Will I get an answer? Over to you Woolies

Some time ago, we were approached by a company that were looking at launching a super cool recycling machine in South Africa; that you can put any recyclable material into, and in exchange you receive vouchers.

The meeting was pretty one-sided from their side, which was okay as it was interesting to hear what they had to offer. One of the questions we posed to them was whether these machines were being manufactured locally. They indicated that it was too expensive to make locally and that they were importing it from China; and... because it is rather bulky, they ship it over. When we raised the fact that shipping is possibly the most environmentally unfriendly way to transport goods, and queried how they justify their carbon footprint, they said that they don't and indicated that they prefer avoiding the question.

Things steadily went downhill from there; as they were wrapping up and about to leave, I was curious about their actual intent of the meeting, and it became clear that they were just after our database as we have amazing clients and have done quite a lot of work in the environmental space. As they were stepping out the door, I couldn't help myself and had to ask them if they didn't want to know what we do? (meeting had not progressed to a two-way conversation by this stage), to which the guy pretty much said that he'd been to our website and knows what we do, cheers. Jeepers dude, if you want to work with our clients, then at least feign interest in the company that you are meeting with.

It was rather clear that this company did not resonate at all with any of our values of authenticity, respect or growth.

So, yesterday, I was intrigued to see a tweet about a trial recycling vending machine [here's the article]. I do hope that Woolies have found a service provider that manufactures the products locally, and respects the environment as much as they do; if not, I would be interested to hear about their justification of their carbon footprint, and why local resources aren't being invested in. Does the recycling of goods sufficiently counter the transport carbon footprint? I've not received a reply to my tweet yet...am looking forward to learning more. Here's to transparency. #Growth #Respect #Authenticity