July month notes — plastic free challenge
While July has felt like a wash-out in terms of the weather, I’m starting to get into a groove with balancing my roles. Along with getting up to speed with the textiles industry.
In particular, I’ve really enjoyed running a company plastic free July challenge. More on that in my sustainability reflections.
The power of connections and tenacity
After my first 4 months at a family SME business I see the importance of networking and resilience. My career started out working at SMEs. But I have also worked in large corporations like Co-op. There are some subtle behavioural differences based on the size of the organisation
I am loving meeting new connections across the hospitality and textile services industry. As well as expanding my network of people working in sustainability. My word for 2023 is connection. So I am getting a lot of satisfaction in building out my professional network. A highlight this month was meeting Tina Boden via an intro from Naomi. I’d not thought about the term micro-business before but it’s a perfect term. So many people are out there creating businesses with their partner or friend. These micro-businesses are people’s livelihoods. When your ability to pay your own wage and salary is on the line this can impact on wellbeing.
Running an SME or micro-business requires a different level of resilience. I am learning to rely on myself more, as I am a department of 1. Here are some ways I am being more self-reliant.
- Holding myself accountable to myself
- Setting weekly goals — might even be moving to sprints :)
- Celebrating the little wins each week.
These simple steps help to keep myself honest and focussed. Especially when the opportunity ahead is exciting and scary. Ensuring I don’t take on too much too soon is something to watch out for as well. While seeing the bumps in the road as signs that you are heading in the right direction.
Digital
I’m enjoying working on the digital marketing and optimisation side of things again. Bringing together my customer centric experience along with performance metrics.
GA4 Wrangling
There is some work to do in this space to get a handle on all the data we have at our disposal. Along with learning how to get the best out of GA4. Which is a new version of Google Analytics that landed this month. It will be interesting to see what a full month looks like with the new data. As well as opportunities to do more with the event tracking capabilities.
Balancing bespoke vs out of the box features
Working with a 3rd party development partner is a huge support when you’re a small team. But it can also be challenging when you know what experience you want to create for your customers.
This reminds me of the days managing the British Red Cross e-commerce site. There is a tension when working with out of the box e-commerce features. Versus being able to develop bespoke journeys that meet your exact customer needs.
TikTok Shopping
After encouragement from a business friend, I have looked into TikTok Live shopping. She said you find all sorts of cool things there.
It seems to be a replacement for TV shopping channels ( which have been going bust). A positive is that its giving small business owners a direct channel to sell to a UK audience. As an experiment I bought Pick n Mix supporting a neuro-diverse business owner. As well as a Wild refillable deodorant which I was already looking for.
I didn’t expect buying on TikTok to feel so satisfying. Given some of the discounts they are offering to drive acquisition I can see it also being addictive. As well as driving more fast fashion purchases.
Sustainability
Plastic Free July
After attending the Journey to Net Zero ( JTNz) course, a key takeaway for me is the role of employee engagement. I’ve always enjoyed running activities that bring people together and make an impact. I set up a fun office challenge to track plastic free switches. You can see a picture of the board below. All together there were a total of over 350 switches across the team. It’s encouraged me to make changes like getting a refillable deodorant. As well as bringing lunch in a tiffin carrier I had. There are plenty of fun and engaging ways to highlight changes we can make at home and work. What examples have you seen?
ESG deck & environmental policy statement
We also finalised our first full ESG presentation. The presentation covers the work we do to support:
- Community
- Climate action
- Supply chain partners
I am pleased to say we also have version one of our environmental policy statement. This sets out our sustainability commitments as a business.
Right to Clothing conference
I attended an insightful University of Manchester conference looking at sustainability in clothing. A particular highlight was hearing from Rachel Arthur. She is the lead for sustainable fashion at UNEP. Rachel presented a playbook she’s developed. The aim is shift the marketing narratives to align to the global climate targets.
While we work in the home textiles space, we share similar challenges to fashion. For example. ensuring high levels of supply chain due diligence. As well as the role we can play in extending the life of textile materials.
ESG verification
Greenwashing continues to be a challenge. While the C&MA are trying to crack down on such false advertising claims. In the meantime, it is difficult for people to understand and trust carbon neutral claims. I’ve seen some interesting initiatives that provide independent third party ESG verification.
One example I’ve seen is Feefo who are working with Ethy to provide ESG verification of claims. Once these certified you can then show a range of eco-labels in your marketing.
https://ethy.co.uk/for-partners/our-partners/feefo
Achievements and recommendations
Reading this month
- I’ve started reading How bad are bananas?
- This is after Vikas interviewed the author Mike Berners Lee on Thought Economics
- A fascinating insight into the carbon footprint of the things we consume
Podcast this month
- I’ve been expanding my listening to some garden podcasts so signed up to a few different ones to try out.
- I’m also learning about growing tomatoes after some randomly self-seeded from a packet of flower seeds.
Running distance
- 25.8km
- Finally hit the 6km run distance. As well as hitting my fastest 5k run time. I’ve found running after work has helped with energy levels too.
- I’m lagging on my cycling but have plans to get some distance in August to get prepared for the 24km!
Gardening achievement
- I am adding this one in too for the cheeriness. I’ve had 3 sunflowers come into bloom this month.
- It’s so satisfying seeing all the hard work come to fruition when they finally pop out :)
