Founding Member: 
​Hippie Artisan Kombucha

Formed in 2015, Hippie Food Company, has been delivering organic Kombucha to the people of Australia.

But they were challenged by the amount of waste that they saw was left behind in their production process.  Moving to sustainable packaging was part of a solution, but not the whole. 

Taking onboard the 3 key guiding principles defining circular economy design; 

• design out waste and pollution;
• keep products and materials in use;
• regenerate natural systems
  
  

Hippie continue to improve as they grow.  Moving towards a circular economic model is not a destination, it's a journey, and will continue to be a moving target. 

In February 2020, they launched their circular Hippie @ Home delivery model. This provides customers the ability to return 100% of their packaging, which includes eco-liners, eco-cooling bricks, and sustainably sourced packaging, along with their 500ml glass bottles, for a refund on future orders up to $9.00. 

Innovation Lead Rob Whyte said, "It's time to redefine value.  We value spending less on virgin materials, we value charging less to our customers, and they value a business that cares. It's a model that works well, and feels good. We are a Kombucha business, we sell a product, not packaging.  Over the years, Marketing & Packaging messages blurred the lines. We want to bring the focus back onto what we're here to do - to sell quality healthy Kombucha to our customers. If we can cut back on the expensive adjuncts to marketing, we will, and we will happily pass this saving on to our loyal customers."

2020 has been a positive year for change for Hippie & the team. COVID-19 has shown us that people care about local producers, and the impact harmful production can have on the eco-system.  They continue to work with DWER around innovating further some guiding principles that will empower them and other producers (Food & Beverage) to look inwards and see how they can make changes towards moving away from linear production.

To contact Rob, Lead Innovation, co-Founder, click here

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Founding Member:
It's Not
​Plastic.

It's not Plastic is a social enterprise launched in Perth in 2019 with the aim of providing consumers with an eco friendly sustainable alternative to single use plastic bottles .

INP offers bottled water, cared for from end to end with the idea of nothing ever becoming "waste". Their plant based bottles, label and caps are made from a renewable and sustainable by-product of corn and sugar cane  and have the ability to be composted. They also offer collection for the bottles sold, taking responsibility for our product post-sale by allowing customers to return used bottles, ensuring that every returned bottle ends up in the correct facility, not the environment.  

With more and more businesses choosing to offer products that make a positive environmental impact, they decided to throw caution to the wind and launch in QLD in 2020.  Robert Swan, OBE said ' the greatest threat to our planet is the belief someone else will save it '.  With that bring their key message,  is the primary motivator as to why INP's bottles are made to be reused as many times as possible.

With State Governments being proactive in banning single use products, they see their bottles not as a panacea but as a much better solution to the growing amount of single use items currently on the market items such as cans , plastic bottles and cartons .
With that, they are confident they can make a positive change in the 'grab and go ' bottle water category and promote reuse and return 

To bring your store into the new economy, contact Adrian (CEO) here.

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