic sent abroad, but we are not fooling anyone if we think recycling facilities in Indonesia, Vietnam or India are more efficient than here. Thousands of miles away, mountains of rubbish are building up – and being burned – so we don’t have to deal with the problem.

Meanwhile, consumers should be similarly concerned about the dutiful recycling they do at home. Separating your rubbish is all very well, but in some London Boroughs a staggering 82% of those recyclables are currently being incinerated rather than reused.

Where do we go from here then? For us, it’s about ensuring that every business partner we work with buys in to our eco vision and is committed to joining us to be carbon neutral by 2030. We’re also among the founding signatories to the Ellen McArthur Foundation’s Plastic Pact, which is working towards a true circular economy for plastic products.

Ultimately, I’d like to see the introduction of a proper kitemark system that consumers can trust when it comes to plastic products made from recycled materials. We’ve seen how demand (from Delphis Eco) pushed manufacturers to try new things, so imagine this pressure multiplied across the country. If we can do it with old milk bottles then what about other types of plastic too? The pendulum of public opinion is swinging, and it’s up to business to meet the challenge.

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How can we achieve net-zero carbon and halt the climate crisis? By working together to drive widescale, meaningful change.

To this end, Delphis CEO Mark Jankovich meets fellow eco-entrepreneurs to swap insights and inspiration. This week, we’re honoured to welcome Laura Harnett, founder of sustainable cleaning retailer, Seep.

 

Mark Jankovich: A big welcome, and thank you for being our second in the series after Toast Ale!

 

Laura Harnett: Toast was actually one of my inspirations, so this was clearly meant to be.

MJ: Excellent. Please start by telling us about your background and the story of Seep.

LH: I was a buyer, a consultant, and then I went into Selfridges as the chief of staff, but my corporate life was at odds with how I was living, the products I was using, alongside being very aware of things going on in the world, and at some point you can't live this kind of separate life. Then I was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer, and that puts a fire in your belly. I’d had the idea for Seep for quite some time and at the beginning of lockdown I decided to finally go for it.

MJ: What is the idea, in a nutshell?

LH: I believe it should be easier for people to make sustainable choices. I was in my local Waitrose and I had my recycled toilet paper and my organic food in the trolley, but then I went down the cleaning aisle – bin liners, sponges, cloths, washing-up brushes, mops, all of that bumpf – and it looked like the 1950s. There wasn't a sustainable product anywhere to be seen. I wanted to put in some innovation, to give people an alternative.

 

MJ: I think you've succeeded in that for sure, Laura. And as you say it should be easier to make better choices. What do you think businesses should be doing to drive this impact at scale?

LH: You have to keep peeling back the layers of what you've got in your supply chain, because it’s not ingrained. The guys doing our packaging and our printing, they don’t automatically think of sustainability unless you ask questions. And if they come back with a crappy answer or say, "oh, it’s biodegradable", that’s not good enough.

MJ: I hear you work with On A Mission. How are they different from the 55 million others doing carbon offsetting?

LH: They are scientists and engineers who work in reforestation. They’re very data-driven, there’s no ego, no flashy branding, just great decision-making and backup for how they choose their projects. If I feel that somebody has the same sort of ethics as me, that goes a long way.

MJ: Did they help you with your LCA, the Life-Cycle Assessment?

LH: Yeah, we’re at the early stages of doing that as part of our B Corp certification. They look at what your products are made of, how they’re made, how you're shipping them, the mileage, and then they give you a carbon footprint based on the way that you're currently sourcing. We offset three times our footprint, but the idea is that you keep the money the same, even though your footprint – hopefully – comes down, so you’re offsetting more and more over time. How have you done it? Any tips?

MJ: For us, scope one and two was easy, the hard piece is scope three. It's auditing our factories at a real deep detail. They are moving in the right direction, but I'm almost at the point of panicking about scope three and how we can draw that baseline. Because you can't say you’re going to race to zero and not know where you started.

LH: Exactly. I mean, it's really great to hear, because that's the stuff I endlessly beat myself up about, you know? How far back can we go? But knowing that even someone like you, Mark, is still worrying about that sort of thing, actually makes me feel better. If I can just chip away at it and understand where I'm at, anything that I can move forwards is a little victory.

MJ: And the whole point of this session is that it’s 100% our responsibility – 100% our responsibility! – and it winds me up that you have massive corporates that are putting their heads in the sand and saying, it’s not me! We are talking about such systemic change and you're not seeing it on a massive scale. The only one is Tesla where, at a binary level, they’ve redesigned the entire infrastructure and that's what we need. We need somebody to blow a billion dollars and be broke and be crying on the floor because he's got cars that nobody wants to buy and be within seconds of shutting down and then… make it! Everybody's now copying him, and governments are going we need to stop combustion engines!

LH: I couldn't agree more, it's the big disruptors that are prepared to challenge their industry. I'm biased, but I think Selfridges has done some really good stuff in that space. They did the ‘No More Fish in The Sea’ campaign years before it was the thing that caught on. It really comes from the top, so Alannah Western, the chairman, and the MD Anne Pitcher, they baked it into the strategy.

MJ: Alannah is a real stand-up leader.

LH: And brave. Because she said, "Look, it's going to impact our bottom line, but I believe so much in this".

MJ: What's so important about case studies and telling stories is we need to tell people that stuff is happening, things are changing, and this is the way you can behave, and they'll follow. If we can keep telling great stories and can collaborate on how we can work together, we will move the needle.

LH: If you can get people to love a brand, and an ethos, and a great looking product, and it also just happens to be sustainable, I'm good with that. A great example is Stella McCartney who, when she became a designer, said, I'm not using any animal products. Another example is Good Club. Are you listed with them?

MJ: Yes.

LH: Okay, so they’ve really thought it through from beginning to end. You get the crate that you can decant when you’re buying it loose, and they’ve made it super easy for the customer. The ethos they have on the buying side, being really clear about what they think is okay and what is not, I think that’s a real challenge to other grocery retailers.

MJ: The more I learn about them, the more I like their passion. What about your journey to getting B Corp certified? How’s that going?

LH: We are very early days, but I wanted to build Seep from the ground up in a way that was right, and I knew that B Corp was kind of a North Star that would guide me in the decision making. What works really well with me is, if I make a public statement about something, by God am I going to make sure that it happens!

MJ: I remember doing my B Corp submission. Oh, my God, that was hard yards! You know, Laura, it's amazing the overlap, because my ethos has also been, we’ve just got to do it, we've got to keep going and we've got to be true to ourselves. We have to think through all of our procurement, we have to make those better choices.

LH: Yeah, and it's tough when you're a new business, because those choices add cost. And you don't have the budget sometimes, so they're not choices that you make lightly. I think that's the hardest thing actually, how do you tread the balance of being as sustainable as you can be without killing your margin along the way?

MJ: I mean, that’s the reality of being an entrepreneur and a disrupter and delivering something completely new. I've got long-suffering shareholders who have been around for three times longer than they'd hoped, but you've just got to keep going and hope that it will come right. Last question. Where did the name come from?

 

LH: My husband's an orthopaedic surgeon and he loves an acronym. He came up with Sustainable Eco Everyday Products or something, and I thought, God, that’s naff! But then I thought, hang on a minute, it spells Seep, it’s got a lovely sound and a graphic designer would get quite excited about it. And it stuck.

MJ: That’s pretty cool. Well, thank you for taking time to talk.

LH: I mean, I have a ton more questions but they're all really practical, like plastic bottles and inks and, you know, no end of it. I’ll have to set up another time to pick your brains!

MJ: That is the point of Collaborate to Zero. I want to share what I know, my suppliers and so on, and get tips from others and kind of help push the whole thing. So, watch this space…

 

      

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