Why do we forget that we have to do good? This is the key question for those who some day want to become entrepreneurs without falling into the spiral of generating wealth without thinking about the imprint their activity will leave, but who rather want to contribute to the wellbeing of future generations. This is the premise shared by the companies and organisations that make up the social economy and which in the context of World Environment Day makes evident the need for companies capable of generating, in a sustainable way, new products and services that have an impact on improving the collective good.
A good example of this are the famous menstrual cups or female underwear of Femmefleur, as well as the coins of The Social Coin that encourage good works, or the glasses made of recycled plastic from Sea2See. Thanks to their commitment, all three companies went onto the market with a different value and a business strategy strong enough to turn them into examples to follow.
Sea2See, glasses made of unused waste
In 2016, François Van Den Abeele set up Sea2See Eyewear as a way of reusing plastic waste generated by fishing in Barcelona’s ports. "One out of every four fish we catch contains plastic and every day some eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in the sea, it is as if every inhabitant on the planet were to throw two plastic bags into the water. Of this waste, 20% comes from fishing, the rest from the land. As a lover of the sea, I needed to do my bit," says the CEO in the conference, Entrepreneurs for a good cause, organised by the Toulouse Business School as part of its 20th anniversary.
They collect the plastic waste from workers in Spain’s 22 ports, the equivalent of two tonnes of rubbish every three days. It is all taken to a plant in Girona where the material is separated, cleaned and the raw material made for use in making their glasses. "I wanted to use this plastic to create a product that was visible and useful so that people would feel proud to wear it and to bring sustainability to the optics industry, where it hardly existed," says Van Den Abeele.
Sea2See Eyewear collects the plastic waste generated by fishing in the ports and turn it into glasses
All of this new plastic is taken to Italy, where they found a producer capable of using it to create the glasses. Initially they made only sunglasses, but due to the good reception and demands from optics professionals, they decided to also start making progressive glasses. And they are not only sold in Spain and Italy, but they are also distributed in the Netherlands, England and Germany, among other places.
Van Den Abeele, Balderas and Polío during the event. Photograph: Ceded
They are affordable, made of quality material and have a history behind them, "what more could you want?" he asks. "Making something sustainable is neither easy nor difficult, having a good story opens doors more easily for you and the consumer comes looking for it; it is changing their habits," he adds. Van Den Abeele conceived of Sea2See as a win-win situation for the buyer, who gets a product that serves their needs as well as those of the environment, as each pair of glasses uses 10 m2 of recycled plastic.
Femmefleur, for the good of women
"We are four women who did not study anything related to business, but we ended up doing it to help other women. We want to improve the world around us, even if it is only in something small like menstruation." This is how the co-director of the Barcelona cooperative Femmefleur, Eva Polío, describes the project, an idea that though it may seem "something small" in truth is trying to provide a response to what is a daily reality that means each woman will generate almost 2,700 kilos of rubbish throughout her life.
Their product had to respect the environment while also being useful and cheap, because "if it does not work, no one will buy it, because sustainability does not drive the consumer or the economy," points out Polío. That is why they began with the menstrual cup, which was successful enough to lead them to later embark on producing absorbent underwear.
They chose to fund Cocoro with crowdfunding through a campaign that allowed them to see to what extent the idea was genuinely viable. "We collected almost 170,000 euros from more than 3,000 patrons, which was enough to produce 9,000 knickers, when the objective was to make 1,500. That shows that there is a desire for change," she says.
Polío: "If it does not work, no one will buy it, because sustainability does not drive the consumer or the economy"
Sea2See’s glasses
The Social Coin, for the social good
The idea emerged in 2013 in the shape of a social movement to carry out positive action in exchange for biodegradable coins called social coins. "Each coin is made from potato starch and contains a seed inside to plant when a series of good works have been completed," says the head of business development, Donovan Balderas.
The mechanism begins when someone gets a coin, does a good work and passes on this social coin. According to Balderas, this creates "a chain of favours that motivates more favours," something that was noticed by companies like Cisco, which wanted to adopt the model to improve the happiness and motivation of its employees. PwC and Schneider Electric followed the example, and that is how the corporate segment became an important business channel. Lack of motivation, points out the The Social Coin head, causes losses of 50 million dollars.
Apart from contributing to employee engagement through actions that promote volunteering, welfare, innovation, leadership and sustainability, the company has also invested a million-euro grant from the European Union into developing a new platform designed for cities. "We are developing two projects to go back to our roots, extracting Big Data and helping governments to know what is happening in their cities. The other project is focused on getting people to do good things in exchange for free services and products. It is all focused on citizen welfare," says Balderas. So far they have a presence in 70 countries and have carried out 500,000 acts of generosity with 20,000 social coins.
Social Coin carries out positive action in exchange for biodegradable coins