The Little Big Bamboo Sustainability Finalist
Little, big and everything in between, The Little Big Bamboo and their fast-growing bamboo products are making an impact on reducing deforestation across the world – bambooz-ling buyers who wished they’d found them years ago.
From their first stall selling bamboo at the Berwick Market in 2011, The Little Big Bamboo’s product list has grown to now include a wide variety of socially conscious products including toothbrushes, laundry detergent, straws, toilet paper, cotton buds, make-up remover pads - and even underwear, in two designs!
And along this journey, they have developed two sustainable business goals – which they have remained committed to despite their rising costs:
- For every purchase, they plant one bamboo plant which absorbs 0.2T of Carbon Dioxide per year.
- Each purchase helps to ban the use of single use plastics.
During this last 12 months, they have planted more than 16,000 non-invasive bamboo plants - meeting their first goal - and helped almost 5,000 single use plastics to not be created through the sales of their products - meeting their second goal. These goals are assessed annually and their results are shared to the public on their website.
Being environmentally conscious themselves, they also seek suppliers who share their same passions and seek to meet standards as set by BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) which encourages improved working conditions in their supply chain, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) which encourages sustainable forestry and SA 800 which encourages socially acceptable workplace practices.
And to support this, they have also made changes to their own products and packaging, such as stopping the use of BPA recycled toilet paper, replaced their plastic tape with paper tape and replaced synthetic fragrance with organic fragrance. They are also striving to become B CORP certified – joining other leaders in the movement for an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy - within the next year.
In addition to the sustainability of their products, their own in-house actions are to be commended; they use recycled water – from a 1,000 litre rainwater tank – to water the bamboo plants and 18 solar panels, complimented by a 5K solar battery.
As a solely online business, they pride themselves on the overwhelmingly positive online reviews they have received: more than 200 5 star Google reviews, more than 37 5 star Facebook reviews and over 500 reviews which have been directly submitted to their website.
Find out more about The Little Big Bamboo at their website.
Other finalists in the Sustainability Category are L’ada Soaps and Scents.