With the equivalent of one truckload (20,000 kilos) of plastic entering our ocean every minute, Willemijn Peeters created Searious Business to bring that number down to zero.
A big aspiration you may think but having spoken to Willemijn myself I must say I’m pretty convinced if anyone can make an impact she can.
Just to give you some context of her tenacious attitude, last year, during a plastic free ocean accelerated program from startup to scale up, Willemijn was given her own hashtag #unstoppable, she says “not succeeding is not an option.”
With a background in business and sustainability Willemijn explained, “I know what big companies base their decisions on and I'm always very focused on how the numbers run, it creates a positive business case, but money is not what makes me tick, I get passionate about leaving the world a better place than I found it in.”
Half the air we breathe comes from the ocean and it is as Willemijn puts it “our life support system and we're treating it as the garbage bin of our society. This is what triggered the change for me.”
In 2016 Searious Business was founded as a social enterprise to deliver mind-shifting solutions for circular plastic.
“It's not a company for fun or just to inspire, we really want to create a positive impact. In order to do that, we need to work together with companies that can create that impact.”
So how does it work? Searious Business uses knowhow, expertise, and holistic (systems-based) problem-solving to involve key players and technologies to close the plastic loop and use alternatives to virgin plastics. The company believes the answer lies in a threefold approach:
- Technological innovations
- Empowerment through marketing
- Organisational change
Willemijn tells me on average customers achieve more than five per cent higher margins, making
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this an effort that consumers and stakeholders often equally support.
“I think everybody has heard about sustainability and they're aware that they need to do something but the urgency to act is not always there.”
With consumers becoming more conscious of their plastic consumption, sustainability is becoming a higher priority for companies.
As Willemijn points out if you look at the next generation, it's not big cars and lots of money anymore, it's really about wanting a job with purpose.
The biggest challenge for Searious Business? “To get people to not just say yes, but actually do yes.” Willemijn explains. “Often businesses don’t want to put in the work and money if it puts their bottom line at risk. It’s disappointing if you have indicated a very promising innovation.”
Searious Business is one of twelve Green Solution Providers by the European Commission. As such, the company is part of the EC’s Scale- Up Circular Business project. This allows the company to speak one-on-one with the European commission about upcoming developments and stand out as a SME to help other companies become more circular.
This is a big advantage for the company, Willemijn tells me, as the company gets first-hand information that is coming up on legislation which is attractive to brand owners.
The company has just finished the development of a fully-recyclable drink pouch, as a first result of the “RePETitive Packaging” consortium. The pouch is solely based on polyesters and has intrinsic recycling abilities aimed to act as an alternative to multi-material plastic packaging products.
Furthermore, the company’s recent success includes the development of a designer sofa designed from >95 per cent recycled plastics, in just four months.
The high-end design company, Gispen, had a stated ambition to be number one in circular economy for furniture.
With the help of Searious Business, Gispen not only won the Dutch Design Award but also won the biggest tender ever for office furniture, whereby the company can now supply furniture for €10M per year, for the coming 10 years.
Every year Searious Business aims to double revenue while doubling its impact. “We're here to make business and do the right project, so we can show what can be done.”
With customers in the food packaging, furniture, and consumer electronics sectors, the business helps implement changes, adjust strategies, and run innovation projects.
