Making a delicious difference: how three local entrepreneurs have embraced sustainability

Join Solid to hear from three businesses making a difference and reimagining the way we do everyday things, like brushing our teeth, ordering dinner online, or having a burger at lunch. Solid, Yum Jar and Apostle Hot Sauce are small, local companies where sustainability is at the core of what they do. Listen to them discuss the motivation behind their businesses, the values that drive them, and the impact that they have led. Making small changes to the way we live is one of the ways we can all contribute to climate action – and our actions, even when seemingly small – can have a massive impact. And this is true of business. We need our businesses to be at the forefront of climate action and these entrepreneurs are showing the way.

This event will suit the action-orientated, those interested in business and entrepreneurship and community-minded folk interested in how we can all contribute to climate action. Come along to learn, to be inspired and to be challenged.

Thank you to Porirua City Council for their support of this event.

Laura Nixon is the CEO and founder of Solid, a toothpaste company from Tītahi Bay. Laura is a former dental professional with a mission is to stop the 16 million toothpaste tubes that go to landfill in Aotearoa every year. Solid make a range of toothpaste, tablets, powder and more that are vegan, cruelty free and have no palm oil. Everything is packed in glass bottles and jars that can be reused and returned. Solid was a finalist in the 2021 Sustainable Business Awards ‘Going Circular’ awards, is certified Carbon Positive by Ekos and is a recent graduate of the Creative HQ Climate Response accelerator programme. Most recently Laura was a 2022 Soda Inc, Rise Up finalist, celebrating female entrepreneurship in Aotearoa. Laura is a problem solver, inventor, toothpaste formulator, tinkerer and amateur engineer and she is happiest when in the lab designing out waste in oral care. Solid have now saved 30,000 toothpaste tubes from landfill. Let’s change the way we look after our teeth!

Mat Watkins is one half of Apostle Hot Sauce. They craft a unique range of hot sauces handmade in Paekākāriki with hand-picked chillies and perfectly balanced spices. Mat had been concocting delicious sauces for years, and, in an attempt to get to know his community, started selling them at the local market. Apostle refuse to use any artificial colours, preservatives, flavours or thickeners, instead relying on fresh ingredients to create their vibrant range of sauces. Apostle consider the environment throughout all aspects of our business and have a bottle return system with 27 return locations across the country, from Invercargill to Whangarei. Wherever possible they use locally sourced ingredients, and do everything they can to create as little food waste as possible. All their products are in glass with paper labels, and all online orders are shipped in plastic free packaging.

Ottilie Smith is owner and CEO of Yum Jar. Yum Jar is a vegan food box delivery service and Zero Waste Pantry. Yum Jar is committed to not employing people unless they are paid the current living wage, whether they're a delivery driver, kitchen hand, cleaner, admin staff, or chef and are proudly Living Wage Accredited. Yum Jar has saved over 60,000 meals' worth of plastic, single-use, disposable, "compostable", and "biodegradable" packaging from being used, transported, or even needing to be produced. And from their kitchen they are putting out less than one single house-hold sized bag of unavoidable rubbish per week. They compost any food scraps and paper at Edible Earth Gardens in Porirua, and recycle all our tins, any #1-2 hard plastics, and glass with Porirua Waste. Their vegan kai benefits your health, the wellbeing of animals, and the environment. Ottilie is a chef, training at Weltec School of Hospitality and working in various roles in the Wellington hospitality scene.