I’m a long time “wanna-be” social justice activist, but being a conflict averse introvert, I was never really built for it. When I lived in London for a time, I remember taking a very long day trip to Edinburgh to join the “Make Poverty History” march during the G8 summit in 2005. My companions successfully manoeuvred their way past police to join the protest. My path was blocked by an officer who told me to nick off. So I took myself off to the nearby Fair Trade store and shopped up a storm on products with social impact. The credit card is mightier than the sword?!
It was during my stint living in the U.K. in the mid 2000’s that I found myself totally inspired by the growing fair trade and corporate social responsibility movements. Brands like Innocent Smoothies had cult-like followings of customers who loved their delicious smoothies and their social impact stories.
Reading the book “Business as Unusual” by The Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, was another game changer for me: I desperately wanted to be part of this amazing business movement changing the world.
Returning to Australia, where fair trade and CSR were still considered quite fringe, I struggled to find a “fit” and I ended up on a conventional corporate marketing career trajectory. I yearned for more purpose in my work but I never quite found it in corporate. Instead I tried to scratch that itch by doing volunteer work with Oxfam and making donations to humanitarian groups.
I actively sought out brands with an ethical ethos to spend my money with. This is where the seed of a business idea was planted. Ten or so years ago, buying ethically invariably meant sacrificing on design and aesthetics. I wanted to buy gifts with gorgeous design and incredible quality first and foremost, that had the added layer of being socially conscious: Beautiful gifts that did good too.