SMEs

Creating scents with a difference

Szilvia Szabó — Tue, 14 May 2024 14:24:00 +0000

Creating scents with a difference

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Sustainable Business

Organic Farming

SMEs

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Sustainable business

Driving positive change can happen in every industry, and no drop is too small when it comes to sustainability.

When Benoit Nicole started his business, The Nature of Things, he was looking for key elements such as creating a line of essential oils that embody top-quality ingredients and care for the natural environment and local communities.

Building on over 20 years of experience in the perfume industry allowed him to learn from the best, know the pitfalls, and polish his senses to identify high-end raw materials and products.

Originally from the west of France, he spent decades in New York working for leading brands in the field, gathering insights on how essential oils are made, distributed or marketed for various user needs from the food industry to vitamin supplements and perfumes.

Benoit Nicole, Founder and CEO of The Nature of Things

“The best ‘noses’ in the business taught me how to smell, how oils can live together and how they can make you feel, while scientists and aromatherapists taught me the positive effects the oils can have on your health and well-being.”

He also witnessed how different strategies were built to ensure that brands were not only ahead of change but also driving change.

“In the mid-80s, sustainability was an emerging word that was not really considered in most business plans,” says Benoit.

He was inspired by other industry business leaders, like Aveeda, one of the pioneers in using organic materials.

“They pushed for organic certification before people even talked about sustainability and invested in suppliers to produce sustainably.”

He recalls that Aveeda`s founder once said, "The more we grow, the more impact we will have on the world, so it is my responsibility to ensure that we do this in a way that has a positive impact.”

After falling in love with an Irish girl and moving to Ireland in 2019, he decided it was time to put all his passion and learnings into creating his own line of essential oils that reflect his values and offer customers an extraordinary experience.

Right from the start, he understood sustainability is far too complex to be handled rigidly when it comes to managing suppliers.

“My approach is to have the best in class in my supply chain and work with distillers who care for the environment and the local community besides delivering quality materials.”

However, given that he sources ingredients from all corners of the world, such as Atlas Cedar from Morocco, Eucalyptus from Spain, Ylang Ylang from Madagascar, and Lavender from France, it is clear that a one-size-fits-all mindset won`t work.

Wherever applicable, he looks for organic and Fair Trade certificates. Still, suppliers need not be certified if their circumstances don`t allow them to.

"My extensive experience helps me decide which distillers are genuinely producing sustainable products.Visiting the sites and having conversations with owners and managers provides an opportunity to learn their true nature of business and their unique way of managing land, processes, and people.”

Instead of forcing certifications, Benoit takes the time to truly engage with suppliers, whether in person or remotely, and dig deep enough to get an overall picture of their business using different sources of information.

"For instance, if they don`t have Fair Trade, how can they offer similar assurances, like fair wages? How do they manage people who work in the fields?

All these aspects help me understand the complex system they have in place for farming the whole year round.”

He adds that these suppliers typically run smaller operations, so no big corporate policies would apply, making adapting other evaluations more sense.

Benoit explains that in these cases, looking at the environmental impact in terms of energy, water, farming practices, alternatives for pesticides like organic fertiliser, or basic solutions like plants that repel bugs can be more meaningful than being certified.

Besides managing the supply chain, he also pays attention to running a conscious company, using paper or glass packaging or higher-quality plastic that can be better recycled while minimising its impact through logistics and other operational areas.

“Although about 90 per cent of our sales are to retail, we receive enquiries from our customers asking for more information on our ingredients and sourcing regarding sustainability, which clearly shows an interest in these areas. They even send back bottles to be reused.”

He adds that The Nature of Things is a small company, so they aim to focus on the most relevant areas to minimise their environmental impact.

“I like to think that we are successful and will be successful in the future because we are going for top quality and sustainability."

To him, sustainability also means profitability, so they can be fair with suppliers and partners. Their branding and visuals reflect Benoit's love for art and his desire to present their products in a way that amplifies their natural approach and inspires customers.

To lead by example, The Nature of Things is a certified member of the Irish Organic Association and also a member of 1% For the Planet, which means that 1% of their total revenues every year is donated to support environmental causes.

“This is close to my heart, and customers and retailers know that they are contributing a little bit to a good cause.”

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Most Irish SMEs plan to increase or maintain investment in sustainability

Bronagh Loughlin — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:55:09 +0000

Most Irish SMEs plan to increase or maintain investment in sustainability

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Business Sustainability

SMEs

Topic

Business

Irish Water, Uisce Éireann published its SME Sustainability Sentiment Survey, which found that 94 per cent of Irish SMEs plan to increase or maintain their investment in sustainability.

This represents nine out of 10 Irish SMEs that plan to keep their investment in the next 12 months to meet the demand for more sustainable services and products.

About the survey

The research conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes (B&A) inspired these developments, and over 350 SMEs were interviewed.

The purpose of the survey was to get their opinion on the importance of investing in sustainability for their customers and businesses. In addition, to examine the barriers that currently exist to investment in sustainability.

What were the results of the survey?

Most of the survey respondents (73 per cent) said they intend to maintain the current levels of investment. However, over 1 in 5 responded that they would expect to raise their spending in this specific area.

The research determined that satisfying customers’ desire for more eco-friendly services and products is now the second (43 per cent) critical key driver influencing SME decision-making concerning investment in sustainability. This ranked behind cost savings (55 per cent).

Over half of the Irish SMEs (52 percent) shared they feel operating a responsible business attracts more customers too. Cost concerns and rising prices continue to be stand-out barriers to investing more in sustainability initiatives and strategies for 72 per cent of SMEs.

Lack of education or information and Government support also remains a barrier to investment for 45 per cent of SMEs.

The survey also uncovered that most Irish SMEs (64 per cent) are unaware or uncertain as to how to access support, including financial guidance and information to achieve sustainable savings.

What does the research mean, and how is Uisce Éireann supporting Irish SMEs?

This research gathered by Uisce Éireann reveals that Irish SMEs recognise the importance of providing sustainable services and products to their customers. With this in mind, most of them are planning to either continue putting money into sustainability or increase their investment to introduce new sustainable solutions and practices.

In saying that, the survey did highlight there is a lack of guidance and education for businesses surrounding sustainability.

Nine out of ten respondents shared they do not know what to do or how to access support.

Uisce Éireann is trying to tackle this by offering a suite of easy-to-access and free resources to assist SMEs in becoming more eco-friendly and cutting costs when it comes to the use of water.

This includes their Annual Certification Scheme and Water Stewardship Programme.

The decision to launch these resources comes as they recognise the challenges facing SMEs and their concerns around sustainability.

They have said SMEs understand the value of water to their business but that they desperately need to become more water-aware.

Headline image by benzoix on Freepik

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Irish entrepreneur disrupting the market with a simple circular idea

Bronagh Loughlin — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 18:42:52 +0000

Irish entrepreneur disrupting the market with a simple circular idea

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A small business seamlessly translating the circular economy model into a gap-filling solution.

The early successes of the premium second-hand baby goods marketplace, Kindora, suggest a significant market opportunity for businesses to offer cost-efficient and eco-conscious solutions.

This up-and-coming business has launched in Ireland, seamlessly translating the circular economy model into a simple, yet, gap-filling business solution.

Kindora is on a mission to help parents in Europe access the best products with a less negative impact on the environment or crippling families financially.

Co-Founder Sarah Ouellette shares some insights about their initial idea of disrupting the baby goods market:

“European parents are looking for sustainability paired with affordability.

As I looked around our home, I saw that our child – not even a year old – was already leaving a trail of lovely, barely-used things.

I searched for a marketplace where these top quality items could be bought, sold or even rented. When I didn’t find one, I decided I’d try to create one.”

Sarah Ouellette, Kindora Co-Founder, Image: Kindora

In early development, Kindora conducted a survey of 100+ first time parents and parents-to-be in Ireland.

71% said that positive impact on the environment would motivate them to buy second-hand items, and only 28% indicated cost savings as a factor.

An interesting fact that an average new pram requires 16 different materials and is equivalent to making over a thousand disposable coffee cups as 33% of pram components are made of plastic.

However, Sarah realised early on that primary drawback for consumers when it comes to second-hand items is cleanliness, safety and quality control, which is why many businesses fear adopting a resale model.

“We only deal in premium, trusted brands, and in items that are suitable for reuse.

We screen and clean every item before we send it off to its new home.

We check it, take it apart, give it a hospital-grade cleaning, and reassemble it.

As parents, we knew that’s what it would take to give us peace of mind,” says Sarah about their process of handling second-hand items.

Analysing products best resale value and lifespan help parents to buy better and buy less. Image: Kindora

Besides addressing these concerns they set out to analyse what products have the best resale value, the longest lifespan to help parents buy better and buy less, essentially to do the right thing, the easy thing.

Adopting the circular economy approach could be an exciting market opportunity for startups and SMEs, given the forecasted market growth and consumer behaviours changes.

Second-hand fashion is expected to gain huge popularity in the coming years as more and more consumers realise the importance of sustainability.

A 2020 report by ThredUp found that the second-hand market is set to hit $64 billion within the next five years, and leading this growth is the resale sector.

Beyond the environmental benefits of adopting a circular economy approach, there are many other benefits for a business.

For one thing, the increasing scarcity of non-renewable resources, ie. Fossil fuels, minerals and metals result in higher resource prices and price volatility.

By adopting a circular economy model, businesses can lower the number of materials they need while still meeting their customers’ needs.

Another way the circular economy benefits business is by ultimately giving you a green image and better positioning of your brand.

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of the products they purchase. As a result, they are aligning their purchasing decisions with their sustainability values.

Thinking circular in a business is like looking through a new lens at its operations and revenue model.

This could provide new insights and therefore, stimulate innovation while also offering an opportunity for growth by exploring new niches, which are ideal for startups and SMEs.

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How can tech startups benefit from applying ethics?

Szilvia Szabó — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 21:16:52 +0000

How can tech startups benefit from applying ethics?

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Topic

Responsible Innovation

Ethics

Innovators can access free to use tech ethics booklet to build resilience and create more value

A small group of members of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council for Values, Ethics and Innovation, designed a gap-filling practical booklet to help startups and SMEs explore hidden commercial risks and trigger better innovations through the integration of tech ethics.

After considering that tech ethics mainly targets big business, they decided to publish the 'Tech Ethics for Start-Ups and SMEs’ booklet.

Hilary Sutcliffe, lead athour of the ‘Tech Ethics for Start-Ups and SMEs’ booklet

It aims to offer a quick overview of how ethics can be discussed and managed in innovative businesses without massive resources.

This can be especially useful, where these issues can provide great opportunities if handled well, or potentially devastating risks if poorly managed.

The lead author of this publication Hilary Sutcliffe, director of London-based not-for-profit SocietyInside, shares more insights in this backstage interview.

Hilary was recently named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021 and in her work, she explores issues related to trust, ethics, values, and governance of technology - especially concerning nanotech, biotech and AI – through collaborative research.

“We have designed the ‘Tech Ethics for Start-Ups and SMEs’ booklet as an easy-to-take on board advice for companies, in particular, developing or using new and emerging technologies, in all countries, across all sectors.

I have been working on issues of company ethics since the mid-1990s and witnessed the evolution of business responsibility from being sidelined community relations and philanthropy topic to becoming a more complex core business issue that could determine success on the market.

Our work over 20 years in ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ suggests if companies start thinking about this early, and continue to take these issues seriously as they grow, they can head off the problems currently facing so many before they become disasters.

So much of the airtime and attention on ethical business is directed at big tech companies, but big tech grows from small tech.

We wanted to create an unassuming, accessible little booklet to be read by someone in a startup or small company.

With the help of other experts, we shaped the content to be easy to follow.

Main contributors are including Prof Angie Hobbs from the University of Sheffield, UK, Pamela Mar from the Fung Academy Hong Kong, Dr Emad Yaghmaei from the Technical University of Delft and Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

In tech, often they know they should be thinking about this, but don’t have much time and don’t quite know where to start and what sort of things it might practically entail.

The publication explores the difference between values and ethics; highlights some examples and ways of working, which will help navigate ethical issues and some ideas on ethics in practice from companies in different tech areas.

It showcases some accessible ideas of what ethics is, why it’s important now, even in these testing times, and how some companies approach ethical thinking in various tech sectors.

Sprinkled in there are a few motivational quotes and cool ways to simply make it normal to discuss and resolve ethical dilemmas in small businesses.

One of my favourite examples of how ethics can be translated into business strategy is the Riversimple company, which designs hydrogen cars.

The Riversimple company exhibits the benefits of applying ethics in business, Image: Riversimple

They have gone far beyond their core purpose to “To pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport”.

The amazing way they have aligned their entire business model, supply chain, governance and business processes towards this purpose provides a valuable learning opportunity about how to turn this way of thinking into a market advantage.

All, while disrupting the sector and making a cool car in the process.

There is massive potential in putting ethics on your business agenda.

Ethical issues are a fantastic catalyst for innovative thinking - after all, innovation in all spheres invariably comes from problems identified and new ways found to solve them!

I’m not sure you really ‘apply’ ethics, so much as decide to act upon a belief that issues of right and wrong - values and morals - have a place in business, particularly in relation to the business impact on people and planet.

One of my co-authors, Dr Emad Yaghmaei, Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, has put it this way:

“Ethics in my view is the integration of objective rights and subjective values into a common and contextual framework rather than only doing the right thinking in the research and innovation process and being a set of predefined rules impeding progress.

Following this line, ethics concerns the analysis and integration of different values and norms into the design and development of research and innovation, which can trigger the execution of Responsible Innovation.”

The five key focus areas that you will find in the booklet:

Dr Emad Yaghmaei, Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

Ethics could be your biggest hidden commercial risk - so put it on your Risk Register.
Find out what ethical issues matter to you.
Start with values and work from there.
Make it normal to discuss ethics and think about problems in advance.
Be collaborative in resolving issues.

This is not the usual set of guidelines or a framework - there are plenty of those available already.

It is designed for the step before that.

We haven’t got a magic formula for every possible scenario; therefore, this booklet's focus is not on providing a long list of potential issues to scroll through, but about how organisations can find out for themselves what their relevant ethical issues are.

Each organisation will have its own systems and processes and will need to find their way of dealing with them in the context of their sector, country, culture.

Using the ‘Tech Ethics for Start-Ups and SMEs’ booklet teams could efficiently work in a collaborative process that would help them deal with dilemmas and find solutions to ethical problems.

This free to use publication was officially launched on 28th January 2021, ready to make its way to innovators to create better innovations that would serve everyone better.

We would love to do more to promote the guidelines and reach out to innovators.

We welcome opportunities to do that and of course, funding to set up more events and platforms to bring these ideas to the attention of tech companies everywhere.”

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