4v4s launches planet-positive welcome packs!
Read the story behind this environmentally-friendly initiative, driven by Anna Kirkman's dream to change people's habits, one shampoo bottle at a time.
Fresh out of university over twenty years ago as a newly-graduated Environmental Chemical Engineer, Anna was quickly swept along the conveyor belt deep into the world of Fast Moving Consumer Goods. It soon became the norm to spend all her energies finding better and cheaper ways to get more plastic into more people's homes more cheaply and thus encourage them to buy more and more consumable items.
Figuring out how to increase the capacity of a packing hall that already filled, labelled and shipped three million bottles of shampoo and conditioner per day was something that challenged her mind but left an empty feeling inside. Something didn't sit quite right, but she was such a small cog in such a gigantic and well-oiled global industry that there wasn't much scope to fix it.
Years later, having quit corporate life to follow her dreams into the mountains, she would quickly become irritated by repeated request for the provision of shampoos and soaps in her rapidy-growing portfolio of rental chalets and apartments. Why couldn't people bring their own, instead of expecting her to give them single-use plastic hotel sample bottles, and miniature soaps in polythene wrappers? Surely they must already have a bottle on the go, of their favourite type? Why break the habit of a lifetime, just because you're on holiday...?
Managing individual stocks of property-specific handsoaps, shampoos and coditioners, bodywashes and so on across the resort would quickly escalate into a logistic nightmare and lead to frequent outages and disappointments,
The solution didn't seem to lie in equipping 100 properties with wall-mounted dispensers that would be refilles weekly from giant plastic containers either. Too many bathrooms, too many cleaning teams and not enough space in their cars. Never mind how to wrestle five or more giant plastic containers through the icy car parking spots and slippery steps in winter to each property that they clean.
There was not much success with refillable sink-top bottles either, as these would simply vanish into people's suitcases, accidentally swept up in the end-of-stay packing frenzy that comes with a fixed checkout deadline of 10am.
What to do with the negative experiences and reviews from clients and owners who expected her to provide soaps and shampoos?
An idea formed and slowly egan to take shape. What if she leveraged this idea that people seemed to want to break their habits during their holidays?
If you've never tried solid shampoo, it's probably because you haven't had the opportunity, because you always buy your shampoo in the supermarket when you do your grocery shopping, because you have a favourite and don't see any need to change, or maybe just because it seems weird and what if you don't like it?
Perhaps you might try it if someone handed you some when you went on holiday...?
Perhaps you might not like it. Perhaps some of the others in your group might like it. Perhaps one of them might go home and change their habits. Perhaps they'll even talk about it to others. Perhaps together we can change people's habits, one shampoo bottle at a time.
Locally-sourced and plastic-free welcome packs, with a focus on building trial of zero-waste and low-impact products were rolled out across our full portfolio in December 2023.
At 4v4s we have established relationships with local craftspeople and suppliers to establish affordable supply chains for a range of planet-positive and low-impact kitchen and bathroom essentials, including:
- - Hand-made solid shampoo bars
- - Hand-made plastic-free soaps
- - Dissolvable laundry sheets
- - Compostable dishcloths and sponges
- - Wooden washing-up brushes
- - ...and more!
