“Green-Streaming” Your Business with Strawhopper Founder Jessica Hare

Great social ventures can grow from the unlikeliest of places, and Jessica Hare’s Strawhopper is a shining example of that. Using her extensive experience in the glass industry and understanding of supply chain management and manufacturing, Jessica built Strawhopper, a Canadian manufacturer of recyclable glass straws, with the idea that businesses could do things better: with more transparency and less waste. Her innovative product, combined with a rock-solid foundation of business values and an unwavering commitment to doing things her way (read: the right way), prove that mindful practices can produce successful businesses. I sat down with Jessica to get her take on social entrepreneurship, sustainability, and what it means to “green-stream” your business.

Strawhopper’s recyclable glass straws tucked nicely into carbon neutral packaging made with 100% recycled material. #madewithgeorgetre wearecarbonneutral

Hi, Jessica! Tell me about Strawhopper. How did it come to life?

Strawhopper started in 2015. I had been working at a glass company for four years and I saw a need, and that people wanted something different than a plastic straw. This was at a time when people really started paying attention to climate change and the impact of plastic, etc. I felt like at that time there wasn’t a good way for me to make the product and sell it in the way I wanted to...as a zero waste company.

I thought “I could make these straws”, so I played around with it but I didn’t start a business until 2018. At that time I felt like I had a good handle on the industry and how I could work with my local community to build a business, and keep everything very local to Kitchener-Waterloo. Being zero waste and being community focused was my biggest goal.

Tell me about your product. What makes it unique?

Made in Canada of course…. everything I sourced has traveled a minimal distance to me. I don’t accept plastic of any kind for anything I offer. When I looked at manufacturing, my goal was to produce the least amount of waste as possible, so it really mattered to me what type of glass I used. Our glass straws are made out of the only recyclable glass available in tube form. Sounds pretty intense, I know. Currently, glass straws are made out of a high heat resistant glass that can't be disposed of as part of the manufacturing process. But with our recyclable glass, if something isn’t perfect in the manufacturing process and doesn’t make it through quality control we can donate it as aggregate fill. It’s mixed in with other grained particulate material used in construction… it becomes useful instead of sitting in a landfill. I’m the only manufacturer that I’m aware of who is making recyclable glass straws, and can dispose of glass straws in this way.

What role does sustainability play in your business?

Sustainability is everything. It has always been the basis of this business. Not a lot of people who have an entrepreneurial spirit know that there are ways out there to make whatever they want to make for the world as zero waste as possible. I am so lucky to be surrounded by great mentors and business owners who have helped me understand supply chain management and manufacturing. I thought “if I can do this, maybe I can show other people how to do it, too”. The straws are my product, but the whole purpose of this is to show anyone willing to listen that there is a way to create a successful business -- a way to manufacture, sell a product, and make money -- transparently, with a low environmental impact.

There is always a way to do things better. It’s difficult and it takes a lot more research and time, but it’s so worth it. Everyone in my supply chain is aligned on this value. And I keep my supply chain 100% North America. I call this green-streaming.

It does take a lot of research… tell me more about your research process.

It really starts with understanding your industry, and then letting the product match the industry instead of forcing it. Know your competition and what’s out there, and then beat everyone else. I looked at my competitors to see who was doing it best, then I asked: “Can I do it better?” Then I looked at what I could offer as a unique selling proposition: things like not importing anything from overseas, using my special glass material, making my straws in Canada, and having a carbon neutral packaging company to work with.

What about research from an environmental perspective?

Waste disposal was my biggest challenge and needed the most research. Glass lasts a long time, which is great, but it’s bad if you’re not recycling it. It will literally last hundreds of years and never breakdown. We live in a wonderful country that makes it easy for us to dispose of waste, but there are many restrictions around the type of glass you can recycle because there are so many different types of glass in the world. I contacted a few regional waste collectors that dealt with glass with no return calls or emails. I also reached out to larger glass recycling facilities in other provinces with no answers at all.

I knew I could find a supplier of glass that I could recycle or repurpose. Some industries (like beer/wine bottles) use a similar type of glass as mine. Compositionally it shouldn't be a problem, but the challenge is that I don’t make enough crushed glass for local recycling facilities to accept. So I needed to find an alternative way to get rid of my scrap glass. Because I knew the glass industry so well, I was able to foresee this challenge and find a way to address it. I hope that someday I can have the glass I use picked up by our local glass recycling facility and make it into something new. Glass is infinitely recyclable and never loses its purity or degrades.

“The straws are my product, but the whole purpose of this is to show anyone willing to listen that there is a way to create a successful business — a way to manufacture, sell a product, and make money — transparently, with a low environmental impact. ”

How did the environment affect your decisions around things like material and packaging when you started building Strawhopper?

Taking the environment into consideration was everything to me. I needed to make sure I knew exactly where everything was being made and how it was being made. I needed to know how waste was being dealt with, and how things were being shipped. I had to know every step. Asking myself how this was going to affect the environment at every stage of the process was vital. I also want to point out that not every process or person or anything I have tried has been perfect, but I tried.

Have you ever found sustainable choices to be cost prohibitive for your business? How do you deal with that?

No, because the core of my business plan was to build this sustainably. That is the thread that weaves everything together… I have to stick with it and not be thrown off by the price of things. This makes me sound like a bad business owner who didn’t put any thought into budgeting, but if you decide you want to do things a certain way, you’re going to find a way and be successful doing it.

As a business owner, how do you budget for more environmentally-conscious decisions?

This is where I’m a terrible entrepreneur [laughs]. That word budgeting… When I started out, I knew that with the way I wanted to run the business, that it was going to be more expensive... so I just accepted early on that products like packaging and raw materials were going to cost more. Price didn’t impact any of my decisions. I pay three times more for my glass material because I wanted to use that material. When trying to create something zero waste, the cost of things are unpredictable… not many people have done it before, so the prices of things aren't standardized. So when I look at future growth and product development, and the budgeting of that... I want to do the right thing in the faith that it will pay off and hopefully the end user of my products will have the same values I do.

With the environmental shift and awareness that's happening all over the world, it’s hard to predict what will come out of it. Maybe there will be more grants or funding available to sustainable businesses like mine to help them do more product development. It’s an interesting time to be selling this kind of product.

That’s a good point. What do you think it will take for people to make this behavioural change?

““Green-streaming” is ensuring that all aspects of your supply chain are zero waste or as sustainable as they can possibly be. From products, to suppliers and manufacturing, to packaging, to transportation…. all the way to the end user. ”

It’s a hard question...I can’t wait to live in a word where alternatives to single use plastics are just the norm in our society and we don't have to pay an arm and a leg for something that's better for us and the environment. When that shift is going to happen... who knows. Vote with your money… support small. The shift can happen as long as the demand is there.

I have my hopes and dreams for the future and what it could look like. I believe we need more action from our political leaders in order for things to actually change.

You’ve talked about this idea of “green-streaming”, which I love. I think you may have coined a new phrase! Tell me about what it means to “green-stream”. What in your business could be better green-streamed?

“Green-streaming” is ensuring that all aspects of your supply chain are zero waste or as sustainable as they can possibly be. From products, to suppliers and manufacturing, to packaging, to transportation…. all the way to the end user. My entire supply chain is North American, for example. I don’t import anything from overseas. My straws are made in Cambridge, Ontario. The majority of my business is wholesale, which has a much lower environmental impact… it’s less shipping per year versus shipping out multiple packages every day.

I also ship zero waste. I reuse shoe boxes to ship in, or anything I can get from the LCBO. In my boxes I use very specific kraft paper tape and newspapers that I collect from neighbours. I shred my own cardboard for packaging material, and when I am emptying my boxes from suppliers they are kind enough to accept them back and refill them again. But there are aspects of shipping and freight that could be greener for my business. A good example of this is when I get orders from the United States. I have to put the shipping label and customs form in this little plastic envelope that goes on the outside of the box. It drives me crazy and I’ve looked everywhere for a solution. That would be my biggest complaint right now. I’ve actually been called out on it by a wholesaler in the US!

We’re still a small business with a very small offering so I feel I can control a lot of the moving parts. I’m totally open minded when it comes to doing things better and improving on every level. I take suggestions very seriously ... if it works, it works.

What do you think the world of takeout packaging is going to look like in the future? How do reusable products like glass straws play into the world you envision?

I hope that there are glass straws in everyone's home [laughs]. The glass straw shows people that there is a different way of doing things. You should question everything that you use. Can it be made more sustainably? I hope that there’s less acceptance of single use products and more questions being asked about how to do things better. And less green-washing.

Right now people accept that things are packaged in certain ways. You get your take out in styrofoam, inside a plastic bag with plastic forks and knives… that's the way it's always been. It’s small, I know, but if we create better habits like bringing re-usable containers or educating businesses on the benefits of more sustainable packaging it becomes contagious and subconsciously change happens… then big change happens. It doesn't feel like you’re losing the convenience aspect.

So we know that straws and single use plastics have (happily!) been banned in many places around the world. Pretend for a moment that you’re not in the straw industry. What do you think is the most important and impactful thing that should be banned for the sake of the environment?

“The glass straw shows people that there is a different way of doing things. You should question everything that you use. Can it be made more sustainably? I hope that there’s less acceptance of single use products and more questions being asked about how to do things better.”

People really cling to straws and plastic bags because changing to re-usable forms of these products is a simple adjustment for people to make… it’s not too crazy or life-altering, which is why they can easily do it.

But that is a big world question. What would actually make the biggest difference? Looking for the best energy solution. Stepping away from fossil fuels more aggressively. My answer would have to do with nuclear energy. I won’t get too in depth with it, and there are always arguments on either side, but nuclear energy should play a role in our energy solution... if not the biggest role. There has been some huge nuclear developments lately that are happening in Canada and I feel that's the direction we should take very seriously.

Why did you decide to partner with 1% for the Planet? Why this organization specifically?

When I was doing my market research I asked, “What is everyone else doing here?” I noticed that a lot of the businesses I researched were giving back, which is awesome. I wanted that to be a part of my business plan. So I wondered how I could give back and make that a part of my brand story and make it very easy for the consumer to understand what I do. I saw 1% for the Planet popping up a lot among businesses that I aligned with the most. 1% for the Planet members donate one percent of their annual sales to environmental causes (that have to do with oceans, forests, wildlife etc). Instead of me wasting time trying to understand different charities and whether or not they’re legit, 1% covers such a broad spectrum. Plus they have a transparency award and they’re known internationally. They have an event every year that I hope to go to this year...everyone comes together to learn what’s happening in the world in terms of conservation and climate change. It’s a three day educational conference where you get to get to meet like-minded business owners.

How do you think about sustainability in your personal life? Is there anything that you’ve had trouble sacrificing?

[Laughs] 100%! I could live a more sustainable life, for sure. I can’t make any excuses. If you have ever met me, I like things a certain way, I definitely spend way too much on cosmetics at Sephora, for example. It's just me. Sacrificing feels to me like you are losing something. But if you genuinely have a strong reason as to why you're making that change, you’re not sacrificing anything…. it doesn't have to feel like that. I am not perfect. I started small, but overall I focus on using less.

For someone who wants to start living a more sustainable life, what are some easy and impactful wins? How do you recommend getting starting?

I think that belongs to the individual. Everyone is different! If you’re thinking about making some changes, do some research to see what resonates with you. Ask yourself what you think you could do differently based on your lifestyle. Reusable cutlery, Tupperware for takeout, reusable bags, glass straws, buying second hand, grocery shopping in refillable containers, carpooling more often. It's the holiday season right now so reuse as many bags and tissue as you can. For everything else kraft paper wrapping is great, newspapers, linens... there are so many adorable ways to wrap gifts sustainably, even if you just give it a try for fun!

-Abigail Conners, Senior Account Executive