Startup Life with Karen #7 – It’s time to get real about #realzero

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Startup Life with Karen is your go-to for exploring transformative solutions, following the Our Kinds journey to redefine reuse, and equipping sustainability leaders with insights to create lasting, regenerative impact. Your weekly "not-a-newsletter" newsletter.?

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It’s time to get real about #RealZero.

This week, a group of 44 ‘investors, business leaders, farmers and Australian legends’ backed Fortescue’s call for Real Zero’.??

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Take a look at the list below, and you will see yours truly, Karen Monaghan , Our Kinds, loud and proud amongst this group.?

You may wonder why Our Kinds signed up to join a collective led by a miner, Andrew Forrest of Fortescue.??

For the past four to five years, Fortescue has invested in leading the change in the mining industry—from Net Zero to Real Zero.?

Mindaroo Foundation, a Fortescue offshoot, has been conducting deep research into plastic waste and microplastics, leading to the development of the Global Plastics Health Map. We have benefited from this work in the development of our model.??

The Our Kinds team and I may well be shot down by cynics, trolls and climate deniers for poking our head above this real zero parapet. But hey, if ever there was a time for courage, tenacity, and real-life, everyday, obvious, in-your-face, and #real productive change – it’s now.?

The humble coffee cup and the relationship between a café team and the customer is an incredible communication opportunity and can be the change that makes reuse second nature.?

Over the past week, our team has grown, invested in our vision, and buckled in to catch this party wave. We are, kind of, prepared to be washing-machined, get a little bruised, and then paddle out again. Yep – the surfing lingo is back, peeps.?

After all, out the back of the wave, we have a squad. A collective. A growing movement wanting this change – and needing it to be easy. So, we will continue to paddle hard when the opportunities for meaningful change arrive.

Thank you to @Shanta Barley for including us in this mix.??

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The signatories to this letter include individuals and organisations with the ability to inform sustainable change through:?

• Insights from deep research around solutions for governments, industry and supply chains in terms of systems change.?

• Understanding consumer drivers to influence behavioural change.?

• Measurement of tangible and intangible outcomes against the UNSDGs.?

• Meaningful impact investment.?

This is Our Kinds’ heartland.?

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We create powerful stories of change because, together in our communities, WE ARE THE CHANGE.??

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Our Kinds pro-social, positive role modelling approach was informed by @Dr Anne Schwenkenbecher, Academic Chair Philosophy of Murdoch University.???

Anne was the recipient of the International Award for Social Philosophy for her book Getting Our Act Together, A Theory of Collective Moral Obligations??

“The book concludes with a discussion of ‘massively shared obligations’ to major-scale moral problems such as global poverty.?

Together we can often achieve things that are impossible to do on our own. We can prevent something bad from happening, or we can produce something good, even if none of us could do it by ourselves. But when are we morally required to do something of moral importance together with others?”         

In taking a long term pro-social, positive role modelling approach, as advised by Anne, we have avoided immersing people in the despair of the problem?(for example, piles of waste, destruction of forests for single-use products, etc.,).

Instead, we focused on beautiful coffee, reusable cups and smiling faces.?

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This has meant that we have said ‘no’?to media opportunities with Ministers and NGO’s wanting to be photographed with piles of waste. It has meant that our stories didn't get published in traditional media because they were too ‘green leaves’.??

And yet, over the past three years, we have attracted and energised folk to join us in discovering and trialing solutions to enable reuse. We have shown how easy it can be when it’s supported and how hard the transition is when it’s not.?

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We thrive for these beautiful moments of attracting and meeting our kin.? For example, when the most unlikely folk, like Baz as he literally booms out “I'd like the Tweety Cup”—a cup we rescued from a pallet of second-hand cups destined for export markets. ? Thanks to Good Sammy Enterprises and Our Kinds, Tweety is back in action in the local supply chain!?

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At Our Kinds , we know that, together, we will create a world where reuse is second nature.?

We invite each of you, each day and every day, to support the Our Kinds movement in any way that is possible for you. ?

There is room for everyone to play a part.??

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If you would like to show your support in a small way I would love you to drop some loose change into our Go Fund Me campaign. And if you’re strapped for funds, sharing the campaign link can also make a big impact. We will keep this ticking along to support our efforts as we launch new projects that will prove scale.?

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JOIN THE OUR KINDS MOVEMENT?

We’re not just talking about change—we’re making it happen together. Join us at Our Kinds as we continue to build this movement and BE the change we want to see.?

Three ways to get involved and support us:?

1. Comment on this weekly newsletter, tag someone who might want to read it, and share it with others.?

2. Follow Karen Monaghan for daily posts.?

3. Subscribe to our monthly Our Kinds investor update newsletter (launching soon).?

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