GETTING IT RIGHT

CAN A SHAMPOO BOTTLE HELP CLEAN THE OCEAN? CAN A PHOTOCOPIER PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS? AROUND THE WORLD, COMPANIES LARGE AND SMALL ARE INCREASINGLY WORKING TO ENSURE THEIR PRODUCTS ARE A FORCE FOR GOOD. HERE ARE FOUR BUSINESSES THAT ARE PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY AND ETHICS FRONT AND CENTRE, WRITES

Something haS shifted. Sustainability and social responsibility have evolved from mere buzzwords to business imperatives. Shareholders, consumers and employees are demanding that corporations do more. And being good is good for business. In 2018, a Nielsen study in the United States across three product categories found dollar growth of products with sustainability credentials was more than twice that of conventional products. Also last year, YouGov Omnibus research concluded that 87 per cent of Australians believe businesses have a responsibility to do social good. For companies building and communicating sustainable and ethical practices, the rewards are real. Here, four businesses reveal how they’re approaching this changing world.

Selling made-to-order fashion from its biannual collections makes good business and environmental sense for Good Day Girl.

SEVEN YEARS ago, Alexia Spalding and Sophie Toohey were business competitors. The designers were running small fashion labels – Eclettica and Mr. Rose – in Sydney and watching each other with interest. But any rivalry ended when they met and discovered they had much in common. Their businesses were doing fine but they both found the waste “disgusting”. Every season, they’d have customers coming in to buy pieces that had already sold out and they’d inevitably be left with other products no-one wanted. “So you’d end up having desire you couldn’t satisfy, as well as waste,” says Toohey. When they decided to join forces and launch Good Day Girl in 2013, they were determined that reducing waste would be fundamental – but they had to turn their entire business model on its head. At the time of this interview, Toohey and Spalding were transforming their studio into a salon for customers to view their winter collection, one of only two a year. There’s a single rail of 20 garments – light wool blazers, crisp shirts and what Toohey calls “super-stretchy butt-lifter” pants – by the back wall. In a few days’ time, their clients will come in to see the garments, priced from about $100 to $500 a piece, order what they like and pay a 50 per cent deposit. The Good Day Girl team will then create only what their clients have ordered. About eight weeks later, each client will collect her garments. “We’re trying to create a model that can be used by other businesses,” says Toohey, pointing out that when they launched, their clients were not overly concerned about waste. “But now there’s a massive conversation about it.” “It’s not just about creating a product with minimal waste but also all the resources that go into growing the cotton and shearing the sheep,” adds Spalding. “If we can reduce waste from the consumers’ end, everything else gets reduced.” With the growth of the sustainable fashion movement, the ethos hasn’t been hard to sell. Toohey says their company, a certified B Corporation (an international accreditation that is awarded to ethical businesses), is a “nice, cottage-industry size” but they are keen to expand. “Manufacturing has been our biggest challenge,” she says. Local manufacturers are in strong demand by brands wanting the “Made in Australia” tag or to guarantee fair labour practices. And Good Day Girl’s business model, which requires small runs of multiple sizes only twice a year, can be a headache for many factories. But now that it has reliable makers, the company is expanding to allow online ordering and year-round availability of its signature “Paddington” shirt. Beyond that, it plans to start its own manufacturing workshop, open to other on-demand fashion labels, within the next few years. “The future is on-demand,” says Spalding. “That’s where we want to go.”

“THE ON-DEMAND” FUTURE IS

Global company Procter & Gamble embraces environmental responsibility by waging its own war on plastic waste.

It’s not just startups that are changing the way businesses operate. Vivek Gupta, vice-president and managing director, Australia and New Zealand, at Procter & Gamble (P&G), says sustainability has become a key consideration for the company, which achieved global net sales of US$66.8 billion last financial year. “By 2050, we believe world GDP will quadruple from 2000 levels,” says Gupta. “If that happens, consumption will outweigh natural resources.” P&G products (which include Pantene shampoo and Oral-B dental care) are consumed worldwide and plastic is used extensively in these goods. “Five billion people consume our brands globally. So if not us, who will be responsible for this?” says Gupta. “We have to be.” The company is determined to become a leader in its field in terms of reducing plastic waste. It has set targets to reduce packaging per consumer use by 20 per cent (through more concentrated products and more efficient packaging) and ensure 100 per cent of packaging is recyclable or re-usable by 2030. And it’s on track to meet, if not exceed, those targets. In 2017, in a world first, P&G released Head & Shoulders shampoo in bottles containing beach plastic. This plastic, which finds its way into the ocean where it degrades and can enter the food chain, is a notoriously tricky material to use at scale. The company sold the shampoo at selected stores at a different price point – and learnt from the test. “New technologies [such as recycled plastics] need to be scalable,” says Gupta. “If they’re not, they’ll be more expensive. Consumers are very favourable towards these kinds of innovations but they’re not willing to pay more for them.” The company followed up with a similarly packaged range of Fairy detergents. To address the issue of scaling up solutions, P&G became a co-founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (endplasticwaste.org), which launched in January. Chaired by P&G president and CEO David Taylor, this alliance of dozens of multinationals, including P&G competitor Henkel, has pledged to invest US$1.5 billion over the next five years to reduce plastic waste globally. It will work on developing recycling systems in communities where there are none and invest in technology and infrastructure that sees waste being re-used in a circular economy instead of becoming landfill or pollutants. “It will take more players to come together to build the infrastructure,” says Gupta. “Then it will really work.”

“IF RESPONSIBLE?” NOT US, WHO WILL BE

Lendlease’s commitment to water recycling, waste reduction and green building practices boosts its market appeal.

In hIs office in the Barangaroo precinct on Sydney Harbour, Seamus McCartney, head of urban strategy and place development at Lendlease, is breathing easy. There are 75,000 plants in Barangaroo Reserve and 1800 square metres of “green roof” at Barangaroo South. “We’re surrounded by plants.” He laughs. “There’s too much oxygen in this room right now!” The precinct is something of a business card for the Australian developer, which has taken on infrastructure and building projects around the world. In addition to the greenery, Lendlease’s Barangaroo South development is on track to be carbon neutral and water positive – its water capturing and recycling system makes it capable of producing more clean water than it uses. The complex also has an eco concierge, whose job is to liaise with tenants to ensure minimal waste. Such innovations are a huge draw, says McCartney. “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who come through Barangaroo to look at the water recycling system and how we deal with waste.” In a centralised facility in the precinct’s basement, the aim is to divert 80 per cent of waste from landfill. Tenants must sort their rubbish in up to 20 different waste streams before it is processed for re-use or recycling. Each month, about 50 tonnes of food waste from the site is processed into fertiliser or green energy at an offsite facility. Discarded furniture is donated to charities in the city. The objective? To eventually send net zero waste to landfill. McCartney says Lendlease uses its environmental credentials and innovation “as part of our sell for why you’d want your project to be delivered by us”. In 2017, Lendlease was the first company in Australia to achieve a 6 Star Green Star – Performance rating across its entire portfolio of assets. As part of its sustainability strategy, the company has set a target to reduce the intensity of water, energy and waste to landfill of all its operations by 20 per cent (from 2014 levels) by 2020. It also designs to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the emissions of all its developments’ buildings against minimum green building standards. Its assets have considerably lower emissions profiles compared with traditional buildings. “We see it as a differentiator,” says McCartney. To achieve its targets, which include Indigenous community engagement and reconciliation, the company has strict reporting in place. “The reporting we do is similar to our financial reporting – and so it should be,” says McCartney. “We don’t always get it 100 per cent right but that’s how you learn.”

“WE DIFFERENTIATOR” SEE IT AS A