Looking Back on 3 Years of Good Things
Back in October we celebrated our 3rd birthday, albeit quietly, but we wanted to take this moment to reflect on what that means to us - how far we've come, the impact we've had, and some of our favourite moments.
It goes without saying that we wouldn't be here without you, our lovely and loyal customers, our friends and family. It's all thanks to you that our shop continues to grow and evolve, and we're so excited, and grateful, to have you join us on this journey.
Community
For every single person who walks through our door, our community grows, and this year alone, someone has walked through our door over 8000 times. It's hard to convey what that really means to us, but it really does mean the world.
As well as our customers, the last few years have been about the network of other small businesses we work with who share our values, they are so much more than just suppliers, together we share ideas and resources to make progress. Despite the challenges we all face, our community is stronger than ever and growing every day - and we couldn't be happier about it.
Waste
In 2018, my family and I really started to listen to the call for change in our modern convenience culture. We started to make small, everyday changes to reduce our waste, but packaging waste (plastic in particular!) was impossible to avoid. We've come a long way since then, but working towards zero packaging waste remains one of our core values three years on.
Throughout 2022 you've refilled over 8,500 kg of product...thats over 8.5 tonnes of food and liquid refills, ALL packaging free. If that was otherwise wrapped in plastic, that's the equivalent of 8,500 1kg plastic bags, or 85,000 100g plastic bags. It's impossible to say the exact amount of plastic we've saved, but those numbers alone are powerful.
1,600 personal care products have also been swapped to reusables or ethical alternatives (think razors, toothbrushes, tampon applicators....) and 1,900 household products have been swapped to reusables or ethical alternatives (think beeswax wraps, lunch boxes, washing up brushes....). The a lot of disposables ditched in favour of something better.
This year we also joined the TooGoodToGo community, who are taking action against food waste. Over 1,000 of you have joined us on the app to help us make sure that none of our food products ever go to waste.
Good Friends
Everything we do here in SomethingGood comes directly from my own passion that healthy, happy people can result in a healthy, happy planet. It's in the products we choose to stock, the brands we support, the events we host, the conversations we have, and at the heart of all of this is our team.
This year Team SomethingGood doubled in size, from 3 to 6. Myself, Kim and Hannah welcomed Kiera, Gabby and Aurora, and we became an accredited Real Living Wage company (the stamp of approval that our team take home a fair wage). More amazing people, more amazing ideas, more passion, more drive, and more exciting things coming next year!
This Year's Top 3
The results are in, here's what you've been refilling the most of this year.
Minor Figures Oat Milk
Together we've saved the equivalent of 1600, hard-to-recyle tetra packs! And by switching to oat milk from cows milk, together we've saved 3712 kg of CO2e, that's 3.7 tonnes of CO2e we've stopped from entering our atmosphere. Oh, and it's also just the tastiest milk!
Fill laundry Liquid (wash up coming in at a pretty close second)
This year alone, you've refilled the equivalent of 938 1L bottles of laundry liquid and 2120 500ml bottles of washing up liquid. That's a lot of plastic-waste avoided, not to mention the harsh chemicals we've diverted away from our water system.
On the scoops / Pasta
We're not surprised that our plastic and packaging free pasta features in this year's top 3. An absolute essential in our home, and by the looks of it, yours too.
Don't forget your local refill shop is perfect for everyday essentials, not just 'nice to have' eco-buys. Check out more good things here.