ELEVATOR PITCH

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Social enterprise Global Good is setting out to change consumer and business habits through sustainable solutions which decrease consumer plastic usage. And while its current focus is on straws, this is only the beginning of what the company wants to achieve in terms of sustainability.

Founder Louie Tong, who’s an avid traveller, says the idea was sparked when he was diving in Thailand and saw the amount of plastic in the ocean.

“I got to see firsthand the effect of our consumerist nature,” he says. From this the idea, or as Tong calls it, “the purpose” was ignited. “The goal is to change the habits of Millennials.”

Whilst travelling in China, Tong got to see how wheat was produced. During this, he noticed that a by-product of the wheat production process went to landfill, so he decided to tested whether it could be turned into straws. Following this, Tong came back to New Zealand where he set up his social enterprise, Global Good in September, bootstrapping the whole operation.

“I knew I had the capability, purpose and the will to do it,” he says.

Having finished university with a Masters degree in architecture and spending 18 months working in the industry, Tong realised he had no credibility in the space when approaching businesses without anything to show for it.

He decided to create closed-loop straws as a case study and as a way to raise capital for his bigger vision.

“This is a proof of concept, and showing them what we can do,” Tong says.

When setting out to change the habits of Millennials, Tong quickly learned the depths of the task that he had embarked on, as he himself began to move towards conscious consuming.

During the process of changing his own habits and journeying towards a zero-waste lifestyle, Tong realised

that there are products that people do need even though they may not be sustainable.

Instead of removing the product completely, finding alternatives was a better step towards changing habits. This was the beginning of Global Good SWheat Straws.

“This is a gateway product, instead of removing straws, as some people need them, this is a slow phase out. It’s an alternative product that comes from the earth and will return to the earth. This causes people to ask more. That's the seedling that is planted, and then they will enquire more about sustainability.”

Unlike metal or glass sustainable straws, Swheat straws are repurposed. Like the name says, SWheat straws are created from repurposing the by-product of wheat production. This means that the straws can go in a home compost or garden, be broken up naturally and go back into the earth very quickly.

Recently, Global Good has gone one step further through partnering with Sustainable Coastlines. They act as a contributor, donating $1 per shopper nack towards Sustainable Coastlines. Alongside this, Tong actively goes to beach clean ups and encourages his friend and family to do the same.

In the five months since its conception, Global Good has 10 pilot cafes including Mondays Wholefoods, Crave Cafe and Sumthin Dumplin that uses their straws, while it also has an online store for consumers to go and buy a pack of their own. The consumer packs contain 100 straws and costs $15. Securing the first five cafes was a new experience for Tong, and one that proved to be the most challenging since the birth of Global Good.

“I'm not a salesman. It was challenging because I was beginning to present to the world my ethos and ideals. I was afraid that it wasn't felt universally,” Tony says.

The SWheat straws are just the beginning for Global good. The money made through this product is going towards working on larger more impactful projects, such as reducing overall waste in the construction industry and pushing to eliminate single-use products in everyday lives.

“The vision is to work with existing companies, promoting sustainable practice, and sustainable solutions,” he says. “The name Global Good is to show that it's not about sustainability alone, and it's not trying to be a platform, but instead, it will create awareness around various issues in future, such as mental health and wellbeing.”

Tong’s determination to see a sustainable future come to fruition reflected in business and his drive.

“You can feel the effects of climate change, it wasn't this warm last year,” says Tong. “I’m going to have children one day and I want my children’s children to have a liveable environment.”

This is a gateway product, instead of removing straws, as somepeople need them, this is a slow phase out. It’s an alternativeproduct that comes from the earth and will return to the earth.This causes people to ask more. That's the seedling that is planted,and then they will enquire more about sustainability.