Last August I set out to talk to founders of companies and other ideas on a mission to do good for our home planet. 

I've since spoken to more than a dozen of these legends and learned a lot. The idea is to assemble their collective wisdom into some sort of simple playbook that makes it easy for more people to have a go—and succeed.

This season wrap starts with an updated missive on why these 'good ideas' are so important for speeding up sustainability in the business world, then outlines my first three thoughts on what makes the difference between a 'good' idea succeeding or not. Spoiler alert they are:

👉 They tend to 'do good' at the ends of the value chain 👈

Take Who Gives a Crap. It creates impact by donating money from sales. That  changes how the value created (profit) is distributed at the end of the value chain. Thankyou, GreenPay and Hawke's Brewing work similarly. So does Newman's Own, Inc. which has been doing it since the 80's.

On  the flipside, Tony's Chocolonely, Alt.Leather, Good Citizens and WAW Handplanes change the start of the value chain, by innovating how the product is made. In the 70's, The Body Shop did the same starting with the words Against Animal Testing. 

Of course there is also the middle of the supply chain—manufacturing with renewables and so on. It just rarely seems to be a differentiator big enough to build a brand from. 

👉 There's something for we and something for me 👈

Let's take Good Citizens as an example. Their frames are made from 100% recycled plastic from rivers and waterways, which is good for the planet. At the same time, each pair is made from just 5 pieces, so if you break an arm, you can replace it - which is good for me as a buyer. Plus they look cool. As Nik Robinson says, 'they've got to have street appeal'.

Sustainability creates a reason to look, but being better for the use I need it for creates the reason to buy.  

👉 Everything can be rethought 👈

When you’re doing something new, it’s hard to see past the ‘rules’ of your category. 

Take Talk Club for example, a charity supporting men's mental health. If you were working out how to fund such a thing, you’d naturally think about grants and donations. Ben Akers and team thought differently, creating Clear Head, a zero alcohol beer that has delivered them over 100K pounds to date. It's a completely different business model. 

💪 But here's the biggest discovery 💪 

Almost no-one I've spoken to had experience in the thing they created.

Nik Robinson & Jocelyne Simpson from Good Citizens had never worked in eyewear.

Maddi Ingham & Glenn Bartlett from GreenPay had no experience in digital payments.

Lucy Jackson & Rikki Gilbey from WAW Handplanes had never worked in the surf industry. 

David Gibson and Nathan Lennon from Hawkes had never brewed a beer before.  

Ben Akers from Talk Club had never worked in a charity. 

Maria Baker from Nobody's Princess knew nothing of snow wear. 

Tina Funder from Alt.Leather had never run a deep tech company. 

Now best-selling author Natalie Kyriacou had never written a book before. 

Showing no matter your idea to make the world a better place, if you’re prepared to put in the time to learn, you can do it.

Goodtrepreneur is the podcast about good people with good ideas for a better world.

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