MindfulCommerce

Thank you for joining us today for our Expert Training with the Wonderful Anne Thomas from Design Packs. Anne is a longtime supporter of MindfulCommerce so we're delighted to share the floor with a beloved member of our community. Join the MindfulCommerce Community for free here: https://mindfulcommerce.io/join-the-communityVisit Design Packs website here - https://design-packs.comSome of our examples of great design - https://eu.patagonia.com/ and https://www.allbirds.com/Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for joining us today for our Expert Training with the fabulous Jeanne from Spark and Bloom. Jeanne is near and dear to us as a person, but also as a professional. We love to support her because she does more than talk the talk, among other things. She's part of 1% for the planet. And she offsets the carbon footprint of her business, which is Spark and Bloom, a design studio that specialises in helping ethical entrepreneurs, make sure their impact is seen. Through careful strategy and market research Spark and Bloom designs beautiful brand identities, which fit business goals with and resonates with the right people. Jeanne will talks about what branding is and why it's important to make sure we're on the same page and we're talking about the same thing, what specifically is an ethical brand and why you should be one. And finally, Jeanne shares with us a lot of actionable tips and ideas.Join the MindfulCommerce Community for free here: https://mindfulcommerce.io/join-the-communityVisit Spark and Bloom's Expert Directory listing here: https://mindfulcommerce.io/directory/spark-and-bloom/Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Series 4, Ep #3In this episode, we'll be learning about how your ecommerce brand can stand out and profit with mindful marketing. The perfect harmony! Delivered to us by Aleana Bargaoui from Brands Are Alive! Join the MindfulCommerce Community for free here: https://mindfulcommerce.io/join-the-communityVisit Spark and Bloom's Expert Directory listing here: https://mindfulcommerce.io/directory/brands-are-aliveEnjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Series 4: Ep 2 - ShownotesSuper excited to publish the second Expert Training to the MindfulCommerce Podcast! Monica Sharma-Patnekar delivered this fantastic training to the MindfulCommerce Community - if you'd like to see the video, join the community for free and you'll find it in the Expert Training Library. In this session, we learn about ways to build an ecommerce brand that's both conscious and irresistible – the best of all worlds! This episode helps creative & conscious product ecommerce businesses to build a brand that inspires their audience to take ACTION. By nailing your positioning, bringing your customers back & consistently showing up, tracking & testing.Monica talks to us about:The 3 phases of the Scale your Store roadmapWhat an irresistible conscious eCommerce brand is and why it’s importantThe 4 building blocks of an irresistible conscious eCommerce brandResourcesFREE resource: discover your customers needs, wants & desires with the 4 types of questions to ask your customer, and build a brand that inspires your audience to action! Where can you find Monica?Find Monica's business profile on the MindfulCommerce Expert Directory here.Instagram: @businesswithmonicaNot yet a member of our community? Join for free here - https://mindfulcommerce.io/join-the-community Want to feature on the podcast? All info on how to do so can be found here -https://mindfulcommerce.io/support-packages Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Series 4: Ep 1 - ShownotesWe are so excited to introduce a BRAND NEW SERIES for the MindfulCommerce Podcast 🎉 This series (series 4), will allow people outside of the MindfulCommerce Community to learn from some of the knowledge, skills and expertise brought to you by our ecommerce and sustainability experts who contribute to our Expert Training Library inside the community platform. This episode is the first of many in this series and is brought to you by our Co-Founder Krissie. Krissie is not a co-founder of MindfulCommerce, she is also the founder of Kollectify - a content marketing agency for ecommerce tech and agencies. In this episode, Krissie shares her expertise on how to Harness the Power of Technology to Build & Scale an Ecommerce Business With Mindful Foundations. 🌱 Krissie discusses various ways we can build and scale our online businesses to not only "leave no trace" on the environment, but to have a regenerative business which helps our environment to thrive. Krissie will run through the 6 sustainability pillars in The MindfulCommerce Sustainability Framework which guides ecommerce businesses to reduce their environmental footprint through tech. You'll walk away feeling good - armed with new ideas for how to have a more mindful business and inspire others to do the same. Not yet a member of our community? Join for free here - https://mindfulcommerce.circle.so/home Want to feature on the podcast? All info on how to do so can be found here -https://mindfulcommerce.io/support-packagesLinks mentioned in podcast:The MindfulCommerce Sustainability Framework & Guide Mindful BusinessMud Jeans lease programRecurateFairPhone Mindful SourcingSupplyCompassPukka Herbs and their regenerative projects with farmersWave RangersMindful Products WaterHaulSunglasses Re-task the Mask campaign and their litter pickers Mindful Deliveries Bezos (Last Green Mile) ShipBob (Carbon Neutral fulfilment) Podcast episode with ShipBobPackhelpMindful CommunicationsCommunications support - contact Krissie - krissie@mindfulcommerce.ioOur servicesIan Snow’s detailed product description exampleForthGladeHeylow.worldMindful FootprintAllbirdsBAM clothingGreenStoryC FreeOur Challenge and top tips Organic BasicsBeaconWebsite carbon KrystalGreenGeeks Our contact details info@mindfulcommerce.ioOr DM me directly inside community Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find One Circular World:Shipbob - WebsiteWhere to find Casey Armstrong:Casey Armstrong - Email: carmstrong@shipbob.com Links Mentioned in Episode:PachamanoissueShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00  Hello, and welcome to the MindfulCommerce Podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands and service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. I'm KrissieRich Bunker  0:11  I'm Rich, and we're your hosts. This podcast is an extension of the MindfulCommerce Community. Krissie Leyland  0:18  The MindfulCommerce Community is a safe place for ecommerce brands and experts to connect, collaborate and explore opportunities to work together to unleash the power of ecommerce as a force for good.Rich Bunker  0:30  You can join by going to mindfulcommerce.io, and clicking "community". See you there. Krissie Leyland  0:35  Hello, everyone. Today, we'll be speaking to Casey, who is the CMO of Shipbob. We will be discussing when if ever is the right time to outsource warehousing and fulfillment for your ecommerce brand. So welcome Casey, it's really great to have you on here. I've wanted to for ages because you are one of our very first community supporters. So thank you so much for that. Would you like to just introduce yourself and tell me a bit about shipbob? And why Shipbob exists? Casey Armstrong  1:09  Yes. Well, thank you very much for having me. You know, we're very happy to be part of the MindfulCommerce Community. We take the carbon neutrality and everything very seriously over here at Shipbob, which I know we're gonna dive into. We are a global fulfillment platform. We serve and are partnered with over 5000 brands. We ship millions of items every single month. We actually are up to almost 25 fulfillment centers, including one in the UK, one in Canada, one in Ireland, one in Australia, which we just announced last week, and about 20 in the US. So, I'm very happy to be here.Krissie Leyland  1:51  Wow, that's amazing. That's a lot. I was actually gonna ask you how many fulfillment centers you have but you just answered that question. It's great that you've got one in the UK. So in your opinion, when is the right time for brands to outsource their warehousing and fulfillment to companies such as Shipbob?Casey Armstrong  2:13  There's no hard answer where it's like, "once you're doing 100 orders a month." I think it's when you start seeing that the time it takes you to fulfill,and ship items starts to impact the time that you have to focus on sales, marketing, community development & product development, because that's what's actually going to drive your business. I know a lot of entrepreneurs are kind of hesitant to like hand things over. Unless logistics and operations is your differentiator from your competition... I think it behooves a lot of founders to hand that off sooner than not so they can focus on the right things, logistics, and fulfillments, very time intensive, which is often your most valuable asset. If you're staying up till eight o'clock at night, midnight, 2am, during peak season to pick and pack boxes, it's probably not the best use of your time. Krissie Leyland  3:18  There are brands doing that. Casey Armstrong  3:20  Oh, we hear that all the time. It's honestly the catalyst for [almost all of our customers] to reach out to and start working with us rather quickly. They start seeing the time that they're spending on it. Sometimes, even worse is subconsciously, they're purposely thwarting their own growth: "I want to double my sales. I want to double my business but that means I'm gonna have to ship twice as many items. I don't want to stay up for an extra two hours or four hours every single day to pick and pack boxes." Then if you're gonna start hiring people, why wouldn't you hire more people maybe for marketing or product development, or somebody to help on the entire supply chain versus just packing boxes? So it's something that we hear rather often.Krissie Leyland  4:14  Yeah. I mean, that's definitely not why they would have started their business. The first thing that came to my head then was like thinking of when they reach that specific moment, they might also be thinking about internationalization. So do you help brands with going global, because you have these big fulfillment centers around the world and what does that look like?Casey Armstrong  4:41  We don't handle the freight, per se, but we have partners that can help with that (with duties, taxes and everything like that). We can also ship globally, just from the United States. Something that we do with the majority of our customers, is we do what's called a "time in transit analysis". We'll help you understand what is the best and most effective way to distribute your inventory, whether that be just in the United States or whether that be globally. It's all based off of your historical data on where your customers are purchasing from. We definitely help with that. Then within Shipbob as well, there's our analytics reporting tool which updates in real time. There you can start toggling on and off different fulfillment centers to start seeing what type of cost and time saving you'd actually have by you know, let's say distributing some of your inventory overseas.Krissie Leyland  5:32  I'm also thinking of, if they do see... for example, if they're in the US, but a lot of their customers are in Europe. It might make sense to have a fulfillment center in Europe. It might be about cost, but if you're shipping at a less of a distance, then it's probably better in terms of your emissions and your carbon footprint.Casey Armstrong  6:02  Yes, it's much better for the environment. Then also, sometimes there's marketing arbitrage opportunities overseas, where maybe that type of product, or just in general, some of the customer acquisition costs might be lower. You might say, "Well, I don't have a lot of sales in this region" but maybe that's because you're focusing all of your paid efforts in the United States, but there could be opportunities in the UK, across Europe, or somewhere like Australia. So obviously, once your inventory is there, there's less impact on the environment. It's also faster and more inexpensive. Sometimes you can even test it by marketing in those regions, before you start to distribute inventory. Just to see what type of opportunities are there, both from a demand side, but also the costs. Krissie Leyland  6:51  Definitely. On the subject of cost... it might be a good question to ask: On average, how much are brands spending with Shipbob in terms of just handing over their fulfillment to you?Casey Armstrong  7:09  There isn't a hard dollar number or pound, but what I'll give is a percentage. At Shipbob, we do the receiving, we store your inventory and then we do all of the fulfillment. So, the pick pack, the packaging & the actual shipping label. What we typically see is that it often ranges between about 8-15% of your of your total sales goes towards again, all things included within fulfillment, including the shipping label. Krissie Leyland  7:47  Awesome. That's not that's not too bad. I was expecting more to be honest. Casey Armstrong  7:51  It can go up at times. Again, it depends on how efficient brands are with their inventory: both the amount that they that they order & keep on hand, how quickly they can replenish it, and also how quickly they can sell it. I'd say typically, it's in that range.Krissie Leyland  8:12  Do you help with knowing how much stock to bring in? So for example, you know, if they've run out of something... you mentioned that analytics part. Do you help with brands knowing "Oh, I need to order this much of this product"?Casey Armstrong  8:30  Definitely. Yes, we do. You can start creating notification rules within Shipbob when you're getting low on certain inventory. We're going to continue to invest heavily there to help our customers be smarter through technology. We also have some partners that help with inventory tracking, inventory, planning, order replenishment, and pushing that back up to their manufacturers as well.Krissie Leyland  9:01  That's really good. I can see that saving a lot of time and money as well. You know, knowing where to spend your budget, and what what's selling more than other products, etc. That's cool. Let's get on to the exciting bit. So how did you become carbon neutral?Casey Armstrong  9:22  This was something that we'd been talking about internally for a while. As we thought about it as a company, businesses and businesses like Shipbob need to lead, not just follow. We were actually talking about this with some of our partners a couple weeks ago where consumers are pulling and governments at times will push but the businesses have a responsibility to be ahead of the curve, and do what's right long term. So we need to put our money where our mouth is and lead by example. We can't solely look to, let's say, policymakers or some macro level decisions to force us to do what we actually should be doing. And as we get bigger, there's an additional responsibility for us as well. A couple years ago, we were obviously much smaller. We only had locations in the United States but we've become this global platform. We work with 1000s of brands, soon to be 10s of 1000s of brands, so we need to lead by example. What's important there is that similarly sized companies or smaller companies, and maybe sometimes even larger companies, will hopefully, see what companies like us are doing and then proceed accordingly as well. It's something that we were really excited about and we felt it was our responsibility as somebody who's a global player in the space, and especially such a fast growing space like ecommerce. It was very well received internally, o

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find One Circular World:One Circular World - WebsiteWhere to find Claire Potter:Claire Potter - Email: claire@clairepotterdesign.com Where to find Recurate:Recurate Where to find Adam Siegel:Adam Siegel - Email: adam@recurate.com Links Mentioned in Episode:University of Sussex - Product DesignGlobal Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI)Surfers Against SewagePatagoniaPatagonia - "Don't Buy This Jacket" AdLoopFairphoneMud JeansRent The RunwayCradle to Cradle - bookEllen MacArthur FoundationLimeLoopPeak DesignLa LigneRe-Ligne - La Ligne's Resale MarketplaceBrass ClothingJackaloTotem Brand CoLululemon Resale LaunchShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00  Hello, and welcome to The MindfulCommerce Podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands and service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. I'm Krissie!Rich Bunker  0:11  I'm Rich, and we're your hosts. This podcast is an extension of the MindfulCommerce Community. Krissie Leyland  0:18  The MindfulCommerce Community is a safe place for ecommerce brands and experts to connect, collaborate and explore opportunities to work together to unleash the power of ecommerce as a force for good. Rich Bunker  0:30  You can join by going to mindfulcommerce.io and clicking "Community". See you there!Krissie Leyland  0:35  Hello, this is the second episode of our series where we upload our special panel events with our ecommerce and sustainability experts. This event is all about the circular economy: why ecommerce brands should get involved and how can they go about it in the easiest and most efficient way possible with our incredible guest speakers Claire from One Circular World and Adam from Recurate. Claire is from One Circular World, which is an educational resource exploring the circular economy – not just for business managers, politicians or policymakers, but for all of us, including those in the ecommerce world. And Adam is from Recurate. Recurate enables a beautifully integrated resale marketplace directly on ecommerce stores. So this means you can very easily integrate a secondhand store directly on your website, which is great for your brand and great for the planet. If you're a regular listener, follow us on social media or have gone through our incredible Sustainability Framework, you'll know that I talk about Recurate a lot, so this was a long time coming. So thank you, Adam and thank you Claire, so so much for taking the time to deliver your knowledge to us. Thank you to those who attended the event live and thank you lovely listeners for being here with us on the podcast. So if you enjoy this event, you'll love being in our community. We are introducing live training events in our community group, so it's a great time to get involved if you want to learn about growing your ecommerce business in the most sustainable and positively impactful way. You can join the community for free by going to mindfulcommerce.io and clicking on "Community". I'll also link to the direct link to join on the show notes. Okay, let's get right into it and let's go over to the event. Enjoy.Claire Potter  2:50  Good afternoon, everybody. Hi! Thank you so much for having me. We're gonna be talking about circular economy, and what can basically people do with it, particularly from a commerce perspective. Firstly, I'm going to give you a quick, quick introduction to me. So like many of us, I wear many different hats. I run a design studio, I identify as a designer, I trained as an interior architect, and I specialized in eco sustainable ways of working that eventually became a circular economy way of thinking. That was founded in 2008. Also I'm a lecturer at the University of Sussex, and I'm the head of the product design course at University of Sussex. Mostly because of my interference, I suppose we've become quite a sort of a hub for circular economy learning with regards to products, and how it can become an integral part of the educational process because our product designers are making all the stuff that we have in the world. So that's another day job. As far as volunteer stuff, I'm actually the working group coordinator for the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, which is a bit of a mouthful, but basically this is end of life fishing nets, stuff that's been abandoned, lost or discarded. And this is a global thing. So we've got members of the GGGI that are really little organizations like me and my design studio, all the way through to governments. So it's really far reaching and an amazing set of people doing incredible stuff globally. On a more load local scale... I'm based usually down in Brighton, in Lincolnshire. I'm actually based down in Brighton & Hove and I'm one of the regional reps for Surfers Against Sewage, which again is a volunteer role and I'm the plastics person. As I say: disclaimer, I don't surf but I can snowboard and I know nothing about poo, but I know a lot about plastic. So that's basically the stuff that I do for Surfers Against Sewage: leading beach cleans, educating people about plastic, in particular marine plastic, and that's been my specialist nerd niche, as I call it for the last year 12 years. Then everything sort of came together with One Circular World, which is the hats that I'm wearing today and I'm going to talk to you a little about that in a second. But how does all of that knit together: it all knits together because of design – because everything we have in the world is designed from our systems to our stuff. The way that we behave has been designed and influenced in multitude of different ways. A lot of that can be influenced in a good way, I think through behavior change, circular economy thinking, and the value of the products and the materials we have in our lives, regardless of whether there's something that is relatively short term or something that lasts for a very, very long time. So basically, I deal with people and I deal with stuff. That is the sort of the top line of everything I do. I know a lot of you have probably joined this and know a lot about the circular economy but just in case you're not too sure about the terminology, this is the kind of way I explain it to most people: It's basically how the natural world works. So if you think about it, you can have a leaf, that leaf will get eaten by Caterpillar, the caterpillar gets eaten by the bird, the birds sadly dies, that bird falls to the floor, it composts, and then it ends up nourishing the earth itself and allowing a tree to grow more leaves, which can then be eaten by more caterpillars. So you can see here that even though I've put this in a line, it's a system that works in a circle, or a loop in a way, because it's a little bit more complex than that. So whatever is at the end will eventually go back to the beginning. But we don't work in that way. We're the only species on the planet that creates any kind of waste, which is quite staggering. So we work in this linear way: we dig things up, we make something, we sell, we buy things and then it gets to the end of its life, regardless of how long that life is. It mostly ends up in landfill, or ends up in incineration. Sometimes it gets recycled, but it works in a linear way. Not all of our systems work in that cyclical way, just like nature does. So if in doubt, when you're thinking about the circular economy, because it can be pretty complicated, we're going to dial into a few bits of that in a second, think about how nature works. Does nature do this? If it doesn't, then it probably isn't part of a circular system. So another way of calling it is "cradle at the beginning to the grave at the end": it's a linear lifeline. Now I have a bit of an issue with the word sustainable but it is genuinely the word that most people associate with green living, eco living & sustainable living. But if we think about that linear model we just looked at, in the truest sense, that isn't a sustainable way of working. Because we have finite resources & we have finite amount of carbon we can put up in the atmosphere. We're really reaching the limits. So to sustain that way of working into the future, it's going to be hard, if not impossible. This is why I tend to try to not use the word sustainable when I'm teaching because I really need to tell the students, "they need to shake up the system a bit and make the system better."So a lot of people go, "Amazing. Well, that's the reduce, reuse, recycle, isn't it? We've been doing that for a long time." Well, not quite, because we've got the linear economy, the cradle to the grave, stuff gets made stuff goes to the bin/ Then we have the recycling economy, which is better, you can see the bin I've drawn is a lot smaller. But it means that things might take a little bit longer, but invariably, they get to not being a greater quality, or they get broken, and variably they just end up in the bin anyway. But the idea with a circular economy is that we don't have a bin at all. Everything goes round in a circle, or loop. It isn't as neat and tidy as this but it goes round and round and round, sometimes in the same form, ie a plastic bottle to a plastic bottle, sometimes in different forms like a fishing net, all the way through to a carpet tile, for example. But it gets transformed in different ways or it's the same thing again, it goes round and around. And it is a lot more complicated than just making stuff. We have what we call a hierarchy of actions and this is a really important thing to think about when you are understanding how to engage in a circular economy either as an individual or as a brand. So we have the reduce, reuse, recycle in this spectrum here and you can see the biggest one we have is reduce. We need to reduce a lot of things that were buying, using and consuming so qui

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Packhelp:Packhelp - WebsiteWhere to find Zuzanna Mazurek:Zuzanna Mazurek - Email: zuzanna.mazurek@packhelp.comWhere to find Byrd:Byrd - WebsiteWhere to find Sinem Yazici:Sinem Yazici - Email: sinem.yazici@getbyrd.com Links Mentioned in Episode:PlanetlyIndie Do GoodDHL - Go Green SolutionsDPD - Sustainability at DPDGroupGLS - KlimaProtectBezosLuminia TandemGoodCartsShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00  Hello, and welcome to the MindfulCommerce Podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands and service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. I'm Krissie. Rich Bunker  0:11  And I'm Rich, and we're your hosts. This podcast is an extension of the MindfulCommerce Community.Krissie Leyland  0:18  The MindfulCommerce Community is a safe place for ecommerce brands and experts to connect, collaborate and explore opportunities to work together to unleash the power of ecommerce as a force for good.Rich Bunker  0:30  You can join by going to mindfulcommerce.io and clicking 'Community'. See you there!Krissie Leyland  0:37  Hello, and welcome to another episode of The MindfulCommerce Podcast. So today, you'll be hearing a replay of a special panel event that we did in April. This event was all about sustainable packaging and shipping. The reason why we chose this subject is because as always, we polled the MindfulCommerce community. The biggest topic or challenge that they had on their mind at that time, was how to package and ship their products in the most environmentally friendly way. So we thought, "right, we're gonna get some experts to talk about this so that our community members can learn and ask questions." And and that's exactly what we did! So we speak to two experts. First, we speak to Zuzanna from Packhelp, and they provide custom designed packaging solutions for ecommerce brands. Then, we speak to Sinem from Byrd. Byrd is an ecommerce fulfillment company. So that's the perfect blend, we thought! So if you have any questions after listening to this event podcast, please feel free to find Zuzanna and Sinem's contact details in the show notes or join the MindfulCommerce Community to carry on the conversation. We will also be adding a handy guide on this subject to the MindfulCommerce Education Hub. So be sure to check that out for more tips. I'll link it to the show notes, of course. So thank you very much and enjoy!Zuzanna Mazurek  2:21  My name is Zuzanna Mazurek and I'm going to briefly tell you what I do at the Packhelp. So at Packhelp, we have this creator where you can design & personalize your own packaging and that's my responsibility. We also have this feature for eco friendly, eco minded people. You can add any kind of icon or symbol related to sustainability and also you can plant trees with us. So that's pretty cool.Just a few things about my agenda: So I'm going to talk about making your packaging sustainable, about eco properties... so what's really important, and the third point: are inspirations. I'm going to skip this part where I explain why sustainability is such an important topic. I know that since you voted for this topic, then you must know that already. I'm just going to give you very quickly, a short statistic that I read in many different reports: that almost half of the population worldwide pays attention to information about packaging, if it's sustainable or not. They're looking for some information. So that's why I think it's very important to have sustainable packaging, and also to share the message that you have sustainable packaging. So first point: how to make your packaging sustainable. You can follow two different paths. The first path is that you use something that is already on the market, available. Both ways have advantages and disadvantages. But this one, is very convenient in a way that you can check some kind of reviews online on this package. You can actually read the opinions from end customers how they liked the packaging, if it's strong or durable, these kind of things. But also there is another path you can follow: So it's ordering something custom made for you. Well, I think this path is very exciting because you can invent something totally new. But on the other hand, it's riskier, because you have to put effort & invest money. The result, you can't really predict. Also you have to bear in mind that regulations regarding disposal are changing. So that's why I think it's riskier, but also, when you follow the second path and you get something custom made for you, then it's also connected to some kind of publicity. So a lot of different newspapers can write about you & your packaging can go viral. So I think that's, that's pretty cool. So both ways, very attractive. You just have to choose something for you.Then, there are several strategies how to achieve sustainability in packaging. But the very important point is that sustainability is not just one moment. It's the whole supply chain. So you have to think about sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, use an end of life. So the whole life cycle. That's why there is a term we call "life cycle analysis". So you analyze the sustainability in the whole supply chain. It's basically your responsibility, it's up to you how your packaging is going to end up: if it's going to be disposed properly, or if it's going to be recycled and used again. You as a business or business owner, you have to decide about that. This circle you see on my slide shows this kind of circular strategy to packaging. However, you can use different strategies. For example: use fewer materials. That's a bit easier, because circular economy is still something we are working on but still, there is much to be done in this field. But using fewer materials, it could be actually a solution for you. Another strategy is sourcing alternative materials. So, search for something that is not made of petroleum. Another way is finding multiple uses for your packaging, you can also improve practices in the whole supply chain so as I said, delivery & storage. The last point, I think that's something pretty cool: once you follow this sustainable path, you can share your eco friendly approach with your customers.So now going to my second point. I'm going to tell you about free eco properties that I personally think that are important. The first is certified wood. This is a certification that shows that your packaging, if it's made of paper, or cardboard, that the pulp comes from responsibly managed forests and meals. There are actually three types of these certifications. So it could be 100%, meaning that it totally comes from this well managed forest. If it's a mix, then obviously it's a mix. And recycled means that it's recycled, but that it still comes from these well managed forests. So this kind of certification, I think it's really important and it's also worldwide known. So I am pretty sure everyone has seen it somewhere on some of packaging. The certification is just a simple sign that this cardboard or paper comes from well managed forests. So that's important. Also, another one plastic free, as you know, plastic is something that really, first of all, has bad publicity. Second of all, you know, it contributes to marine waste. That's a huge topic and nowadays. You can avoid petroleum based plastics, either by using cardboard, or you can actually go for some plastics that are not based on petroleum, for example those that are made of starch. So here, you will usually see these two terms that something is compostable or biodegradable. And you have to bear in mind that those things are two different things. So a lot of customers they actually think that if they put in their your garbage, something that is compostable, it will compost in their garbage and it's not true. Usually, it has to land in some kind of industrial facility for composting. For volume reduction, that's something that is probably quite easy. It doesn't require a lot of money and it's simple. You just have to use something that is lighter, smaller than your usual packaging. I had this conversation with my friend at work yesterday, actually, that sometimes you just receive a tiny, tiny product, but it's packed in this huge cardboard box. And you think, "Oh, my God, somebody who just shipped me, across the whole country, for example, a box of air!" and that doesn't make sense, because it always takes your money, and also CO2 to ship something is empty. So that's why I think it's something that can be easily made and it will lower definitely our co2 emissions. If I may give you just one hint: it's to do your own research. It's very important to find what is important to you, what are your values, and what kind of properties you want to follow. Also, if you're selling something globally, not only in one country, you have to know that the rules are regional, so the disposal rules are different in every country. For the inspirations, I have two examples. One is kind of an innovation. The second thing are two different packages that were actually our products from Packhelp, and you can see them later. So for the innovation, I have this mycelium. I don't know if you have ever heard of that. That's an innovative material and so there is still much to do about this material. It's not very popular nowadays yet but it's organic. So it doesn't contribute to marine waste. It's a massive reduction of carbon emissions and you don't need a lot of energy to produce it. And the funny thing is that this material is made of mushrooms. In order to produce it, you have to grow mushroom in this special form, it takes five days. So I mean, it depends on the mushroom, definitely, but you need at least five days. It grows in this form, then you have to kill the mushroom, you take the fo

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Scott Goodman:Scott Goodman - Email: scott.goodman@okendo.ioWhere to find Rachel Tyers:Rachel Tyers - Email: rachel.tyers@okendo.ioWhere to find Okendo:Okendo - WebsiteOkendo - MindfulCommerce directory listing Where to find Lucy Roberts:Lucy Roberts - Email: lucy@bravetheskies.comWhere to find Brave the Skies:Brave the Skies - WebsiteWhere to find Reverie the Boutique:Reverie - WebsiteReverie - InstagramLinks Mentioned in Episode:Urth (formerly Gobe)Activated EcoFinisterreWAGWanderer BraceletsFoursixtySpellRixoLSKD (Loose Kid)KlaviyoHerbivoreGorgias - Shopify AppFashion Impact - Shopify AppShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00  Hello, and welcome to The MindfulCommerce Podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands and service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. I'm Krissie. Rich Bunker  0:11  And I'm Rich, and we're your hosts. This podcast is an extension of the MindfulCommerce Community.Krissie Leyland  0:18  The MindfulCommerce Community is a safe place for ecommerce brands and experts to connect, collaborate and explore opportunities to work together to unleash the power of ecommerce as a force for good.Rich Bunker  0:30  You can join by going to mindfulcommerce.io and by clicking 'Community'. See you there!Krissie Leyland  0:36  Hello, and welcome to a brand new series of The MindfulCommerce Podcast! So this is going to be slightly different. We are re-uploading or uploading events that we have done in the community. And today, this is an event we did in January-so the beginning of this year: 2021-with Okendo, which is a customer review app for Shopify stores, and Brave the Skies & Reverie The Boutique. So we spoke to Scott, just to get a little intro into what how Okendo came about. And if you would like to hear more information about Reverie The Boutique, Lucy's brand and Brave the Skies, which is a Shopify Plus agency that she is MD for, then you can head to episode number four. There, we talk about the intersection between ecommerce and sustainability. Anyway, let's get to the event then. So this is all about how online stores can create better connections with their customers. We talk about user generated content, influencer marketing, reviews, obviously with Okendo and email marketing as well and how you can combine all of those together to create the perfect strategy to connect with your customers on another level. In particular, we talk about this from a perspective of a small brand with not such a big budget. So hopefully, this will really help you to create your new strategy for the year going forward. Yeah, so we hope you enjoy. If you like it, please subscribe. Join the community so that you can be aware of these events and join them as they are actually happening live and you can ask your own questions! So let's now go and speak to Scott:Scott Goodman  2:43  Hey, guys, so I'm Scott, I'm Okendo's, APAC and EU/UK market lead. I've been tasked to kind of give you some background into Okendo's fruition. What's our story? How did we come about? So Okendo is a Sydney-founded tech startup. The idea or concept that started the journey was actually to do video reviews. Now obviously, we have evolved a lot since that concept. But at that time, text reviews was the standard, there was nothing else. So we saw an avenue to do video reviews. And now you know, we're in 2021 and we do text, we do video, we do photos, we do q&a and we integrate with a wealth of different Shopify partner partners out there, cross loyalty, email, subscription, those types of things.So we now services over 3000 customers for Shopify plus partner. And we have some of the world's biggest brands on our on our platform, so it's a super exciting time. We, strength to strength, growth to growth, milestone to milestone: everything changes every day. But with all these positive changes, we do need to be wary of the effect that we're having on the earth. So we need to support sustainable culture, support sustainable brands and we are definitely seeing a very, very positive trend of this with merchants using Okendo. We have some amazing brands who very much pioneered this and we're very happy to support them.So I've been tasked to kind of speak to two different tips on how sustainable brands can use Okendo and facilitate that review capture. So the first one is actually a fantastic initiative, which a brand called Urth (formerly Gobe) is Australian camera gear manufacturer. What they do is: they run loyalty line. Basically, with every review that they capture, you get loyalty points. And then what they were doing is they would assign X amount of loyalty points equals planting three trees. So for every review that we were getting, my goal was was giving back to the community, giving back to the earth and planting trees. I I think that is absolutely fantastic. You know, it doesn't pigeonhole you to just doing trees. It can be given back to charities, it can be whatever you'd like, but that's a super easy way to give back and a super easy way for all your customers to be involved. I think that's fantastic.The second idea, which I see brands doing, and the one that I want to speak about is quite Activated Eco, another Australian brand. Kudos to them down in Victoria. But basically, their pioneering product is stainless steel pegs. Super simple, but game changing. No longer are they breaking plastic pegs... The sun damage, having to repurchase them every six months. You buy once, you have them for the rest of your life. So what they're doing is they're collecting that content of photos of just clothes hanging up, but it's people's everyday experiences. And they're using that for retargeting ads across social media organic posts. And it's showcasing their five star experience with some personal UGC content. And that's going a long, long way, in showcasing the use case scenario for that product. It's a no brainer, right? But also showcasing real experiences with that product. So it's doing incredibly well for them. We're big supporters of both those brands and we do have many more brands doing different things out there like that. Thanks!Krissie Leyland  6:24  Thank you so much, Scott. That was great, really interesting to hear how sustainable brands are using Okendo to their advantage and also for the planet. So thank you so much. Okay, now we are going to go straight into the event.Welcome, everybody and thank you very much for coming. I'm Krissie and I am one of the two cofounders from MindfulCommerce. Rich couldn't attend but he said hi. MindfulCommerce is a community of ecommerce brands, service providers and developers who share a common goal. And that goal is to make ecommerce more sustainable and positively impactful. So we have a Facebook group, a Slack channel and an expert directory. And some of you are already in the community and it's great to see you! Kat is our marketing whiz and she's going to be co hosting with me today. This event is casual, relaxed and collaborative. It's a nice conversation between nice people. If you want to unmute then unmute, and say whatever within reason and there will be some time for q&a at the end. Over to you Kat. Cat Hunter  7:35  Okay, thank you so much Krissie. So, as she said, I'm Cat! I help out with marketing some stuff for MindfulCommerce something I'm super happy to be involved with. I'm absolutely loving everything that I'm seeing in the community at the moment and how it's growing, especially kind of in the in the wake of the crazy year that was 2020. There's been like a huge growth in interest in this. So it's been really lovely to see the community kind of really growing legs and taking off. Just to give you a little bit about my background, I'm actually ex Shopify, so I worked on the partner programme at Shopify for three years, and ran lots of their events for them. I got super into the world of ecommerce and then eventually decided to go freelance as a copywriter and content creator, but I'm still very much working within the realms of ecommerce and SaaS. So that's my bag, but obviously really interested in sustainability and making the industry as green as possible too.So without further ado, we will introduce our amazing panellists. Today, we're super duper happy to have them join us for this event. So first of all, we'll say hello to Lucy. So Lucy is not only the MD of a Shopify Plus agency called Brave the Skies, who are on a mission to create, launch and grow online stores with their expert crew of very skilled designers, marketers and developers, but she's also the founder of an online boutique called Reverie, which is a really luxurious, sustainable vegan brand. We really recommend checking them out if you haven't already. Krissie is repping some of the jewellery today, very subtly. So she really knows her stuff when it comes to creating these customer connections and ecommerce and most importantly within the sustainable ecommerce space.Also joining us today we have Rachel from Okendo. Hi Rachel! Rachel is VP of partnerships at Okendo. And we're incredibly grateful that she's joined us because it's very early in the morning, where she is. Okendo, as you all know, is a customer view app for Shopify stores but it's more than just a customer review app to us that MindfulCommerce. We think they have like a sort of secret superpower for sustainability and fighting climate change. Because Okendo not only creates great customer connections through reviews and some fantastic integrations which Rachel will talk about, they also help tackle one of the biggest issues in ecommerce when it comes to carbon emissions, which is returns.Gerry McGovern gave us a crazy stat the other day that it will take 1.5 billion trees to be planted to deal with the an

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Adam Pearce:Adam Pearce - LinkedInWhere to find Blend Commerce:Blend Commerce - WebsiteBlend Commerce - BlogLinks Mentioned in Episode:Magento CommerceAccentureDue WestOctane AIKlaviyoClubhouseBrewDogDr. Will'sShoppingGivesInsights Profiles'Start With Why' - book by Simon Sinek'Find Your Why' - book by Simon Sinek, Peter Docker, David Mead'The 4-Hour Workweek' - book by Timothy Ferriss'Life Leverage' - book by Rob MooreShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00Hello and welcome to the MindfulCommerce Podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands, service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. I'm Krissie.Rich Bunker  0:11and I'm Rich. We are your hosts. This podcast is an extension of the MindfulCommerce Community.Krissie Leyland  0:18The MindfulCommerce Community is a safe place for ecommerce brands and experts to connect, collaborate and explore opportunities to work together to unleash the power of e commerce as a force for good. Rich Bunker  0:30You can join by going to mindfulcommerce.io and then clicking "Community". See you there!Krissie Leyland  0:36Today, we are talking to Adam who is the CEO and cofounder of Blend Commerce, a Shopify agency specializing in turning ideas into reality. Blend are driven by success with a mission to help Shopify entrepreneurs achieve significant and sustainable growth. I love Blend Commerce's motto, which is "clarify, create and convert," which we will go into more detail on in the show. So hello, Adam. It's great to have you here. How are you doing?Adam Pearce  1:08Yeah, very good. Thanks, Krissie. Thanks for having me. I'm really pleased to be on here.Krissie Leyland  1:13Good, great! It's always nice to hear that you're pleased to be on the podcast. So do you want to start by just telling us a bit about how Blend Commerce came about? So I believe you're running it with your brother-in-law, which is interesting.Adam Pearce  1:29Yeah, so shout out to anyone else who is in business with their family, because it's good and it's hard too. But yeah, just a detail about how it came about. So my business partner, Peter, who is also a brother-in-law, he started out developing Shopify stores about seven or eight years ago. We'd always talked about going to business together. He was banging on about Shopify, and how it was this great thing that was allowing people to have ecommerce stores. He said they're all these people in the US and Canada that were building out these stores and making really good money from it. I just kind of brushed it aside and said, "yeah, whatever...  it's just another fad." People were already already use Magento for ecommerce. I was actually managing a Magento store at the time. I didn't really kind of think much of it. Then, probably about a year into developing, it really started to pick up and Shopify started becoming more mainstream lexicon. When I looked at it, you know, having the fact that I was actually owning a Magento store at the time, I started realizing what the opportunity was. Basically what happened was that I was a sales and marketing director for an educational app company. We had been talking about this idea of going to business. I said, "Look, I've worked with agencies before, and what really annoys me about agencies is that I can't get everything that I need done under one roof. Because I come from marketing, while Peter came from development, that's how we came up with the idea with Blend Commerce. It's the idea that we are blending both development and marketing in one. So that's where the cheesiness of "Blend" comes in. We now trying to be the on demand digital department for companies. A lot of growing businesses, they think about recruiting, but actually trying to recruit a developer, a designer & a marketer: there's a lot of costs with that, as well a headache in that. Basically, we just come on essentially, as that automatic department that you can then talk to, and get everything you need from one team. So yeah, that's how we came about.Krissie Leyland  3:46Perfect. I love that. It's like blending your two brains together, as well, so not just your creativity from the marketing side, but also like the geeky techie side as well, which is perfect. Yeah, it's such a headache trying to find all the unicorns in the world, isn't it? So if they're all in one place, that's perfect. So I recently saw that you went through a bit of a rebrand and a new website so you want to talk a bit about that? That'd be cool.Adam Pearce  4:19Definitely. Well, we are you know, not unlike any any other business, we imagined what our business should be like... And it always gets to a point–and we get this with our own clients–where we go "Look. Actually, what we will be pretending to be or what we were aiming to be initially is not actually what we are." So we've been through a few different versions of websites now. The first ever website that we did, it was very copy heavy, it was very tongue in cheek... A little bit rude sometimes. That was kind of "our take" at the time, that we want it to be very different. But the problem is that people weren't really going to take us that seriously. We got some really good clients but I think a lot of people couldn't see through the fact that we were very jokey & that we had a lot of means on our site. It just didn't really fit in with the kind of customers that we were working with.Fast forward, coming out two years after we launched our initial site, we then sort of started obsessing about this. It was actually a financial services company: They got this really cool looking black and green thing and we decided that we wanted to have that. But again, I'm not saying with the Average Joe's of the Shopify world, but we're definitely a company that values each other and has got a very strong team mentality. So that black and green at the very start was trying to be a little bit too "too cool for school" and that just wasn't us. So we actually went through a process with our head of design Stephan to look at a different brand archetypes. Now, if you're not familiar with brand archetypes, have a look on our website, blendcommerce.com, there's a really great blog in there. Essentially, what brain archetypes are is looking at different parts of your company as a personality. While going through quite an in depth process of working out exactly who I wanting to be, we landed on the fact that we were: the Everyman, the Sage and the Hero. You can kind of look at that a little bit like  an aeroplane: so the hero is the body, then we're tipped on the wings by the everyman and then on the other side there's the sage. I won't go into too much detail but when you look at our site, if you understand archetypes, hopefully you'll see that that's what we're looking for. That was the main purpose of going through that rebrand, because we wanted to make sure that people see us as that helpful, honest, and really direct company that is going to help people rather than the typical very skinny looking site that is very flashy, and has got big brand names all over it. That really isn't us. So we wanted to make sure it reflected what we do as a company. I think the other thing as well, Krissie, is that our site is also on Shopify. It always has been, always will be. Ultimately look, you know, Shopify wasn't made for for service-based businesses, but there's definitely capability of doing it. We want to show that with our own website, some of the things that are possible with a Shopify store.Krissie Leyland  7:26That's so cool. So for example, when you do win a client, do you do the payment system through Shopify or is it just purely fo a front end website?Adam Pearce  7:40Yeah, we actually used to sell our services through the Shopify payment system. We're going to be bringing in more productized services in the next 12 months. So we'll go back to using Shopify for that but in terms of, larger scale projects, we do that externally at the moment.Krissie Leyland  7:58Yeah, probably makes more sense. Did you notice a difference in the types of clients that you were attracting after you did the rebrand?Adam Pearce  8:10Definitely. I think that the thing was, is that with the rebrand, we also made sure that our tone of voice was right. Obviously, you know a lot more on this than I do, but that was the thing: making sure that we were talking in the right way to our customers. That was also things like podcasts that were on & social media, just trying to make sure everything was aligned. I think now, as a result of that, we've definitely seen the kind of clients that we're looking for. We work best, really, with clients that are doing 100k a month plus, or maybe just below that. So helping us to get in front of those type of people was a big part of that rebrand. Yeah, it definitely has made a big difference.Krissie Leyland  8:55That's so cool. So the guy that you went through that process with, was he kind of like helping you to understand who your customers are and the way that you want them to feel? Was that part of the process as well?Adam Pearce  9:09Definitely. Stephen, our head of designed delivery, he actually came in at a great time. Because we were looking to do this and we actually tasked this to Stephen as his first first project. So you didn't kind of have that issue you've got you know, when we're usually in a company for over six months, and you get a little bit blinkered in terms of what the company is really about. So Stephen came in with a real power of sort of fresh eyes. So if you have an opportunity where someone is coming into your company, even if they're not a designer, I think it's always worth you talking to them and then getting their opinion of what they think you should actually be

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Katie Boothby-Kung:Katie Boothby-Kung - InstagramWhere to find Shopify:Shopify - Website (Home)Shopify - Social Enterprise Slack channel (Sign up)Shopify - Open LearningShopify - EnvironmentShopify - Sustainability Fund (Read more)Shopify - Compass, Free Online CoursesShopify - CommunityShopify - Operation HOPE (Read more)Links Mentioned in Episode:Copper Root Collective (Katie's Skincare Brand)TechnovationRecurateGenuseeKiwibotShoppingGivesDailyKarmaKotnSon of a TailorShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00Hello, and welcome to the MindfulCommerce Podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands, ecommerce service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. Today we're talking to the fantastic Katie Boothby-Kung from Shopify's social impact team. Katie is doing lots of incredible work at Shopify and we wanted to chat about it here on the podcast to inspire others to follow in Shopify's footsteps. So hi, Katie, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. You know, I'm a huge fan of Shopify and what you're doing so I'm extremely excited to have you here. Do you want to start by introducing yourself and just tell us a little bit about your role at Shopify? And what you help Shopify to achieve? Katie Boothby-Kung  0:46  Yeah, totally. Well, first of all: Hi, Krissie. Thanks for having me, super pumped to be here. This is awesome. So I am Katie, I am the Senior Manager for social impact here at Shopify. In my role, I am specifically focused on working with the social enterprises, on and off our platform. I do that by or through strategic partnerships, building education tools, and working with our partners and our platform so that we can help grow and scale. And even launch new social enterprises, on Shopify, and also to give them the resources that they need so that they can be successful.Krissie Leyland  1:32 Oh, my god, it's so good. It's like the dream job. I love it. Katie Boothby-Kung  1:35 It really is! (laughter)Krissie Leyland  1:37  I'm always like, "oh, how did she get that job?" I'm gonna pick your brains. So what is the definition of a social enterprise business to you and Shopify?Katie Boothby-Kung  1:52  Great question. How we think about social enterprises is that it's at the intersection of environmental action, and human rights. So businesses that are working to create a better climate for generations to come, or be it through supporting communities and workers within their supply chain, making sure that they're treated fairly and with dignity. The combination of the two is really where we see that long term sustainability, long term social enterprise. We like to think about it as a Venn diagram. So you have, environmental action over on one side, and then you have human rights in the other circle. When they come together, and there's that sweet spot right in the middle, that's where we see, where long term sustainability happens: at the intersection of the two of them–social enterprises working on either of these circles, or both of them together.Krissie Leyland  3:01  Nice. So, what do you think then, is the intersection between sustainability and social impact? How do the two work together and do good?Katie Boothby-Kung  3:13 Well, by the sounds of it, you guys are just defining sustainability more from an environmental lens.  mean, that's certainly how a lot of the discussion around sustainability has been framed: is that it's, it's environmental. However, we see it as both being environmental and social human rights coming together in that intersection in the middle of those two circles. That's how we define sustainability. So by focusing on either or, and coming together, you are creating social impact. Without getting into kind of the complexities of climate change its effect on human rights, and vice versa, that's kind of see how we see it. If you're working towards sustainability, environmental action & human rights coming together, then you are creating a lasting social impact.Krissie Leyland  4:12  Yeah, it makes total sense. I think I do always think of sustainability, as you know, things that are going on in the environment, but you are right, it does link back to social impact, communities and things like that. So I'd like to talk a bit more about your role in particular. Also, what are the community projects that you're working on at the moment that has a positive impact socially, and potentially environmentally, then?Katie Boothby-Kung  4:48  For my role in particular: I'm working on ways Shopify can better support the community of social entrepreneurs and also support other communities that are hungry to learn more About being socially conscious. Recently, I was able to team up with some of the folks in other teams here at Shopify to help them expand their educational offering to include ways to help merchants inject more sustainability into their businesses. So we have a team called Open Learning that works with a lot of post secondary education institutions. Also, our Shopify for startups, which is our startup program. By working with them, they're providing education that can not only help businesses grow, but to also help them become more socially minded as well. So that's a lot of what we're focusing on this year is just continuing to support this community, and bring that education to communities that maybe aren't thinking about this all the time, so that they're more inspired to not only create businesses, but to create socially minded businesses as well. My team is always incredibly busy and so maybe you saw, we recently announced we have a global partnership with Technovation. Therefore, we can deliver STEM education to young women and girls around the world. Our team is certainly very, very busy focusing on entrepreneurs, and also within the tech community as well.Krissie Leyland  6:24  Hmm. Okay. So on that then, because you know, I love a bit of tech conversation: What do you think is the role for tech partners towards a more sustainable and positively impactful ecommerce world?Katie Boothby-Kung  6:42  Here on Shopify, we can't say enough good things about our partner ecosystem, and the tech partners that are building some wickedly cool tools. I mean, that community is always drumming up really creative ways to support our merchant community. So keep it up. There is a lot of potential for them to impact this space. It's no surprise that sustainability is becoming a top priority for consumers and therefore it's becoming important for brands as well. So I'm sure we're going to see a lot of new offerings from the tech partner community being launched this year in order to keep up with with this growing demand.Obviously, there's Recurate that's working on the resale market, and allowing our brands to resell their their wares, to keep it from going to landfill–giving their products new life, which I think isn't very exciting. Especially because the resale market is growing so quickly and I don't think that's going away anytime soon.We're seeing Genusee. They're a an eyeglass company based out of Flint, Michigan, that have a really cool tool on their on their shop, to allow you to try on their sunglasses so that we're reducing the rate of returns. I say we as if I'm a part of it. (laughter) Their customers don't need to return as much. I'm not involved in that at all. They're doing great work.And then there are even more sustainable shipping alternatives, like Kiwibot. Also the social impact of shopping local, I mean, it's accelerated. So our partners are creating more tailored pickup locations and delivery services. I think this idea of "shop local", is here to stay beyond 2021, kind of like the resale market. So consumers are looking for ways that they can be more supportive of their own communities and the small businesses that are essentially our neighbors. There's a lot of really great tech partners out there doing some, some really, really incredible things to help make sustainability and easier choice for merchants on our platform, for sure.Krissie Leyland  9:07  Do you think that there's been a rise in, you know, apps that are specifically to help sustainability and social impacts because of the pandemic? It just seems to be on the rise? I don't know if it's because I'm involved in it, and I see it everywhere. But yeah, do you think it's because of the pandemic or it was going to happen anyway?Katie Boothby-Kung  9:33  Honestly, is a great question. I don't know if I have the right answer to you. I think perhaps the pandemic accelerated this trend. I mean, we were seeing this, as things were kind of heating up in in March and April: this idea of shopping local and "voting with your dollar" and things like that. That became something that people were really talking about, they really wanted to support brands that were helping people throughout the pandemic. I think that there was a stat that I recently read–and I might butcher it a little bit–I think it was something like, I don't want to say it was specifically like 84%, but it was a percentage in the 80s. That said, more consumers were willing to shop from brands that were out there to help those in need during the pandemic. That's a pretty significant stat. Do I think that there was a trend towards more climate action and human rights? So I think that that there was already, but I think that the pandemic certainly helped speed it up.Krissie Leyland  10:40  Yeah, definitely. I think ecommerce in general is just gone mad. Apparently, five years worth of growth has just happened in six months. Yeah.Katie Boothby-Kung  10:55  Okay, that's insane.Krissie Leyland  10:57 I probably butchered that stat as well. So yeah, we need to be mindful of how we're doing it and how we're d

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find MoreTrees:MoreTrees - WebsiteMoreTrees - TwitterMoreTrees - InstagramMoreTrees - FacebookLinks Mentioned in Episode:ShopifyWooCommerceExpandlyZapierIFTTT (If This Then That)Wilkinson SwordMy Green ChristmasZoomShownotes:Krissie Leyland  0:00 Hello, and welcome to the mindful commerce podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands, service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. I'm KrissieRich Bunker  0:11& I'm Rich, and we're your hosts. This podcast is an extension of the MindfulCommerce community.Krissie Leyland  0:18The MindfulCommerce community is a safe place for ecommerce brands and experts to connect, collaborate and explore opportunities to work together to unleash the power of ecommerce as a force for good.Rich Bunker  0:30You can join by going to mindfulcommerce.io and clicking on 'Community'. See you there!Krissie Leyland  0:36Today, we're talking to Niki and Alan from MoreTrees. You probably know that carbon dioxide is one of the biggest drivers of climate change and we know we should be playing our part in reducing and negating carbon emissions. So MoreTrees are a tree planting app. MoreTrees not only helps offsets your emissions, but it comes with tons of other benefits too. Every tree planted helps the planet & it reduces extreme poverty and combat deforestation. We're going to be talking about what inspired Niki and Alan to start MoreTrees, how that makes it super easy to offset your carbon for e commerce businesses of all sizes, but also we want to know exactly how offsetting with MoreTrees can help with those four benefits I just mentioned. So, hello to both! How are you?Niki Tibble  1:33We're good, thank you. How are you?Alan Wilson  1:35Great, thank you.Krissie Leyland  1:38Could you start by introducing yourselves and tell us a little bit more about MoreTrees?Niki Tibble  1:44Yep, definitely! I'll let Alan go first.Alan Wilson  1:57Okay, so background-wise, I'm a "techie"... so about boatloads of software and startups for years. My last startup was called Expandly, and that's an ecommerce platform used by "one man bands" up to global companies like Wilkinson Sword. So it's a multi channel ecommerce system and so that's where my background is: building tech for  ecommerce and other industries.Niki Tibble  2:30Yes, and I am Niki. My background is copywriting. I have a copywriting business, writing for all sorts of different sectors. I think the most obscure thing I've written about was calculating your construction overheads. But predominantly, I work with ecommerce platforms, tech, and sellers with their content. So that's my background and I've worked with Alan, on previous projects before. Alan came up with the initial idea.Alan Wilson  3:03So originally, I went to a meeting and they were planting trees for every person that attended the meeting. So I thought "That's just a great idea! There's actually companies that plant trees and it's good for the environment." For a meeting, just think of the people that come there for traffic and stuff... I thought actually, that could be a good thing in the future! So then, I told Niki, "I'll get this fantastic idea and get this button in every meeting room around the world. People just come in, press a button, then it all connects to my API, they plant a tree, and it's all gonna be great! And then Nikki said that it's a crap idea.Niki Tibble  3:47I did, I'm not going to lie. I thought all I could envision was this big red X Factor style button, where people are just hitting it in meeting rooms... horror stories of disgruntled employees, hitting it 1000s of times. Which you know, would be fantastic for the planet but then these businesses are planting millions of trees unknowingly. But I really, really liked Alan's thinking behind it and I knew as a business owner that I wanted to do more to help the planet. You see things on Netflix, you read the papers, you see in the news all about climate change and you want to do more. But actually knowing what to do, having the time to do it, understanding the different parts was just difficult for a business owner. You know Krissie, it's a hot topic in ecommerce–people are talking about what you can do all the time, but actually, the options aren't always that obvious. So we definitely felt that there was a gap in the market for a tech lead solution to just make it easy for businesses to plant trees and to do something positive for the planet without it costing a lot of money & without it taking up time. But also to open it up so that ecommerce in particular, involve the customer so that when you plant a tree for them, they're actually being told about that tree. Then they get an email telling them about it so that there's no concern that someone saying they're doing something they're not actually doing.Krissie Leyland  5:18Yeah, that's really nice. Something you said there made me think... There are lots of different offsetting apps out there now. So when you first had your initial idea was that not the case?Alan Wilson  5:35I think that some apps out there offset but I think overall–there's some neat apps as well, there's some really neat carbon calculation apps–but I think it's still a very early fragmented marketplace that is very confusing for a lot of companies and organizations. Wales, within the very small industry as at the moment, is starting to see more of them emerging. I think it's actually quite a very, very early marketplace currently.Niki Tibble  6:07The amount of people we speak to say,"Oh I didn't realize something like that existed." So I mean, there are fantastic apps and ways to do it out there but a lot of people don't actually realize that they are out there, which is a problem.Krissie Leyland  6:21I agree. Maybe it's because we're involved in it, and so it can pop up. But the thing that I noticed about MoreTrees was like, you work with different projects. So it's obvious where your money is going, if you offset with more trees. But do you want to talk a bit more about the projects that you work with?Niki Tibble  6:47To us, it was important that we work with the right tree planting partners. So unfortunately, it's not me and Alan putting on our wellies and grabbing our spades and going and digging in the garden... our garden's not that big. It was important to us that the people that we were partnering with would be the people that our customers would want to partner with. It also meant that, planting trees and offsetting carbonare the primary focu. But actually, there's a lot more that these projects can do to extend the benefits so we make sure that anyone that we're working with on the projects are actually planting trees that are going to be making a difference. They're helping with reforestation, or they're providing agroforestry trees to provide food and sources of income, but also that they're benefiting the local communities. A lot of our projects are in impoverished areas where actually the trees are providing an income, they're teaching these people a skill that they can use, and they're protecting the local area. For example, some of the projects they've got problems with flooding, they're planting the right trees to deal with that. Areas that have suffered deforestation need reforestation to give wildlife places to come back to. So for us, it was a lot more about just picking projects that weren't "just trees": It was actually making a wider impact. It's trees and more.Krissie Leyland  8:17Nice. Perfect. It's really interesting to think that planting a tree can help combat poverty. How exactly does it? What are the links? Someone clicks on "offset with more trees" and then what happens?Niki Tibble  8:40Yes. You click & you buy your trees. Then at the end of each month, we we pull them all together, and we tell our different partners and projects how many trees. When you go into the platform, it defaults to the most needed tree and the most needed project, but you can also pick a specific project and tree type. So at the end of the month, we collect those together & instruct our tree planting partners. They work with local villagers, educate them and provide them with the tools, the equipment & the knowledge to plant these trees. They also fund forest guards to actually protect the areas and they're there for a while so it's not just a quick plant and run. They're helping them grow these forests and and they don't leave them until they're in the position to want to be able to carry that on themselves. You read the stories & get the feedback from the fields and it makes you feel lucky inside knowing that you're doing so much with just a seed, effectively. Krissie Leyland  9:43I love that. It's so nice.Rich Bunker  9:45It's so much more than planting trees than you can imagine, to be honest which is great... lovely projects at work. What stands out is your favorite project.Alan Wilson  9:57I like Madagascar because of the film... Nikki, you have a favorite, don't you? I think I actually like them all. There is Madagascar and stuff but the ones that do more than the poverty alleviation as well as environment, really strike a chord with me as much. You can buy offsets and as you'll know, those just prevent people from cutting down trees and stuff. They're just not as good as planting a tree and given the income to the farmers as well.Krissie Leyland  10:42So something that just has more meaning behind it than just planting a tree.Alan Wilson  10:47More meaning and also as I say, the offsets that you can juust pay someone not to cut down a tree can be a verified project... it's great that the trees not being cut down, but it's actually developing more the whole concept. The ethos is getting the more trees out there and actually creating m

My Instagram for Murphy photos to make you smile - @krissieclaire@mindfulcommerce@kollectifyHead to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantwww.mindfulcommerce.iowww.kollectify.comHappy Valentines Day, Rich xKrissie Leyland  0:01 (it's all me chatting to myself) Hello. So this is Krissie here. And this is a little bit different to what we are normally talking about on this podcast.I've just been thinking, like, for a while now, why did I end up as an entrepreneur? And why did I want to start a business?So I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur since I sold ice creams from the tub in our freezer to walkers who used to walk past our farmhouse. Because there was a lovely bit of countryside where I used to live in the middle of nowhere, as I was growing up, I had two sheep. One was called lucky and the other was called very lucky because we did not decide to eat it.Anyway, so I was probably about six, when I had my first business, and selling ice creams.My parents were very encouraging of me and would buy some to make me feel better. Mum tried to tell me about the fact you have to minus expenses to work out profits, but I ignored her. And actually, it was not my own money. But anyway, the thought was there. And I really enjoyed I remember choosing the right colours, for my for sale sign and in my best bubble writing and whatnot. And anyway, so I had a really nice upbringing in the countryside, field surrounded by fields and trees and deer and all kinds of lovely things. So I guess this is just a bit of a, I don't know, like a self reflection episode for me. But also, I'm hoping that this could help even just one person who's listening. So it's quite interesting, really, when I think back, and like I said, I had a really good upbringing, but I have had some struggles.I was bullied in two different high schools. Because basically, I had a really good friend friendship unit in primary school, and then decided not to go to the same high school as all my friends. So anyway, thing is, I was severely bullied. And when you're in that kind of situation for a long time, you know, you've been called ugly, freckled face, as they used to call me.You tend to feel quite worthless, and I lost every inch of my self confidence and self esteem. So I went from a happy, funny outgoing kid to someone who would react to every or everyone with a bit of defence because I just thought that everyone was out to get me so and, and probably including my parents, which I might feel quite awful for now. But anyway, these kids in school would make me feel nervous to even walk or talk in front of anyone else. Because I was afraid, people would start picking things out about me and using it against me so but looking back, I was a beautiful kid, I was not ugly, I was fit. And I loved to run, play netball and everything like that. But I just went into a bit of a shell afraid to show my true personality and my true self. So it's quite funny that I'm recording this now as I'm 31 years old.And I just thought, sod it. I'm going to tell people my story. And if you can relate, then that's great. Please tell me.So I can remember not wanting to get out of the car to go to school, and my mum would say ignore them. But it was so bad that I obviously couldn't. However, college and university was better. I made some wonderful friends through my new found love of surfing, which I'll talk about a bit later on in this episode. And my God, my life is so good now. I have a wonderful boyfriend who is just my rock. I have a Portuguese water dog. And he is beautiful called Murphy and you'll probably see lots of pictures of him on my Instagram if you check it out.He makes everybody smile. So do that. Um, so the reason I'm telling you all of this is, I don't know I've never really been able to hold down a proper job because I didn't cope very well with having a manager telling me what to do.I would kind of get defensive even with you know, it's coming from the bullies and making me feel like shit, and I would just think that, you know, my manager, if he would criticise my work, they would then make me feel a bit worthless. And that kind of brought back feelings from being in school. Anyway, it just didn't sit right with me. So I needed creative freedom and individuality. And I'm the type of person who wants to work in my own time, at the time of day that works for me. And when I can have my deep focus time and create great ideas, most of the time, I'm in the shower. And I can't write it down. haha.I think creative people like people listening, you probably get this, like, you need to be able to work at your own time, when you feel like working on something in particular. So you know, and some people like working in the middle of the night, whereas I'm like, I'll wake up at 5.30 in the morning and think, oh, crap, I need to get working on that right now, before I forget, or something. So yeah, 9-5 didn't really work for me. And I'm not sure if that stems from like, I think it's a mix of wanting to create ideas and see them flourish from you know, even seeing an opportunity like walkers passing by and I thought, right, I'm going to use this audience and sell them some ice cream. So yeah, I don't know, I think it's a mix of things, and also not wanting to work for somebody else and have them kind of control me, I guess. And because I just feel stuck, and they can't do what I want. So anyway, I still suffer from huge imposter syndrome. I think everybody does. I'm not sure if I'm more affected by it because of the way I have been made to feel. But I guess I'm trying to say, you know, if you feel the same, and you feel like, you've got this brilliant idea, and you want to tell everybody but you think, you know, oh, who am I to have this idea and roll with it and tell people like this is what I think I'm here to say if not you, who? If not now, when? So I don't think imposter syndrome will ever go away. But I guess I'm now comfortable with being uncomfortable. Because if I don't do it, who will? Especially when it is something for good. And if you have something burning away in your stomach, and you're like, I really want to do this.But you're scared of what other people might think. I say do it anyway. Just like go with it. Go with the fear. Do it anyway. Because you know, if you fail, you fail if you don't, what what could happen, like, what if you don't fail, amazing things could happen. That's what. And if you have the right audience, you can iterate and tweak your offering until you don't fail. The outdoors and surfing saved me and gave me back my self confidence. Surfing grounded me and made me realise that life is more than work. Life is about being outside and like just embracing the elements and appreciating life for what it is. You don't want to be stuck in an office nine to five doing what other people tell you to do, like give yourself a break. And I even did my dissertation on surfing as a therapy for disadvantaged children. I tried to set up a business which would provide more access to outdoor activities for children suffering from low self esteem just like I was, it was called Liberty active. So this business failed for a few reasons. But at the end of the day, I'm still on a mission to make sure people feel empowered. I want to protect our oceans, our environment and the people and animals within it. Ecommerce, Shopify in particular has given me access to a bigger world of entrepreneurship. Maybe one day I'll sell ice cream again. But for now, I want to give the power of entrepreneurship to others. And I'd like to help them to do it in the most sustainable and ethical way possible. Because I want to give back to the thing that saved me. And that's the environment. surfing, being outdoors and yeah, freedom. So I guess my question to you is, what do you want to do? If you could do anything in the world? What would it be and what's stopping you? Because if it's fear, embrace the fear and do it anyway.And also I just to say, like, if you're thinking, Oh, but what if such and such thinks I'm silly for doing this or, you know what if I fail, just do it, just do it anyway. Because you might be the person who helps another person to transform their life. And love yourself enough to set boundaries. I think the best thing about running your own business is that you get to choose to set your boundaries. And because your time and energy are so precious. You get to choose how you use that time. And you should teach people how you like to be treated, and how you should be treated.You decide what you will and won't accept. So back in school, when all the bullies were out there, and they were saying stuff to me, I just let them do it. But I don't accept that anymore. And I will not accept that if I see people doing it to others. And one thing I love about running my own business is that by working with others, so contractors, freelancers, I love the fact that I can give them freedom as well. And I, you know, I always say set your boundaries, don't overload yourself. Learn how to say no. And, you know, don't accept it. Don't accept, if people treat you in a way that you don't want to be treated. You decide how people treat you by deciding what you will or won't accept.Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. And you teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won't accept.I actually thank those bullies now because actually, if you're listening, thank you. I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for you. I'm empathetic, caring, Funny now again, my personalities come back.And I'm actually incredibly resilient. Hit me with it. It won't work anymore. So thank you for making me who I am today. Now, I want to help others, in particular, those who are helping to protect the environment, those who are helping communities with social impact. And ye

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Gavin Ballard:Gavin Ballard - TwitterGavin Ballard - WebsiteWhere to find Disco Labs:Disco Labs - WebsiteLinks Mentioned in Episode:Disco Labs - Carbon ReportShopifyShopify BFCM - Black Friday Cyber Monday 2020StripeStripe ClimateWildbitDigitalOceanWho Gives A CrapThankyouBrooklinenGCP - Google Cloud PlatformAWS - Amazon Web ServicesSponsor:Shownotes: Krissie Leyland  0:00Hello, and welcome to the mindful commerce podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce brands, ecommerce service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. Today, we are talking to Gavin from disco labs who make things possible on Shopify plus through custom development. They're a team with deep platform knowledge and world class expertise on Shopify Plus, and have a list of happy clients. Gavin and his team have worked with brands like Who Gives a Crap, a sustainable toilet roll brand–who I've mentioned a few times within the community–and they've worked with big brands such as Harper Collins. So hi, Gavin, how are you? Would you like to add anything to your introduction?Gavin Ballard  0:45I'm very well, thank you. Happy to be here. Thank you, you nailed the introduction. That was a goodbreakdown of who we are and what we do. If listeners can't tell from the accent, we're based down here in Melbourne, Australia.Krissie Leyland  0:59Great. And so could you tell us a bit about what how you ended up in the Shopify space?Gavin Ballard  1:06Yeah, sure. My background is as a software engineer, so that's always been something that I've been quite interested in. Then quite a few years ago, I got involved in Shopify, just building a site out for a friend who who wanted to sell something online. That was nearly 10 years ago, I think, or maybe it is 10 years ago now. A few years later, after that, I was thrust into into freelancing. A couple of friends and I had moved overseas to start a company that didn't work out that well so I needed to pay the bills somehow, and just started freelancing in the Shopify arena. It just grew from there started out doing all of the standard stuff that you do on Shopify: theme builds design, setting up stores, etc... but because my background is in that software engineering, I eventually decided to focus on the apps & integration space, and we have sort of grown out the agency around that.Krissie Leyland  2:01Okay, so like, the apps integration space. So what do you do, there then? Like, what does that mean?Gavin Ballard  2:09Yeah, so what we tend to do is work with (these days they tend to be) larger merchants who are using Shopify and they have something they need to get done-whether it's connect Shopify to an external system, like a warehousing platform or something like that, or they want to offer their customers a new experience or something to improve the way that they sell things to those customers. (We work with them when) there's nothing off-the-shelf that does it-there's nothing in the Shopify app store, or their platform doesn't have an integration, or the merchant has these really funky, bespoke needs. So we step in there, and we work with a merchant to work out exactly what they need to get done to solve their problem, and then build the software to do that. We try to do that in a way that's really, because we're very much focused on Shopify and Shopify Plus, compatible with the platform and working with it rather than hacky workarounds or anything like that.Krissie Leyland  3:13Nice. So whatever your clients need, you can tweak things and make it custom to what they need, which is really good, obviously.Gavin Ballard  3:23Yeah and because we're just focused on the back end of the app, the thing is that we also work quite a lot with other agencies who are more focused on the front end of things (so design and theme development and things like that).Krissie Leyland  3:39That's cool,that's quite unique then, because I don't often see that people just focus on the back end, I guess. It's more popular as a Shopify agency to kind of niche into marketing or development. So yeah, that's cool.Gavin Ballard  3:56Yeah, it's a niche, but it is quite a large niche with the way that Shopify is growing at the moment. It's keeping us busy, so that's a good thing.Krissie Leyland  4:07Yeah, I can imagine a lot of partners coming to you. Like, "Can you do this super techie bit? I can't do it." So that's good. Rich, do you want to ask a question?Rich Bunker  4:19Well let me jump into the environmental footprint side of things... What do you believe is your role as an ecommerce service provider to improve the ecommerce world in terms of sustainability and social impact?Gavin Ballard  4:34I mean, I always am hesitant because I don't want to be seen to be preaching or anything like that... but ever since I started the business, I've always thought that the way that we actually do things is just as important as what we're doing. If you look at our company's mission statement, we have this dual purpose: One of which is to basically be the best in the world at building software for ecommerce merchants, but that's kind of our external mission. Then the internal one is to be building the company that we want to work for. I think that it would be really difficult today, in 2021, to say that you want to be working at a company that isn't being quite conscious of the the society we live in, the planet that we we live on and not be keeping that in mind so that we can do what we can to make that better. So that's why I say, that our role is being part of the society that we live in. We wouldn't exist without everyone else on the planet. I think it's just about being a good corporate citizen. That's my personal view and I think being public about that is meant for the people that we work with, internally at the company, to share that that goal, that value.Rich Bunker  6:05It's great and it's about being a good example, as well.Gavin Ballard  6:10Again, I am very conscious that I don't feel like my place, or our place in the company is to be preaching and making other people feel like, "Hey, this is what we're saying you should be doing" but I think it's more about leading by example, and trying to talk about it as much as possible.Krissie Leyland  6:27Yeah... Acknowledging it and building awareness around it. What do you think are the biggest issues in ecommerce when it comes to sustainability?Gavin Ballard  6:40Well, I think probably the thing that is on top of everyone's mind is climate change and carbon impact. Those two certainly have been a big part of where our focus has been in terms of our environmental footprint and what we think we can measure and improve quite significantly. Then, from a merchant perspective–given that a big part of your job as a merchant is often selling physical goods that need to be shipped across the world and that good itself is probably made of parts that have been shipped from everywhere else in the world–that's certainly a big factor when it comes to ecommerce: what that carbon impact is and how sustainable that is longer term.Rich Bunker  7:36How do you communicate that  message? Do you communicate that to your clients, when you sort of have initial meetings or do you just communicate it through your own community?Gavin Ballard  7:51We've started becoming a lot more public about this sort of stuff in the past year, I would say. Even though we're not a merchant that's shipping stuff around the globe, we do have an impact, like every business does. So, there was a decision made at the start of last year that we wanted to become a carbon-neutral business. Towards the end of last year, we we hit that goal. Part of our success criteria that we defined at the start of last year was that "We're going to do this, but we're also going to have a report about our carbon impact and give us a baseline to measure against in future years." In having that report, it makes sense to make that public. Not only as an accountability measure for ourselves internally, but also to hopefully, show other people that it's very possible to do it. It's not that expensive, it's not that difficult and it's not that time consuming. I think we have definitely started to think about part of our contribution is actually becoming a carbon neutral business ourselves. Then another really important part of it is just talking about it and that tweaks. If us publishing a carbon report means that one other agency says, "Oh, we should do that, too!" then in a way, we've kind of doubled our impact with just publishing what we're doing. So yeah, we're definitely keen to talk about it more. I don't think it's necessarily something that a lot of merchants will look for but it can be a nice thing to put on the pitch deck. I think it'll become more and more of a factor as time goes on.Krissie Leyland  9:42Definitely, I totally agree. Love that. More people need to follow in your footsteps. What inspired you to do it? What was it that kind of kicked it off for you?Gavin Ballard  9:52So we have a company retreat every year. I was just mentioning to you off-air that we're about to have our next one next week but we we had one at the start of last year or the end of the year before... back when you could actually gather and meet with people... It was an idea that I'd sort of brought to the table to say, "Well, what about becoming a carbon neutral business?" Then as a company, we decided that would be one of our company goals for 2020. Once we set that, I said, "Well, that's part of my accountability and my KPIs as a CEO: to get that sort of stuff done." So I pushed to make sure that we did that. Despite the weird year that 2020 was, it was quite a good one for people in ecommerce, relative to a lot of other people in soc

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Tom Locke:Tom Locke - LinkedInTom Locke - InstagramWhere to find Noughts & Ones:Noughts & Ones - WebsiteNoughts & Ones - InstagramLinks Mentioned in Episode:PatagoniaFinisterreKnow The OriginPeople TreeTwelveRed Bank CoffeeBlossom Coffee RoastersContentfulGithubNetlifySponsor:This podcast is sponsored by the MindfulCommerce Directory.Shownotes:  Krissie Leyland  0:00  Hello, and welcome to the MindfulCommerce Podcast: a place where we talk to ecommerce brands, service providers and developers who care about protecting our planet. Today, we're talking to Tom from Noughts and Ones: a Shopify agency working with purpose-driven ecommerce brands who want to make a meaningful impact online. We love their advocacy for a better world, their passion for Shopify and sustainable commerce... and they're great to work with. And I know this firsthand! Hello Tom, welcome! Would you like to introduce yourself.Tom Locke  0:42  Yeah, so I'm Tom. I run an agency called Noughts and Ones in Bristol. And we're a web agency specializing in Shopify, working with ecommerce conscious brands, helping to make meaningful impact online.Krissie Leyland  1:07 Nice. I love it. What are you up to at the moment? You didn't always have that focus on conscious brands and purely Shopify, did you?Tom Locke  1:19  No, early days, we started out doing actually quite a lot of custom Squarespace design and development. We started doing a bit of ecommerce on that platform but we always knew that other platforms are a little bit better when it came to the functionality for ecommerce brands. Shopify was something that we'd always wanted to really get stuck into. Then, it just happened semi-naturally, although it was definitely our plan. Now we focus pretty much entirely on Shopify and we've replaced Squarespace with an alternative web tech stack basically, that you're obviously very familiar with.Krissie Leyland  2:11  Yeah, definitely. What was it that attracted you to Shopify, in particular? That Squarespace didn't have as much functionality, did you say?Tom Locke  2:23  Yeah, we were finding limitations from a development perspective. But also, we were starting to work with bigger commerce brands that needed more of their platform. Shopify, being a commerce-focused platform, just has a lot more strings to its bow. We were finding that it was a much better fit and we knew that in order to kind of serve those customers as an agency that Shopify was a much better fit as a platform.Krissie Leyland  3:01  I've used both and I much prefer Shopify. It's easy to use as someone like myself, who's not a developer, but then you can also use a lot of different technologies. You can code–do the geeky code stuff and scale. It's also quite simple and easy to use for maybe a brand owner that doesn't really know about the back-end and that kind of stuff.Tom Locke  3:34  For us as an agency, we were born out of working with a platform like Squarespace, which obviously, the idea is that anyone can make a website, upload content and that sort of thing. So our approach to Shopify development is very much focused on the actual kind of day-to-day usability. I guess that's something that has always stuck with us in terms of our approach is that: yes, we can build out really custom themes, but still maintain the actual usability on a day-to-day, on a content management level. Whenever we're building out a specific feature on a Shopify store, we're always trying to think about who's going to be in the seat–that's going to be using that eventually, which is generally going to be the merchant. So we try and build in any custom features within the theme editor itself. That's something that's super important for us.Krissie Leyland  4:44  Also, do you find that the App Store helps? I don't know what the App Store–if there even is an app store on Squarespace... but is that something that attracted you to Shopify as well?Tom Locke  5:02  Obviously, there's a whole host of additional features and functionality that you can plug into Shopify that, you know, at the time you couldn't in Squarespace, and now, it's still very much restricted. And certainly, for us as developers, having that kind of starting point for a particular feature... it just makes total sense to use an existing app as the basis and maybe, tweak it from there or get it to do what we needed to do, basically.Krissie Leyland  5:32  That's very cool. I wish I could do that. I do. I wish I could because I'm always like, "If only there was an app for this, this & this and I could just like tweak one or build one from scratch would be great."Tom Locke  5:45  I think with a lot of things, it'd be great if there was one thing that did everything. But inevitably, you've got to tweak things somewhere.Krissie Leyland  5:54  And then also, you've got to have a focus, haven't you? It's like you said, what's great about Shopify is they only focus on commerce. Whereas Squarespace, you know, they do everything... well, they say they do.Tom Locke  6:10  Sort of a catch-all type thing.Krissie Leyland  6:12  Yeah, which isn't always great. It's good to niche and get really good at one thing. Actually, on that note, so you have tweaked or shifted your niche a little bit. So we mentioned that you're focusing on working with purpose-driven brands, and do you want to talk a bit about that?Tom Locke  6:37  Yeah, it's felt like a real natural evolution for the agency. Ultimately, Noughts and Ones is built around the values of each and every team member. I have an amazing team that works at Noughts and Ones, and generally, they're just a passionate bunch of creative, lovely people. So, I think I've always wanted to shape the agency around the collective vision rather than just my vision as an agency owner. I think that's kind of something that's long been championed through our own values as individuals and now it's all kind of coming together, basically. It is super cheesy, but I said the other day that, "You know, it really feels like Noughts and Ones now is becoming the agency that it should be." So, we're always looking to do what we can do in a more conscious way. Despite the madness of the last–well, it's basically been a year now, hasn't it?–year (not that this is going to be podcast about COVID), I think it is really exciting to see ecommerce growing so significantly. Which, is very positive but I think that means that ultimately, there's a bigger opportunity for agencies and tech partners, to make sure that we're scaling with that growing ecommerce world to make sure that it's happening in a way that is as positive and meaningful as possible.Krissie Leyland  8:39  I love that. Yeah, definitely. That's what we're all about. I remember when we were first talking about it. It was like we both went down this rabbit hole at the same time. Do you remember?Tom Locke  8:51  Yeah, absolutely. We were–I feel like it was maybe almost a year ago, was it?Krissie Leyland  9:00  I think, yeah–no longer. Tom Locke  9:02  Really? Krissie Leyland  9:03  Yeah. Anyway... I was so excited to talk to somebody who understood what I was talking about.Tom Locke  9:11  Yeah and I think it's certainly from us as individuals, but also a collective realization of the impact that ecommerce does have. Obviously, that coupled with how much it's growing as a result of things that are going on in the world. I think it was serendipitous that we connected, and as you say, went down that rabbit hole.Krissie Leyland  9:40  Like you said, ecommerce is growing but so is its impact and we need to do everything we can to lower that impact. Tom Locke  9:50  That's exciting, right? Krissie Leyland  9:51  Yeah!Tom Locke  9:52  It's a huge opportunity to start a conversation and make sure that sustainability in commerce and ecommerce, specifically, is being talked about.Krissie Leyland  10:04  Definitely, and I think ecommerce can be part of the solution to combating or fighting climate change... It's just about working out exactly how we can do it. Talking about it is also the best thing and that's why we're talking now. So, what projects have you got on at the moment and what is it about those projects that are helping to make ecommerce more sustainable?Tom Locke  10:35  We've got a really nice mix at the moment, actually, of projects. So, we've just kicked off a Shopify project with a plant-based, single-use plastic-free deodorant brand called Fussy, as you may have seen on Instagram. They're a recent startup and they're just an incredible brand and they want to do everything right and do right by this "big round thing" that we're on... Which is really exciting. Then we've also got just a really beautiful coffee brand, based up in the Lake District, and they're really focused on the traceability of their products, obviously, and quality. Fundamentally, the brands that we'reworking with want to have a positive impact and do what they do best in as conscious a way as possible. So it's really exciting.Krissie Leyland  11:47  That's really cool, I love it. I bet you just feel so content, so happy with the work you're doing.Tom Locke  11:54  Yeah, so the coffee brand we're working with up in Lake District. It's called Red Bank Coffee. Aside from being an absolutely amazing brand, I don't know what it is, but after every call that I come off of, I just feel so zen. I don't know whether it's Tom, who's the guy that runs it but every call that we come off with as a team, we're all just feeling super chil and it's inspiring.Krissie Leyland  12:26  Oh, that is so nice. I just think it's because you're aligned! It's because you know what you want & what your team needs to feel happy about the work that they do. Great! So, I want to get into the nitty gritty of the projects

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioMindfulCommerce Sustainability FrameworkMindfulCommerce Directory (mindfulcommerce.io)Where to find Jessica and Naomi:TwelveLinks Mentioned in the Episode:Gerry McGovern Podcast with usPukka HerbsFinisterre - Leave No TraceBcorpShownotes: Rich Bunker  0:00  Hello, and welcome to The MindfulCommerce podcast, a place where we talk to ecommerce experts and brands who care about protecting our planet.Krissie Leyland  0:07  Today we're talking to Jessica and Naomi from Twelve, a sustainability consultancy firm, helping businesses respond to the climate and ecological emergency and embed sustainability in the way they work. Happy New Year, everyone. This is our very first podcast of 2021. And we are very, very excited because we'll talk to Jessica and Naomi about our sustainability framework, which we built with them last year. It was a very interesting project. And it is, we think, is going to be very beneficial for the ecommerce industry, and also for the planet. All notes will be in the show notes. And if you have any questions or input, please feel free to email us at info@mindfulcommerce.io. Enjoy.Hello, and welcome Jessica and Naomi. Jessica, because you are the founder of Twelve, would you like to introduce yourself first? And tell us a little bit about your agency?Jessica Ferrow  1:23  Hi, you just did a great job of introducing me. Yeah, I am one of the two co founders of Twelve and we set up as a business in 2020. And yeah we're here to help businesses respond to the climate and ecological crisis. But yeah, I've been working in sustainability for about 10 years, working with businesses, mainly purpose driven businesses, to help them be better and have more positive impact in the world.Krissie Leyland  1:52  Cool. And what about you Naomi?Naomi Lawson  1:55  Hello. Um, so thanks very much for having us on the podcast. I'm a sustainability consultant and I've been working with Jessica over roughly the past year, which has been great. I kind of started out my career working for BCorps like Pukka herbs. And I've specialised in communications, marketing, and working on policies and campaigns that kind of focus on big impact to help tackle the climate and ecological crisis. That's me.Krissie Leyland  2:32  Perfect. And Jess, what brands have you worked with?Jessica Ferrow  2:35  Sure, yeah. So I spent some time... Well, a few years ago, I was kind of working with large businesses. So mainly, like on corporate responsibility, so I did a lot of work doing sustainability reporting for companies like IKEA, Vodafone, BT, those kinds of organisations. And then lately I've been working more with purpose driven founder led BCorps so I work with Pukka - been working with Pukka for the last three or four years. Worked with Ella's kitchen, Finisterre... I've done some work with Ecover. And yeah, so it's just Oh, and was really one of the companies I'm working with the moment is Edgard and Cooper who made pet food, and I think your doggy eats Edgard and Cooper!Krissie Leyland  3:22  Yes he does! We just transferred him over fully. And he loves it.Jessica Ferrow  3:29  Great. Yeah. Krissie Leyland  3:29  We love it too, not to eat, but you know, the brand, I look at the packaging, and I'm just like, this is amazing. I'd probably eat that.Jessica Ferrow  3:37  Yeah, I feel like the rule for us, like for the kinds of brands we like to work with my co founder, Ellie and I, we often say like, Is it the kind of brand that we like, and we want to use? And that we maybe probably have in our cupboards or on our shelves? And if the answer is yes, then yeah, we want to work with them for sure.Krissie Leyland  3:54  Perfect. Rich Bunker  3:54  Cool. Krissie Leyland  3:55  Um, so what are the kind of projects that you work on with these brands? And what does the process usually look like, working with you?Jessica Ferrow  4:05  Yeah, so basically, what we tend to find is most businesses in the world they want to make a positive impact. Or they want it you know, more and more these days, people are waking up to what's going on in the world with the climate and with nature. And, or if they haven't yet, they're kind of, they're going to wake up soon. But they it's been amazing the last few years, ever since Gretta, has become a big name and and extinction rebellion and the school strikes and all the things that are happening. And then of course, now with pandemic, David Attenborough and all these things, people are waking up and now most businesses are feeling the pressure from them. Their employees or their customers or even just their own consciousness of just being a better business and doing better things for the world and leaving the world a better place than they found it. So what we do is we help businesses to navigate those challenges, because it's all very well saying I want to be really sustainable business, but a lot of people just have no idea where to start. So, yeah, what we'll do at Twelve is we help guide businesses through that process. And we normally help them to create a strategy, a sustainability strategy, which would help them identify targets and set a roadmap for improvement. And then also, we'd help them to communicate that with their consumers. We also help businesses to become BCorps and so if you don't know what B Corp is, it's certification for ethical and sustainable businesses. So it's, if you don't know what it is, you should definitely check it out. Because it's an amazing movement that's sweeping the globe. I know you guys know what it is.Krissie Leyland  5:49  There's something else that might sweep the globe that we worked on together recently. So obviously, we recently worked with you on a very exciting project. So we built the MindfulCommerce Sustainability Framework together. And it sounds like this isn't normally your usual style of project. So what were your initial thoughts when you? Well, when we approached you with this idea for the framework?Jessica Ferrow  6:17  Yeah, great question. So yeah, we loved working on the MindfulCommerce Framework you guys, what we love about that project is that normally would be working with one business, on their own sustainability strategy, and how they're going to become a more sustainable business themselves. So it's kind of on a micro level, when you approached us and talked about your vision for the MindfulCommerce Framework... It just is basically the same thing but on a whole industry level, or even beyond an industry because ecommerce isn't exactly an industry is a kind of, it's a what a channel, it's a it's a way people are selling. So it encompasses so much more on a much more macro scale, but it's a similar process that we followed with you to get to the result that we we wanted, we essentially, well, should we talk about the the project and what, what, what we did?Krissie Leyland  7:10  Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, talk us through like, so I approached you. And I said, or we said, actually, originally, I think I wanted to make my business more sustainable, and then work with you to define a framework for Kollectify and then you were like, I think it's bigger than that. Because we would then use that framework to help other businesses in the ecommerce industry to kind of do the same thing. And then, yeah,I totally forgot about that. Rich Bunker  7:43  Yeah, yeah it was because I suggested it is like, for us to be on not authoritative but have experienced the process, then we could better understand it, to deliver it and help others get to that place. So I was like, let's put Kollectify through it. But then you guys like, it's too big for Kollectify, it doesn't work enough for Kollectify, we need to go bigger.Jessica Ferrow  8:08  Yeah, I think that that's right. I think what happened was, it was just, it was great to see that you, it was really obvious when you first approached us is that you really wants to make an impact. But you weren't quite sure how you had a huge amount of energy, that you wanted to channel somewhere. But you and you want to have this positive impact in the world, but you just were like, help us figure out what to do. So I think what we really noticed that your vision to bring everyone together in this MindfulCommerce Community was was going to be the key. And what we really needed is something to hold together that community. Yeah, we needed a focus. So it's like you bring all these people through the door and saying we want to make ecommerce more sustainable, and more mindful. But when there's no answer to the question of Okay, how do you do that, then it's a little bit up in the air. So what we really wanted to create was a kind of best practice framework for all of the things that anyone working in ecommerce, can look at in terms of steps to become more sustainable, more ethical, more mindful. And then provide that to them as something they can work through.Krissie Leyland  9:20  Yeah. And then the next step was, you went and did loads of research. So yeah, do you wanna talk us through that?Jessica Ferrow  9:29  Sure. Naomi, you want to talk us through that? Naomi Lawson  9:31  Yeah, sure. I was also just going to say, because I wasn't on the initial phone calls as well. So I remember when Jessica briefed me as well. It was obviously a really exciting project, because we were talking about the fact that it could have a really big impact. And that really came through when we did the initial research as well, because it was clear that this was like a big open space where not a lot of work had been done. And it was and it was definitely needed. So it was Yeah, it was a great project to work on from that perspective. For our stakeholder research, we had a couple different approaches. Firstly, we did a survey for the MindfulCommerc

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Lucy Roberts:Brave The Skies - Shopify Plus AgencyReverie The Boutique - A Curation of Luxurious, Sustainable PiecesLinks Mentioned in Episode:CrueltyFreeKitty.com - A Directory of Cruelty Free BrandsSponsor:This podcast is sponsored by Kollectify, a content marketing agency working specifically with Shopify solutions to successfully position and promote the app or agency. Show notes:Krissie Leyland  00:00Hello and welcome to episode number four of the MindfulCommerce podcast. Today, I'm talking to Lucy Roberts, an amazing woman in e-commerce. Lucy is not only the MD of a Shopify Plus agency called Brave The Skies. She's also the founder of an online boutique called Reverie. Reverie is a curation of luxurious, sustainable and vegan pieces. Amongst some very girly giggling, we discuss how Lucy ended up in the e-com space, what it's like juggling two very big roles and how she's breaking the vegan, sustainable and luxurious debacle. And Lucy reveals her top e-commerce branding and marketing secrets, which you simply can't miss. I hope you enjoy.  Should we just start by talking about your story. So what's your story? What are you up to? How did you get to where you are now?Lucy Roberts  01:02Yeah of course. Um, it's quite a big question and I can give a long answer or a short answer. So I'm going to try and go somewhere in the middle. So I have been, I suppose, working in e-commerce since I was 18, which feels like a really long time now, because I've just celebrated my 30th birthday, which was exciting in lockdown. So I guess yeah, I've kind of worked client side and agency side, in the UK and in Australia. Obviously, at the moment, I manage a Shopify plus agency called Brave The Skies, which is super exciting. And the merchants that I get to work with are amazing. So I get to work with RIXO, with KITRI Studios, and it's just, it's really lovely to work with such amazing brands who really care about their products and their branding and that customer experience. It makes my days very, very happy. Um, but it's been, it's been nice to have so much experience on both sides of the fence. So I guess I started on client side, working at different e-commerce brands, here in the UK, and then in Australia. And it was always so interesting for me to be like hearing from customers and working, obviously, within the companies and talking to agencies, because there would always be, in my opinion, such a big disconnect between the brand and the tech partner. And it was almost like we weren't speaking the same language. So after I finished up working for Zimmerman, which was my last client side job, I ended up moving to an agency because I was really, really keen to understand, you know, all of these really creative ideas that we have on the brand side, how do we actually build it? And who builds it and how does it happen? And who needs to do what and how does that work with the ERP and the in-store experience and the online experience and email marketing and ads? So I joined, I joined at the time, it was a Magento agency, and we ended up diversifying into Shopify plus as well. And it was so much fun, kind of being able to fuse fashion and technology. And I ended up, yeah, really happily staying on the agency side. So I've been agency side now I think I'm in my seventh year. And being yeah, being at the at the head of an agency and being able to run it in the way that I want to run it is is super exciting. It's really rewarding. Krissie Leyland  03:32That's so cool. What's your role then as an MD, so I'm never really sure what it is?Lucy Roberts  03:39So it's really funny. So my team members, call me Mama Bear. I call myself an intern. And I guess technically, I'm an MD. It's um, it's a really, really varied role. So it kind of, every day is different, which is amazing, because I love variety. And I love change. There's some days I'm working with new business like talking to new merchants about what kind of solution they need, which tech partners they need to work with. Some days, I'm working with our existing merchants on what their new collection is going to be and how we're going to market it. What the website needs to do to support it. Some days, I'm working predominantly in HR and catching up with all of our team members, making sure they're all happy. And other days, I'm just trying to keep my head above water. Krissie Leyland  04:27It sounds like you are a lot of hats. You might just wake up in the morning. Be like what is on my schedule today. Lucy Roberts  04:37Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely some days it's a case of "Okay, I've actually got no meetings today. What am I going to do? Like where is my time going to be the best spent?" And other days like "Okay, which fire is the biggest? Which one needs to be put out first?"Krissie Leyland  04:52Oh, wow, that sounds really exciting.Lucy Roberts 04:55It is. Yeah, it's very, I think dynamic is a tactful word to use.Krissie Leyland  05:00Yeah, you have to be very organised. I bet Oh, but also quite flexible, which is probably the exciting bit. Lucy Roberts  05:07Yeah. And like, I'm really lucky. I've got the most amazing team and like the team really kind of keeps me in check and like, diverts me where they need me. So I'm really, I'm really lucky to have such a great team.Krissie Leyland  05:18Yeah, yeah, I bet. And So, do you want to talk a little bit about Reverie?  Lucy Roberts  05:24Yeah, absolutely. So I guess I started Reverie, officially, Reverie The Boutique launched at the end of August in the middle of lockdown. It had kind of been an idea that I'd had for, well, probably about five, six years, I'd known that I'd always wanted my own business. And I wanted it to be something but I wasn't quite sure what. And I decided to actually switch to a totally plant-based diet about four years ago now while I was living in Australia. I was working with an amazing brand that at the agency I was with at the time called Edible Beauty. And Anna, who was the founder of Edible Beauty taught me so much about natural skincare, vegan skincare. And I was just completely inspired by her to be honest. And everything at that point kind of came into focus for me like Reverie, could be this amazing destination that fuses luxury and sustainability because there wasn't really anything, anything like that at the time. And I was finding it really frustrating after turning vegan and starting to only use cruelty free products that I'd have to order everything from a different website and like I couldn't go to Sephora or Mecco like with the girls and and just shop because I'd be like, okay, is this is this lipstick vegan? Is it quality free? Okay, who's the parent company? Okay, does it sell in China? It was like, it was really exhausting. And it really took the fun out of shopping for me because my degree was in fashion, I'd always worked for fashion brands. And all of a sudden, it felt like a really, I don't know, like, like an industry that I couldn't be part of anymore. And I was like, well, that's rubbish, because surely there's a way to do it. It's just that maybe the people who are doing it on that prominent or they're smaller businesses that I just have to look a little bit harder for. So Reverie, I guess started off very much. I call it a daydream because obviously a daydream, a reverie is a daydream, a musing. And now I feel like it's become a reality which is super exciting. So I'm working with some amazing brands. The Wild One jewelry who do really beautiful handmade pieces from recycled gold and silver and the Honeymoon Apothecary, which do these beautiful vegan candles. George & Edi, which is a Wanaka based brand, gorgeous home fragrance really lovely diffusers and Edible Beauty as well. I spoke to Anna about my idea, and she wanted me to be her first UK stockist. So having her support throughout has been absolutely incredible.Krissie Leyland  07:54So exciting. I love it. Love it. You know I love it.Lucy Roberts  07:57And you've got your earrings. You love your earrings.Krissie Leyland  08:00Yes I'm actually wearing them right now.Lucy Roberts  08:02Are you? That makes me so happy. Krissie Leyland  08:04They're so nice. So, I'm kind of interested what, you know, your role as MD, as you know, fairly big Shopify agency, so does Reverie help with your roll at Brave The Skies? Lucy Roberts  08:06Yay! Yeah, definitely, I think they feed really nicely into each other. So at Brave The Skies, we got, we got so many inquiries from merchants of all different sizes, obviously, we work with RIXO, Manuka Doctor, you know, hundreds of thousands a year. And then we also get these inquiries from really quite small brands who are just starting up. And it's really difficult because one of the things that I'm really passionate about is helping people is, you know, I think that when it comes to starting a website or a business or anything, information should be really accessible. And more often than not the only tool you've really got is Google. And it's so easy to just go down an absolute rabbit hole and not find the answers that you want. So I guess previously, if we got an inquiry from a really small merchant who had say, zero budget, but had this amazing idea, I'd have to say I'm really sorry, we don't, we don't have the, you know, it's not feasible for us to help you for the budget that you've got. I mean, we're a big plus agency, we've got a lot of overheads to cover, having, you know, a local team. Whereas now, it's really nice for me to be able to spend, you know, half an hour, an hour on the phone to these people and say we as an agency can't really help you but I've completely bootstrapped this on my own. This is how I did it. I'm not a developer, I'm not a designer. I use this

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioWhere to find Gerry McGovern:Gerry McGovern's websiteGerry McGovern's Books - Including World Wide WasteContact Gerry - gerry@gerrymcgovern.comSponsor:This podcast is sponsored by Kollectify, a content marketing agency working specifically with Shopify solutions to successfully position and promote the app or agency Show notes:Krissie  0:00  Hello, and welcome to episode three of the Mindful Commerce podcast. I'm Krissie, and I'm your host for this episode. In this episode, I talk to a very inspiring man who knows all about sustainability on the web and his name is Gerry McGovern. Gerry has written a book called Worldwide Waste, which is all about how digital is killing our planet, and what we can do about it. In this episode, we talk about how the digital world is killing our planet and what Gerry thinks e-commerce brands and tech companies can do to combat the problem. Amongst many other topics, we discussed the ideal synergy of going back to localisation and community with a dash of innovative technology and less data collection. I hope you enjoy this episode. It's really fascinating. If you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to email us at info@mindfulcommerce.io and all the details will be in the show notes. Enjoy. Hi, Gerry, welcome to the MindfulCommerce podcast. Thank you for joining us today. Would you like to kick things off by just telling us your story and how you ended up where you are today?Gerry McGovern  1:22  Okay, Krissie, and Thanks for the invite to be here. I used to many years ago, I was a freelance journalist back in there in the 90s, in the early 90s, and doing all sorts of different work for music and some, a little bit technology as well. And I came across the internet very early, maybe about '93 or so '94, sometime around then. And I thought wow, this is gonna, it's gonna change the world. And basically, from then on one way or another, either true, you know, for a while, I got commissioned to do a report for the Irish government around '94, about the future of the internet and society. And so that kept me busy for a while and then started some companies and you know, some of those companies went bust and had the whole, had the whole dot com bust experience. And then, you know, started writing books, this is my last book, worldwide waste is my eight. And traveling and doing workshops and working with clients and developed a methodology called top task, which is a kind of a prioritization system for, you know, really focusing on what matters, and that's been my main kind of work for the last 10 or 15 years is helping organisations implement top tasks projects.Krissie  2:56  Okay, interesting, then, so when was it that you kind of realised that digital is not so great for our planet? So, obviously, if used in the right way, it's, it's great, but yeah, tell me a little bit about that.Gerry McGovern  3:12  Yeah, really, only maybe two or three years ago, you know, because I always changed my computer every two years, changed my phone every two years. And, you know, I really had the impression that, that I was lucky to be working a digital like, I was, you know, watching, you know, the movements out there, and, you know, Greta Thunberg, and all those other wonderful young people, you know, really being passionate and idealistic and trying to make changes, and I kinda, I thought that's, that's nice to see. And, you know, isn't it great that, you know, where I'm, what I'm doing is, is helping them and, you know, but I taught in the back of my head, then I realised I was taking back over my careers since the 90s. And just, it kind of struck me that so many times in so many organisations, what we needed to do, specifically, say I did a lot of work for Internet's for a number of years. And that internets were just dumps and that to make them work, we nearly always had to delete 80 or 90% of the data and then systems, going into organisations and finding five or six or seven systems for training and, you know, all these duplications of systems that just got the sense of "Wow this is an incredible amount of waste in here", and nearly all the projects I've worked on where, you know, huge dumps that either the public websites, I remember, you know dealing with the US Department of Health and in one area there 200,000 pages, and they deleted 150,000 of them and nobody noticed. They didn't get a single inquiry. And I kept just seeing that. So that kinda was in the back of my head. And I thought, wow, you know, maybe digital listeners, as green as I, you know, Todd was and then when I started doing research and looking at e-waste, you know, recognising e-waste in particular, because, you know, I, I never really saw where these old computers went or cables or stuff like that. So it was really digging into the dark e-waste story that, you know, began to open up some talks that maybe digital is, is not nearly as green as I had been thinking as was over most of my career.Krissie  6:01  Yeah, so e-waste in terms of like, you know, your laptops, your phones. And then like, do you know where they end up? Do they end up in landfill as well? Gerry McGovern  6:12  They do most of them. See, what we have, you know, us in the rich countries, we've created a really nice system where our air is clean, and, you know, our environments are very clean. But we've essentially outsourced waste. So we go to poor countries, and we get them to manufacture the products very, very cheaply. And whatever waste is accrued there. And, you know, in the manufacturing process, or getting the raw materials, it's rarely, like a lot of these raw materials are for, they're called rare, rare materials, because they are rare. And they're difficult to find. And often they're found in virgin habitats, or, you know, in Western Africa, where the great apes, you know, there's certain type of rare, rare that's only found there. And, you know, in unusual places, that humans had not really been in insignificant numbers. So that's how we, you know, we suck all those raw materials out of certain countries then we give those materials to people in other more poor developing countries. And then we get our nice shiny products. And then two years later, we dumped them. But what happens is, they often get back to the very set back to the very same countries that the raw materials were dug up in. So we recycle less than 20%. And even recycling is incredibly crude, like a lot of like, somebody was telling me that in data centres, they just shred, they shred the servers that are working perfectly well, you know, every three or four years, they just shred them for either security or privacy, or they're worried that data might be accessed on them. So there's these perfectly working servers, because they've got this commitment to uptime, you know, they, they have to meet 99.9% uptime. So they don't want to take that statistical chance that the server will break. So even recycling is most recycling does not actually recycle in any real sense. And then the other 80% are put on big containers and, and are sent back to poor countries where they often end up in landfills, and they end up being burned, you know, with toxic fumes, so as to get out some gold or wood. So they're in open pits. So this, we never see these pictures when we see the Apple iPhone or the or the Samsung, we see the most beautiful things. But behind the scenes is a very ugly, very ugly world that we've created. But our world looks great, you know, because we outsource. We outsource all the nasty stuff to places that consumers won't see.Krissie  9:18  That's crazy. That's really crazy. So would you say, so someone like me? Oh, what can I do? Can I just you know, don't upgrade my phone every year or two?Gerry McGovern  9:32  Yeah, that's the single biggest thing. Like somebody did a study recently at a UK entity and they said that "If you kept your phone for five years versus two years, you essentially have the water issue in making devices" so they're making less phones, right. So you, you cut in half the amount of water required and the amount of co2. So keeping it between two and five years, has a huge makes a huge difference. Because, see, the problem with electronics is that electronics are very manufacturing intensive. So, the piece of electronics requires much more energy to create than a screwdriver or a knife, you know, or, you know, some other physical object. So there's a much higher intensity of energy. And as with energy is waste and often material. So these rare earth materials to get one tonne of Iridium or whatever it is, I can't remember they did, there's about 16 or 17 rare materials, well, you probably need to do 100 tonnes of mining. And often that mining is a kind of a pollutant, they add a kind of chemicals to actually filter out these materials. So, so the the very act of mining is very toxic in the environments that it actually happens in. And it creates these huge large kind of lakes because they use a lot of water and chemicals, that kind of have got to be dammed up in in the area. So, if we hold on to, and I think I think what we need to do, as well as somehow is to agitate for repairability and fixability, because many of these phones are deliberately designed to break. Krissie  11:43  YesGerry McGovern  11:44  So they deliberately designed them so the designers sit around, deliberately specking out how do we make this not work after 2, 3, 4 years? And often it's with software updates, you know, so there's a deliberate strategy to actually break our phones. So that sort of, we have to buy more stuff. So, you know, there's the right to repair. There's movements beginning in the European Union are looking at, so holding on and if your phone breaks, trying

Find us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioLinks mentioned:CarbonClick WebsiteCarbonClick Facebook CarbonClick Instagram CarbonClick Climate Friendly Cart on ShopifyContact Jan - Jan@CarbonClick.comShow notes:Krissie Leyland  00:00Hello, and welcome to episode number two of the MindfulCommerce podcast. In this episode I, Krissie, talk to Jan from Carbon Click, a carbon offsetting platform that makes it really easy to add carbon offsets to the checkout. We talk about how e-commerce merchants and their customers can offset their carbon footprint and why CarbonClick feels this is important. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to email us at info@mindfulcommerce.io. And as always, the full details of this episode will be in the show notes. Would you like to introduce yourself and CarbonClick?Jan Czaplicki  00:41Thanks, Krissie. Pleasure to be here. So yes, obviously, my name is Jan. Difficult surname Czaplicki. The origin of that, I guess is, I'm from Norway, but my parents are Polish. So that's why I have that difficult surname. Spent some time in London and funny that we, you know, used to live not too far from each other a few years ago. Well, now I'm actually in New Zealand. So on the absolute other side of the world, which is, you know, quite exciting and really the grand scheme of things because it feels like we're just, you know, neighbours. So, yeah, well, as you said, I'm co founder of CarbonClick and CarbonClick is carbon company, what we sort of the story that we normally say, when introducing CarbonClick is it started when I was working at an airline back in the day when you know, used to fly, one of the selections in that booking process is, do you want to offset the carbon emissions of your flight? And it got me thinking, this is a relatively simple question. But for the airline, it was not an easy feat to add that. So that sort of initial thought led me to go into a rabbit hole. And a few weeks later, me and a few other colleagues, we ended up thinking, what if we could make this question, make it very simple for businesses to ask their customer "Do you want to contribute with a carbon offset at the checkout?" And yeah, two years later, we have pretty much launched our system and we might get into this in detail later but it's really a off the shelf carbon offsetting platform with multiple ways to enter that platform. One of the ways is a Shopify plugin. But we also have other channels to that core system. And, yeah, we officially launched during COVID, which is terrible time to launch any business. But it's been a very exciting journey so far, and got some good, good traction and good early results. So really excited about that.Krissie Leyland  03:04That's great. So did you first launch in e-commerce straightaway? And or was there anything else that you thought about launching the app for so offsetting?Jan Czaplicki  03:17Yeah, great question. So yes, because we were sort of born at an airline, we were initially focusing on airlines, airports and tourism. Then COVID came along, and that entire sector went sort of to a hibernation mode, where the business, the core business is at risk. So sustainability, unfortunately, for a lot of those businesses, takes a second sort of back row seat and those projects we had going with those businesses were either put on hold or cancelled, which is really unfortunate. But because we had built that core system that was effectively untouched, and when I was initially designing the system, I was designing it with the size of the problem in mind. So climate change is absolutely the biggest problem out there. So I always thought we need a very flexible core system to support more or less any business to use it, use CarbonClick. So it was very easy for us to, I avoid using the word pivot, it was very easy for us to refocus to e-commerce and we went ahead, we had a prototype Shopify plugin and we decided one of the industries that COVID will not impact will be e-commerce. So we decided to focus purely on e-commerce for a number of months. And yeah, we tidied up our Shopify plugin and started offering that to the world. And 450 merchants later, we're starting to see some some good early results. Which is very exciting.Krissie Leyland  05:01That's really cool. So in e-commerce then, what are the things that you offset? So where's the biggest impact coming from in e-commerce?Jan Czaplicki  05:10Yeah. So this is, this is a great question because we initially thoughth "Hey, let's try to have some smarts behind the system." Let's try to offset the freight or offset, and then approximation of the product's carbon footprint. But when we went out to talk to users, and we tried to do this, as much as possible is just to understand who our users are, and what do they want? They were very often kind of confused when we said "Do you want to offset your freight for 17 cents?" or whatever it was, it was normally a very low, low figure. And I remember specifically, this one gentleman told me "You know what, if you're asking me to carbon offset, just make it meaningful. Like, I've already read that sentence, I don't want to offset 17 cents, I want to offset at least a dollar." So that became our go to market offering and although we're still working on a clever calculator in the background, normally, merchants and consumers are very happy with a round figure, because with $1, or with £1, you're offsetting, sorry, I can't do conversion in my head. But it's quite a few hundred kgs of co2 that you're offsetting with a relatively small contribution. And when you're looking at individual product, that's actually not that big of a carbon footprint. Take a T shirt, for example, that's about 15 kgs, similar with a pair of shoes, 10 to 15 kgs. So why not ask the customer to offset some carbon and make it as impactful as possible, which is where we're at right now. And it's having, it's a interesting approach that merchants are really enjoying and customers are also providing great feedback on so we might actually stay with that.Krissie Leyland  07:07Yeah, that's great. And it might be then that they're actually offsetting more than the product. So you know, if it's 17 cents, that the product is the weight in carbon, for example. Then they might be offsetting more than that by donating or not donating but giving $1 of offsetting $1. And so when you say that you're doing things in the background to measure more and more accurately, I guess, what is it that you're looking at? How do you see yourself? As a business, how are you measuring carbon usage of an e-commerce purchase?Jan Czaplicki  07:50Yeah, so because just coming back to that sort of original thought I had where this has to be scalable, has to be a mass scale, because the problem is so huge. So we thought, any small medium, and quite a few large e-commerce businesses, they don't have the capacity to go in and do deep dives into the carbon footprint of their product. So what we're looking to build, and this is still in the research phase for us, is a system that will approximate the carbon footprint of everything you're selling by using data that's already out there. And what it will do is it will look at, at what you're selling, so identified, let's say it's a pair of shoes, and it will look at any other information that has about that product you're selling. So for example, if your shoes are made in Vietnam, it will look into the database, and it will see okay, we know how much a shoe made in China, the carbon footprint of a shoe made in China. But what that tool will do in the background is will actually just change some of the so called emissions factors in the background, adjust them for Vietnam, and give you an approximation of, Hey, your shoes are approximately this carbon footprint. And I'm super passionate about this project. But yeah, I'm so glad we went live with with an MVP or with a basic offering because I think there's minimum six months left of research, just figuring out how to solve this problem before we can start offering merchants one of these sort of clever calculators in the background.Krissie Leyland  09:30Yeah, it's so huge. It's so huge. And that's talking about the product and then, you know, you've got the shipping and then the digital footprint and so much and it's like, like a rabbit hole. Once you start, you can't stop but it's kind of like yeah, it's just an entire journey, isn't it?Jan Czaplicki  09:50Yeah, I agree. And it feels sometimes like the more you dig into it, the harder it gets to take a step forward. Which is actually one of the, one of the main reasons why. So I started with the story with, you know, the airline example but what I'm thinking is that this is a powerful tool, this carbon offsetting thing. Because it's difficult it, or it's confusing, or you don't have all the data you need, it becomes too hard and merchants and people, businesses all around the world are putting it into the too hard basket. And that there I think, is real wasted opportunity, because carbon offsets are a tool in the toolkit of sustainability. And they are effective, and they work now. So I think unlocking some of that potential is going to be a real well, it will contribute to solving the climate change problem.Krissie Leyland  10:53Yeah, definitely. Hundred percent. I mean, I think you could say, well, just don't buy that product at all. But if you really need it, then that's when you would offset. What, in your opinion, you know, say for example, now you're on holiday, and you've flown somewhere and obviously, your story started from flying and seeing that you can offset. So are, have you already offset this holiday? Where did you go and how does that look?Jan Czaplicki  11:24Yeah, so

HeyLow WebsiteFind us: Head to our community page to register & join the MindfulCommerce community as an expert, brand or merchantInstagram: @mindfulcommerceFacebook @MindfulCommerceContact Us - info@mindfulcommerce.ioMentioned Links:Precious PlasticsOrganic Basics Low Impact WebsiteMastodon - Twitter AlternativeSignal - WhatsApp AlternativeEcosia - Google AlternativeShow notes:Krissie Leyland  00:00Hello, and welcome to episode number one of the MindfulCommerce podcast. In this episode, I Krissie, talk to Saskia and Nico from HeyLow, a creative studio designing and building low carbon brands. We talk about the disturbing fact that the internet is dirty, and every website has a digital carbon footprint. Saskia and Nico reveal some quick and long term wins to create a low carbon brand and website. This episode is super fascinating and might completely change your mindset about the internet. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to email us at info@mindfulcommerce.io. And as always, the full details will be in the show notes.Welcome Saskia and Nico, I'll dive straight in! What made you decide to start offering low carbon web design as a service?Saskia  00:56So Nico, and I met at Precious Plastic, which was a year long project based in the Netherlands. We were designing and building open source machines to reduce plastic waste around the world. There was this huge community activism project but 70,000 users around the world. Anyway, Nico and I were both on the digital team. So I'm background UX, Nico's back UI and we actually worked on the digital tools together. And then, yeah, I mean, it was a year of really understanding, much deeper the climate crisis and how interconnected it is with all about different types of industries. Because we work on the web, and we had some much bigger explorations into it, and kind of finding out facts, like, the internet is actually more of a carbon producer in the sorry, then all of the airlines put together and, and so this is just like, not a narrative that we hear around what the internet is. And it really is just a large dumping ground for stuff that has to be powered by, basically dirty energy. So we decided to pair together and Nico can talk a little bit about it. He has a long background in low impact. But yeah, we just joined together because it seemed like the right thing to do. And yeah, it's been a really great response so far.Krissie Leyland  02:23That's amazing because yeah, you've never really think about your, well, I do now but I didn't used to think about my impact on the planet in terms of just googling something or, you know, landing on a website. You just think you can't see it, it's not physical, so you don't really think about it.Nico  02:43The story written around the internet, we talk a lot about the clouds. And like, it seems to be a wave, not like a physical thing. But actually, it is like it's a big spaces with a lot of computers, the servers and it takes like a lot of energies. And even you have to build the structure like the cables. You have to build the computers and charge your devices. And  because it's like, digital and not something physical. We think it doesn't exist, actually. It's real.Krissie Leyland  03:25Yeah, exactly. And it's just, you know, I guess. So when did you first learn about low carbon websites?Nico  03:36So I don't remember exactly. But my side, I think it was like something like four years ago. And, then I loved the fact about like the the flight industry, the fact the internet is more carbon intensive than the oil industry. And actually, in the news, we talk only about frying, like, the shame of things that like that. And then when I thought about I was like "Wow, Oh my god, this is like, not amazing, the opposite". And I was like, wow, maybe I should do something about it. Because it's also my watch. And yeah, it was an idea in my mind, like for four years and learn a bit about that. And yes, Saskia already told, we met last year and at some point, it was like obvious. We have to do something and walk on that small and it's also like a great design exercise actually. Yeah, for designers, it's pretty cool. It's even more exciting like to design in another way.Krissie Leyland  04:50Yeah. One of the people that asked the question is actually a web designer and she's like, she's hosts her website on Square Space and was just like "Oh no, this is really bad." And so she asked the question of, you know, how, what are the simple, quick wins that a web designer can do or recommend to their clients to like improve their website that's already up and live?Nico  05:21So the first thing is the hosting. So it's where you put your websites, which server. And for that, then you need to be, the data centre need to be run on renewable energy. You save a really a lot of carbon by doing that. And it's kind of, like it's not really about the design of the website, that model structure. It's like when you're designing a product, a physical products, is like the sourcing of materials. Let's say it's like the equivalence, the equivalence with the websites is the server and the hosting services. This is really the first step.Saskia  06:06It's a little difficult when it comes, because places like SquareSpace. Obviously, they don't run on renewable energy and a lot of the really big, big conglomerates that exist in the internet space. Kind of, they're not very transparent around how they actually use energy for their data centres. So it's a little bit tricky. When it is just you know, we obviously use green hosting for all of our projects. But when you're using services like SquareSpace, or other ones, it's very hard to have control over that, unfortunately. Yeah, the hosting is the most important thing.Nico  06:44For example, there is a lot of services using Google Cloud Platform. I think actually should be fine to use it. And Google is claiming they are like 100%, green. But in the meantime, for events, they help oil company on the job, like to perform even more. So first, that means that Google is not green. And also they got data centres in the world were like, not running on green energy. And they came out green just because they're like, compensate. They offset the emission. And we don't think is the way to do it. Like, you can't really like you can't really claim you're green because you compensate. It's like it's kind of a real thing for us.Krissie Leyland  07:40So offsetting is like, a secondary option.Saskia  07:45Yeah, I mean, you can imagine what it takes to create the energy, you know, you're pulling something out of the earth, or the infrastructure that's created to pull that oil out of the earth, and then it goes through all these ginormously complex processes to be able to be performed into energy. You can't just plant a tree to take that energy out, you know, like, you're comparing the output of carbon by, you know, powering something versus actually the entire infrastructure. And we actually need to be able to move towards a much more green infrastructure. We need to be putting out dollars, you know, and into an opportunity that makes it easy for people to be like, "Okay, cool. Like, this is really valuable to the earth now." Because while I think offsetting programs can be beneficial, they are not equal to, yeah, what it takes the infrastructure and the damage that's created of pulling it out of the earth in the first place.Krissie Leyland  08:42Yeah, so being green first. So using the right server, like a green, do you call it a green server?Saskia  08:52Yeah, green hosting.Nico  08:53Yeah. We can call it that. We should already like, compensate the green energy, because even the green energy are emitting carbon. Yeah, actually. So yeah, like, green green, green energy.Saskia  09:12It's kind of impossible to be carbon free.Krissie Leyland  09:14Yeah. So then, I guess, at what point in a brand's journey then, should they think about, you know, being or choosing the right platform? You know, if they've already got a website in place, is that too late?Saskia  09:31I think that it is not fair to say that everybody should move to be green right now. I think that obviously, if they're, if there's the time and the space and the money to move, I think that's the right time. But you know, you have to be a financially viable business before you can have the investment for that. And I do really believe in small businesses and like a much more distributed economy. So I really admire people that run their own businesses, but I actually come from a long line of family businesses. I know, I know how hard it can be. But I mean, there's no, there's no real one time. I mean, whether you're a small young business, or whether you're very well established, um, anyone can make the move. It's actually probably easier at the beginning than it is if you're much more established. But yeah, anyone can make the move at any time, I wouldn't say that there's like one time to do that.Krissie Leyland  10:23Okay. So do you think then So say, for example, me, I've got a website, and it's also on Square Space. And would it be more efficient to kind of swap my internet provider, build a website from scratch that is low carbon or do things like plant a tree? Like offsetting, which you said, isn't necessarily the best way. What would you recommend I do?Saskia  10:58It really depends if you have the time and the space and the money. You know, like, it's not so much like we said it, we don't believe that just offsetting is the same as not producing the carbon in the first place. So when when people have the time and the space, I think that's the time for them to actually move. But I don't think a low carbon website versus a website on dirty energy plus trees planting is an equal game. What do you think?Nico  11:32Exactly that. You could also can iterate your switch and start by maybe looking at your actual webs