Getting Greener with Lauren Branson

What does sustainability mean to you? What motivated you to be a sustainable business?

For us sustainability actually means building the 8 principals of a regenerative economy into everything we do, driving a shift in the way we view the world in terms of closed systems or open systems to seeing the world in terms of living systems. This means including the planet as a key stakeholder in our business across all metrics. As someone who has based her career in biodiversity and conservation, sustainability or regeneration is not new to me and I can't ever imagine doing business in another way.

See more about Your Food Collective’s 8 Sustainable Development Goals here

How is your brand taking action to reduce your impact on climate change? What green initiatives are you most proud of?

At Calyx [parent group of Your Food Collective] we are using data based insights to drive material change across the food industry. You can't change what you can't see, and you can't make material decisions if you actually don't know what is material.

See more about how You Food Collective ensure that products are sourced with the planet in mind here

What has been the most surprising or rewarding thing you’ve encountered on your journey to becoming more sustainable?

Seeing other people start to realise that they can also be an agent of change and to drive the change we need to save the planet we're all going to need to step up.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced while trying to get greener, and how have you tackle this?

Learning how to truly apply a regenerative economic lens across our business and measure KPIs against it. We're learning and seek advice from an amazing global advisory board.

Why is being a founding partner of the Green Economy important to you?

It's important for us to support change at all levels of the community and being part of the Green Economy helps us share our message with values based consumers.

Who else do you think is doing sustainability well and why?  

We're in Europe at the moment and so I'm going to be bold and just say the French Government. They are inspirational and I think we really need to take a global approach to learning how to be better. The planet doesn't really have time for anything else!

It was great to have a chat with Lauren and fascinating to hear her insights.

If you're in the Newcastle, Maitland and Lake Macquarie area and keen to embrace a greener way of life, why not check out Your Food Collective here

Or if you're a business that's interested in finding out more about joining the Green Economy, get in touch today.

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