Little Green Panda is addressing the lack of standard & transparency in sustainability, one disappearing straw at a time.
Meet Manon Beauchamp-Tardieu, Loris Campanile, Darine Djendoubi, and Anthony Hodgson, co-founders of Little Green Panda, who are re-imagining disposable plastic for a sustainable future.
We caught up with Loris who let us in on some recent big wins for Little Green Panda, their plans for the next couple years, and the various stakeholders that make up their ever-growing success.
What is Little Green Panda? And what led to the inception of it?
The idea of Little Green Panda was born a bit more than 3 years ago, back when plastic wasn’t a problem yet, at least not publicly. Back then, conversations around banning plastics were starting, but governments had no clear plan in mind. More importantly, viable alternative technologies to the standard single-use plastic didn’t exist or were very very expensive. Little Green Panda was created to be more than a packaging company - our vision is to create a clear standard around sustainability that governments, corporations, businesses and individuals can refer to. There is a lack of transparency around what words like ‘compostable’ and ‘bio-degradable’ mean, which is creating a very worrying ‘green washing’ movement, and we are educating our community to understand what is actually good for the planet and what isn’t.
After 3 years, our range is still very small - home compostable straws & home compostable cutlery. We are currently working on adding more products to the range, however it is taking a long time as those products need to meet the LGP standard. This means all the obvious stuff: the product needs to be able to break down in the soil and not harm it, and also easily. No specific environment conditions are required (think pressure / temperature), and it breaks down rather quickly too (90 days in good conditions). It also means meeting other standards people don’t necessarily think of: fair wages for the workers manufacturing the products, clear & transparent company policies too, a neutral supply chain in terms of CO2 emissions etc. Setting all of that up and getting the right certifications takes heaps of time and resources, but this is the standard we are creating, and the standard that all companies in Australia should follow.
We are connected to heaps of companies here in Australia who are keen to work with us to come up with that standard, and to be part of the journey - either from a technology point of view, a manufacturing point of view or even just supporting us on socials. It’s great to see that momentum slowly building up.
What problem is Little Green Panda trying to solve?
The lack of standard & transparency when it comes to sustainability.
We are also solving another interesting problem - sustainability is often associated with other words such as ‘compromise’ and ‘extra effort’. It takes extra effort to come home, cook diner for your family, and then having to think about recycling, composting and what not. We are creating a sustainable movement that makes things simpler - our products are designed up stream to be just so much better you don’t even have to think about it. Use our straws and throw it in any bin, it doesn’t matter. It will break down and not harm the soil!
Can you tell us a little bit more about where your straws come from?
We work closely with our manufacturing partners in Taiwan to make all our sugar cane products. Our bamboo products come from a beautiful farm in Vietnam, our wheat straws are made by a community of women workers we are supporting in China, and our coffee cups will be made in… good old Melbourne :)
You operate as both a B2B and B2C company — what are some major differences you see when operating in each of those areas?
It turns out there are more commonalities than you would think - even though the majority of our channels are B2B channels, our end users are regular cafe customers just like you and I, which overlaps quite heavily with our B2C channels. Cafe customers are the ones pushing and asking for change - by asking for better products and not using single use plastic or paper items. People are driving change and businesses have to accomodate for that new demand (we all hate soggy paper straws!).
That being said, a lot of cafes we work with are genuinely changing the way they operate to incorporate sustainability as part of their identity, and it’s awesome to see. We also aren’t alone in this journey - we work with great distribution partners all over the country, and they are actively working with us to drive the change and educate their customers around sustainability. They are 100% part of our success.
There is great momentum building up and, although COVID has slowed things down in 2020/21, we look forward to seeing what 2022 will bring.
What’s been the most interesting thing you’ve heard about your product(s) from your clients & customers?
‘Omg, I put the straw in water over night and it did not move!’
‘Hang on, so you’re saying the straw I am holding works just like a plastic straw, but I can throw it anywhere and it will breakdown? Why isn’t everyone using them??’
There are also heaps of great reviews you can read on our website.
What were some of the most painful challenges you encountered during the early days? And how have those challenges changed today?
It took a long time to get people to understand why plastics & paper items suck, and at the start they were not ready to make any effort. On top of that, there is a price difference between a plastic item and a ’sustainable’ product that businesses need to be able to justify (‘why would I pay 2c more for a straw when the plastic ones work well?’). Along the way, consumers started asking for better products, and governments decided to step in and changed their legislations to ban single use plastics (more on that here.) This has been a game changer for us, and whilst we were ahead of the curve for a little while, we are surfing on it right now! The conversation went from ‘why would I need sustainable products?’ to ‘where can I get your straws delivered to me every month?’. It’s a great change to see.
Regarding our new challenges, I guess anyone who has ran a business with physical inventory will give you the same answer: cashflow. There is a decision we have to make pretty much every day that is painful to make - do we want to spend all our profit in purchasing more stock and growth and marketing and advertising, or do we want to slow down a bit and use that profit to pay our salaries, hire more staff, put some money aside ‘just in case’ etc.
This decision is very difficult to make and there is no right answer either. In our case however, the recent changes in the government legislations is our best opportunity to grow, and we are investing a lot of our resources in making sure our growth is steep. We are talking to major national chains here in Australia and we need to prepare our supply chain for it too.
We recently went through a round of funding that has allowed us to push hard on all those fronts, however we will soon find ourselves in that situation again as our growth has not slowed down, which is a great problem to have I suppose!
We’d love to know more about the individual strengths that you all bring to the table.
There are 4 founders at LGP, with very complementary skillsets:
Manon is the creative mind behind the brand. Manon coordinates the team, manages customer support, social media activities and product development.
Loris looks after the backend side of things (think accounting, supply chain, logistics etc) and the financials aspect of things.
Anthony is our Strategic Advisor here at LGP. He has got a life time of experience working in the FMCG industry - on top of being very well connected, Anthony brings in a lot of knowledge around the commercial aspect of things and our distribution model.
Darine is the face you see on our Instagram and TikToks, and is our content creator here at LGP.
What’s been some major highlights for you over the past year?
We on boarded new distribution partners, launched a successfully campaign in SA following the ban of single use plastics earlier this year, we have reached key revenue milestones, signed an agreement with major cinema chains here in Australia, new products (cutlery and more coming soon!), went through a successful round of investment, we are talking to major national chains to distribute straws & our new products, and we are about to expand the team and launch in new International markets… lots of things happening, and that’s just a snapshot :)
How do you see the next couple years panning out for Little Green Panda? Any major reveals you could hint at for us?
Lots of top secrets projects but nothing one cannot foresee :) New products are coming soon, we are thinking of expanding the team too as there is currently a bit too much on our plate, we are working on major national projects which will take 12 months minimum to get right, and we are launching in new international markets. All of that will unfold over the next 24 months and we are very excited to make it all happen!
And lastly, if you had one piece of advice to give consumers, what would that be?
I am not sure I have got any useful advice, although from experience I have seen change coming from consumers asking for change, demanding it. Venues, cafes etc. have realised they needed to make better choices after they heard the same complaint many times over. As consumers we have the power to decide with our wallets, and we should use this power wisely!
By Nikita Lamba
