NAMAE journals E1: How to build a sustainable business

Ody
May 9, 2023
4 min read

Updated: Jun 18, 2023

Image of two people sitting together — NAMAE journals : E1

Let me begin by saying that this column is not intended to be a one-stop guide for my fellow small business owners on how to create a sustainable business. What you will find is a story about a small business in India that chose to implement sustainable business practices. I can only hope that our story is relatable and helpful in your business journey.

By taking small steps we hope to inspire a big movement.

This is the story of NAMAE and our endeavour in creating a sustainable business to be proud of.

Noble but difficult

It was early April 2020 when NAMAE (then known as na|mé) was conceptualised. Between brainstorming sessions on what the value proposition for the brand was going to be, implementing an environmental-friendly approach was among the many bullet points on my diary.

To be honest, it was a personal wish of mine that NAMAE kept sustainable business practices at its core, no matter how insignificant those efforts would turn out be for our planet.

You are here today because you feel that same way. It is a noble approach, although the road ahead is tricky. Especially for a small business like ours.

Looking back, I do think it was naive of my partner and me to assume that implementing sustainable business practices would be easy.

But I wouldn't have it any other way. Good things take time and effort, that I know.

Two business partners discussing business plans

Actions > words = Sustainable business meaning

For me, sustainability was going to be more about actions than words. Too often I have seen businesses that brand themselves "green" but fall short and only contribute with empty promises and slogans on their websites.

At NAMAE, we wanted to be: definitive and realistic.

Definitive in asking ourselves what "going sustainable" or "going environmental-friendly" really meant. Realistic in the sense that a small business like NAMAE (with limited funds) would be able to put its money where its mouth is.

Reducing plastic use would create a difference, we thought. So, we chose to use plastic-free packaging for NAMAE.

Going plastic-free was definitive. It was realistic too.

Image of plastic packaging in the ocean depicting plastic pollution

Reality of building a sustainable business

Reality hit us when we started looking for alternatives to plastic for packaging.

Plastic is a near-perfect compound when it comes to packaging. You will not find any material that is waterproof, transparent, readily available and most importantly cheap as plastic.

PLA plastic was among the first alternatives that we came across. PLA plastics have fooled the lazy business owners and the ones who don't really care of going plastic-free.

PLA plastics are marketed as “biodegradable plastics," in truth PLA only decays under special industrial composting conditions. Now, I can't expect Rahul to have access to industrial composting conditions at his 2BHK in Koramangala.

But not all is lost, during my research, I discovered a UK-based company called notpla that produces "naturally biodegradable and home-compostable" packaging from seaweed and plants. Sadly for NAMAE, notpla is focused on inventing packaging solutions for the food industry while we needed alternatives to package our greeting cards, diaries and other paper goods.

If you are in the food industry business, you can check out notpla here.

So you get the gist of it. Most of these innovative packaging solution company are aboard and packaging alternatives made out of seaweed and mushrooms, if available, will cost you a ton. There was a India-based company on the internet that I was hopeful about, but their office in MG Road, Bangalore was non-existential.

Finding answers in the past

So where did we end up? We wanted non-plastic packaging that was transparent for our greeting cards.

Enter glassine paper. Glassine is made from paper that is pressed, dried and flattened under steel rollers in a process known as super-calendaring. Glassine has been available for centuries. I was amazed that my alternative to plastic was not a futuristic material made out of seaweed and mushrooms.

Call it luck or jugaad. Most would probably agree with the latter. But this is what building a sustainable business will take. As long as you keep going, you will find a way.

The use of glassine paper at NAMAE is by no means an end to our search for the perfect packaging solution. For now it is the answer to our goal of going "plastic-free." You can check out our use of glassine on our Instagram here. We have also felt Amazon links to plastic free packaging material we use at NAMAE at the end of the article. This story was about a single layer of packaging. The inner-most layer that protects our greeting cards. What about the outer courier and tape to seal the package? We surely used plastic there right?

Let's read about that in the next episode.

In the meantime, visit our shop for timeless greeting cards and birthday cards made out of paper harvested only from responsibly-managed forests.

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