Starting something completely new can be a daunting prospect. Opportunity rarely falls into someone’s lap, and hopeful entrepreneurs have to struggle against the circumstances, odds, and skepticism to carve out a path for themselves.
These struggles are reflected in the stories of 7 startups, which we are going to be sharing with you today, who have found success with inspired employees and meaningful work.
Their stories are a testimony to resilience and determination, as well as their desire to pursue profits, not only for themselves, but for their employees, their communities, and their planet.
start with why
by Simon Sinek
⏱ 14 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Twelve
Ellie Austin and Jessica Ferrow, two sustainable strategy experts, founded Twelve. In 2020, they launched an agency that works with businesses in order to help them respond to the climate emergency and embed sustainability into the way they work.
The climate change crisis is a cause for significant concern, bearing implications for the integrity of the planet, wildlife, oceans, rainforests, communities, and human civilisation.
The inspired and motivated founders behind this business work tirelessly towards a sustainable and empathetic future, where corporate success and the survival of the planet are no longer mutually incompatible.
Driven by purpose, compassion, and corporate responsibility, Twelve strives to reinvent business as a force for good and meaningful change in the world.
Pact Coffee
Coffee is a universally beloved beverage, but despite its popularity, many are unaware of its social and environment impact – which is significantly detrimental.
In an attempt to become more ethical and sustainable, large coffee brands have tried to pursue Fairtrade certification and commit themselves to tangible action. Progress has been slow, however, even with these efforts.
Pact Coffee has made ethics a key part of its business plan. They have revolutionised the coffee market, working directly with farmers and giving them a fair price.
They also invest in improving production methods and coffee quality, ensuring that the entire process is more sustainable and ethical than it has ever been.
Element AI
Artificial intelligence is one of the latest innovations in science and technology, and it also is one of the most controversial and ethically inconclusive.
AI continues to develop at an unprecedented pace, and it is essential that we seriously consider its impact on society and the environment in the years to come. Element AI is a start-up that employs the most talented researchers for lab-based investigations, which will power meaningful solutions and deliver worthwhile impact.
Through collaboration and community, they’re attempting to ‘open source’ AI, making it easier for consensus to be formed on ethics and social responsibility. It’s a significant endeavour, but they’re already leading the way when it comes exerting tangible and real change in the field.
The Capture
The Capture app is an application that enables individuals to monitor, reduce, and offset their CO2 emissions. According to its founders, Abdul Aziz and Josie Stoker, this app is meant to transform is users from ‘climate worriers’ to ‘climate warriors’.
Many of us are concerned about climate change, but there are limited options available when it comes to doing something about our concerns. The Capture app changes this, empowering individuals so they can track CO2 emissions as easily as they can track their footsteps.
Initially, the app calculates a user’s baseline emissions and then sets a monthly target of reducing this figure by 7.6 per cent. This figure was chosen to meet the 2030 1.5 degree warming goal, which depends upon decreasing emissions by 7.6 per cent every year over the next decade.
Moving Mountains
There are a number of reasons as to why someone may seek a meat-free alternative. It could be for health reasons, religious reasons, ethical reasons, or even environmental reasons.
Global meat consumption has accelerated in recent years, with the meat industry causing more pollution than all of the world’s transports put together. Moving Mountains is a start-up that provides a delicious and savoury meat-free alternative for concerned consumers.
The founder of this company is Simeon Van der Molen, who hopes to make a real and long-lasting change to human and environmental health, whilst protecting animal welfare. His plant-based meats have received critical acclaim for their texture and flavour, and the company has since launched a variety of products such as burgers, hot-dogs, meat-strips, and even meatballs.
Zebras Unite
In Portland, Oregon, entrepreneurs who were frustrated with the traditional culture of startups launched an innovative and revolutionary movement that called for a more ethical and inclusive environment for startups. The group, Zebras Unite, is a founder-led, cooperatively owned initiative, which intends to facilitate the culture, capital, and community for the next economy.
Zebra companies strive for sustainability and profitability, prize collaboration, and pursue win-win scenarios. The organisation has explored and challenged corporate law, so that it can adopt an ethical and collaborative legal structure, which fulfils the needs and expectations of businesses, customers, communities, and the planet.
Ultimately, Zebras Unite fosters a more inclusive, equitable, and ethical environment for early-stage businesses, catalysing community, capital, and culture for people and the environment.
One Tree Planted
At the moment, deforestation is one of the most significant threats to the habitats and lives of countless species across the world. One Tree Planted is an ethical and responsible charitable, non-for-profit organisation that uses each and every donation to plant trees everywhere. Through planting trees, One Tree Planted provides creatures with warmth, security, safety, and a home – and in the process, restores entire ecosystems.
The reality is that deforestation poses a considerable risk to many exotic and unique bird, animal, and insect species, and this is why One Tree Planted decided to take matter into its own hands and address this issue with the urgency it deserves. Through their global reforestation efforts, One Tree Planted protects biodiversity, supports communities, and helps the environment.
Supporting the Right Businesses
Everyone has dreams and aspirations, it is an intrinsic part of being human, a desire to pave our own way in life and create something of our own. For many of us, these dreams remain just that, dreams we occasionally dig up and look over longingly, like a loving memory that has been left far behind in the past.
However, every now and again, there are those who decide that their dreams present too great an opportunity to overlook. They work on transforming this internal desire into a tangible reality, which is what the start-ups in this article have done.
What truly distinguishes these start-ups from the rest is their commitment to ethics and sustainability – reimagining an inspired model of business that not only pursue profits, but also meaningful and worthwhile change.
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