When sustainability isn’t viewed as ‘business critical’, it’s time for a rethink, says Julie Mathers

Julie Mathers has been playing in the sustainability space for years. In 2014 she founded Flora & Fauna, an Australian vegan, cruelty free, home, fashion and lifestyle store, as well as Green & Kind, a range of zero-waste everyday items. Last year Flora & Fauna was acquired by BWX in a $27 million deal. Earlier this month, Mathers announced her next move, the acquisition of Snuggle Hunny, a babywear brand using sustainable and organic materials, where she’s now CEO.

A lot has changed since 2014 — for consumers, brands and world they share. What excites Mathers about sustainable businesses today? And how can they find balance in a world where planet isn’t always a priority for customers?

When it comes to sustainability in business, she says she’s “a big believer that we need everybody to do something, rather than very few people doing a lot.” Many solutions are becoming much more accessible for businesses and consumers now, which excites Mathers.

“I’m seeing so many businesses doing something.”

There are, of course, always challenges. Today, businesses face social media scrutiny from sceptical customers. Furthermore, economic hardships push sustainable choices down the priority list for consumers and businesses alike. If sustainability, as it stands, isn’t ‘business critical’ what kind of a rethink is required? 

Do you have any advice for brands investing time and money into sustainable products, packaging and supply chains? How can they get the messaging right?

I do! It can be a little bit terrifying for businesses, knowing what to do. Because you’re laying yourself bare a little bit. Social media is an interesting thing; it can do so much good, but at the same time, you can get torn down. We’ve seen it happen multiple times.

How I approach it is: be really honest. Start the conversation with your customers and say ‘Look, we know we’re not perfect, and there’s lots we need to do. However, this is the change we are making’. It could be ‘we’ve shifted our packaging to be compostable as opposed to plastic’. Or it could be ‘We’ve decided to carbon offset our deliveries’. It could be something as small as ‘We’ve got rid of the plastic coffee cups in the office’. 

I think the more honest and transparent you can be about your own journey, the more people follow you on it. If you try and wrap it up and almost claim that you’re brilliant at everything? People are very wise to this, certainly now, and they’ll see right through it and call you out for greenwashing. So my experience is be open, honest and transparent and just be really clear about where you are on your journey. And start communicating early with it, but don’t try and be too marketing about it.

Just be transparent and honest. I’m not sure I’ve seen any brands that have failed with that approach. But I’ve seen many brands that have failed with the ‘Aren’t we amazing, we’re doing this amazing thing’ but just not recognising actually what they’re not doing.

There is a growing sense of urgency around sustainability from consumers. And with it, perhaps a bit of scepticism, too. What changes have you noticed in the expectations of consumers on businesses?

I think the expectations are higher on businesses now, which is right. The government’s not moving quickly enough, so it basically does lie on businesses and consumers. There’s a lot of macro stuff going on, too, which probably doesn’t help. Gosh, we’ve been in COVID-19 now for 2.5 years. We’re all just exhausted from it. And with that, and with the country kind of going into a recession, and all the macroeconomic factors? It all has a very big part to play in how people feel. And so other things like sustainability can either feel too hard or, in reality, they get put to the bottom of the priority list. Because when people are trying to put food on their table or pay their rent, they’re probably not thinking about whether they should use compostable bin liners or not. 

There are so many businesses going through hard times right now. The things that get cut in these times are things like marketing, sadly, and sustainability. Projects that are not viewed as ‘business critical’. Unfortunately, sustainability, to a lot of businesses, is viewed as that. So, I think what we’ll end up seeing is possibly fewer initiatives happening, or, businesses cutting initiatives if they can’t get a business case up for it. I’m not sure whether we’ll see customers asking more questions, or whether consumer focus will change anyway because they’re literally focused on their own challenges. You know, interest rates go up and people starting to default on their mortgages. All of that impacts the sustainability journey.

It’s a fine balance where you’re trying to focus on sustainability and make the customer feel at ease about their financial decisions.

Yeah, there’s a lot to think about. This is also where there are ways to weave them in together. If we’re smart, we can look at things around re-using, which actually helps us save money if we think about that as a general rule. So a great example, because I’m a fan of them, is reusable nappies. A baby, in its lifetime, uses thousands of nappies. The cost for disposables is enormous. If you use reusable nappies, you end up spending about 25-30 percent of the cost. That’s a win-win.

People may end up thinking less about things like recycling because they’ve got other things they’ve focused on. So let’s start thinking about re-using, let’s start thinking about renting outfits if you’re going for a night out. Buy, swap, sell, that kind of stuff. Twenty years ago I was a massive massive trader on eBay and I would sell everything in my house. Because at the time I just got my first job and I had no money, so that’s kind of what you did. And maybe there’s a bit more to that in terms of people being a bit more conscious about what they waste. Is there a second life for a product? Would people take a product that has been used before?

So we can weave it in together to help businesses, and businesses need to help people on that journey too. 

Julie Mathers joins the Smart50 program again in 2022 as a guest judge for the Sustainability Award category.