Basically, all that stuff that you go through on a day-to-day basis. You don’t need the bottle every time, there’s a whole heap of issues with the type of packaging that you usually get those products in, including mixed plastics, coloured plastics that can’t be recycled, and people get confused about what can and can’t be recycled. It’s really just much better to refill what you’ve already got and just get that whole recycling confusion out of the way.

Vessel Nundah has been open for just over two and a half years now, and in that time, we’ve saved over 13,000 500 mL equivalent bottles from being produced, shipped and disposed of. There’s a lot of impacts all through the supply chain with packaging that we’re using just completely avoids, which is a great solution.

We also work with Nundah Community Enterprises Cooperatives who I think are one of Queensland’s, if not Australia’s oldest, social enterprises. They’re real giants in the ecosystem who are wonderful to work with, and we employ one of their constituents with a disability, Susan, and she does a shift in the store each week, which she really loves. We love being able to help her with that as well.

All the products we sell are sourced as locally as possible, and most of them are made by family businesses in Southeast Queensland or Wide Bay, Northern New South Wales. That really helps us reduce the impacts from transport as well, and we’re supporting a network of local businesses.

That’s amazing Marion. There’s so many areas and facets of impact there, it’s very clear that you’ve thought deeply about all of these areas that you can kind of target, and I think looking at that as well, you’ll be able to maybe share some of the biggest lessons that you’ve had and that you’ve learned in starting a social enterprise yourself.

If you’re going to do business, make it the best it can be and make it work for everyone. But one of the main things that I really love about social enterprise now that I’m more familiar with are the people and players and shapes they can come in with that diversity of business types.

There’s just so many [aspects] to social enterprise and I love it. You’ve got businesses who create the impact through their actual operations, like Vessel Nundah, Mumma Got Skills or Food Connect. There’s ones who support employment for disadvantaged groups, like the co-op that I work with. Those are like Mantua Sewing Studio.

Then there’s ones who just donate through more mainstream businesses, like Give Industries, who are electrical tradies who give a massive amount to really important global causes. I just love that you can work with your passions and skillsets to create, change and impact in so many ways.

We actually doubled our average monthly sales in March, because we had hand sanitiser and hand soap when the supermarkets and things were all sold out. That was entirely due to our local supply chain, like local manufacturers, and we had lines down the street for Vessel. I had more customers than I’ve ever had, so there was quite an opportunity there.

We were also selling reusable masks, which became a hotter item later on. It was something I never saw coming, but we’ve managed to serve a purpose there which was good.

As a sector, I think it’s helped the shift for customers to support local [businesses] and to think about supply chains, be at home and be more mindful of their local businesses. I think it has been really positive for a lot of social enterprises that I know, and I think we need to get better at communicating our benefit, impact and our needs as a sector.

I see QSEC, the Queensland Social Enterprise Council, has been doing a lot of work on this now, and I think that’s been really great. I think we need to get better at working together and that’s something I saw through COVID was that a lot of businesses were reaching out to each other to support, compliment and work together. I think we can really keep that going.

Amazing insights there Marion. It’s fantastic to hear how well Vessel Nundah managed to capitalise on that opportunity, and it shows that there is a lot of opportunities even in those difficult times.

What inspiring projects and initiatives have you come across recently which you find are creating positive social change?

That’s a fun one to talk about. I’m currently participating in SEFA’s Kickstarter program, which is going until the end of the year. That as everything is being run this year in an online version, and I’m in a cohort with social enterprises from all over Australia, which is quite fun.

One of the enterprises is Borne Clothing who do mosquito repellent T-shirts. Obviously, they serve a purpose in themselves, but then the money from that they raise through that business is funding mosquito nets overseas to help combat deaths from malaria. They are a really awesome young team who are just so full of energy.

I think their product and their mission is just so valuable, and they’ve been really fun to work with. There’s another business in the cohort called Boxhead Plastics who are a bit more aligned with the plastics theme that I’m working with. They’re using recycled plastic for injection molded items like golf tees.

Then one that’s kind of come out of left field for me that I haven’t been involved with a lot before is Naughty Noodle Fun Haus on the New South Wales central coast. They’re like an arts and culture hub who are trying to foster diversity and community inclusion through their arts and culture program. They’ve obviously had a really hard year with events due to COVID, but they’re starting to sort of get more active again now in the end of the year and their vision and passion has just been so inspiring to see behind the curtain of, and it’s all been really fun.