Rapanui: An Inspiration For Ethical Businesses
+Exclusive Interview With one of Rapanui’s Founders, Rob Drake-Knight.
Do you know where your jeans come from? Do you know the carbon footprint of that pair of jeans? How much people were paid to stitch them together? What the factory conditions were like?
Do you care?
I’m sure you do; we’re becoming more and more aware of these questions when it comes to fashion. And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that tons of our clothing is still produced by sweatshops where the vulnerable and poor are exploited under appalling conditions.
The textile industry is also one of the biggest Greenhouse Gas emitters. In 2010, apparel and textiles accounted for approximately 10% of the world’s total carbon impact.
Does this depress you? I’m guessing that, as a reader of Ample Earth’s blog, it probably does.
Well, chaps; Rapanui has good news for you, and a whole lot of tips and inspiration for your own ethical business.
What is Rapanui?
Well, it’s a response to all this exploiting, polluting madness.
It’s an Eco-Fashion company from the Isle of Wight that makes Organic, Ethical clothing using Renewable Energy. They boast award-winning traceability.
What’s the funny name all about though? Well Rapanui is the Native Polynesian name for Easter Island. When you know this, it makes this label a powerful reminder that if we don’t look after the environment by living sustainably, it won’t be able to sustain us forever.
A Quick Introduction to Rapanui
Their products are ethically made, animal friendly, have a carbon footprint 80% lower than their standard high-street alternative. They are traceable from seed to shop. Pretty good going, we think!
Rapanui is a perfect example of how ethical businesses can create social change. They have created loads of opportunities for young people on the Isle of Wight, which has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the UK.
They ask the big questions, like “What if David Bowie was an Eco Warrior?”
Here is our exclusive interview with Rob, one of the founders of Rapanui.
Ample Earth: Where did the original idea for Rapanui come from?
Rob: We started Rapanui after finishing uni. Mart studied Renewable Energy Engineering and we spent lots of time talking about his course content during trips to the beach. We both became passionate about sustainability and wanted to try to ‘fix’ things.
Ample Earth: Why did you choose to set up an ethical, sustainable business, rather than go down the traditional route?
Rob: Sustainability just became embedded in the way that we do business. I guess we thought that there was a gap in the market but it really started with the idea that we could use the power of ‘cool’ to get people to buy into sustainability. Since this was a core goal of the project from the start we always kept things sustainable rather than plugging in a CSR arm to an existing business that operated non-sustainably.
Ample Earth: What were the biggest challenges/fears you faced when setting up Rapanui?
Rob: Time, money and experience! There were just two of us, so no matter how many cool ideas you have you can only do so much. We had £200 each so £400 in the pot. We blew £80 on headed paper to start with! We then bought a box of t-shirts, sold them, bought two… and we were off. Experience is invaluable, and we had very little. We started slowly and basically had a self-imposed apprenticeship in running a business for the first 18 months. I can honestly say that this was probably the most formative time — when we had nothing but everything to lose! If we made the wrong decisions about where we invested money, stock choices etc. then we’d go bust so we got very good at saving money, maximising our margins, focussing on IT and innovation to set ourselves apart. We also learned how to minimise our marketing costs by making sure products and content were attractive and of excellent quality.
To be honest the sustainability side of things was actually quite easy, obviously we had an advantage in that we had a specialisation in house, but the supply chain set up etc. was quite easy. It was the business basics stuff that was more challenging.
Ample Earth: Do you think it’s much harder/more costly setting up an ethical clothing company, as opposed to a ‘normal’ one?
Rob: Not if you’re starting from scratch. If you have a business with established margins, practices, suppliers, machinery etc. it would be more difficult, but you can still do it. I would say that sometimes sustainability and cost saving go hand in hand — for example if you can make a capital investment in some energy saving or water saving device that is ‘sustainable’ then you are usually saving in terms of your power or water use. Sustainability is not ‘eco’; it’s about making systems less wasteful. There are always difficult decisions to make but usually it’s about managing change rather than giving up some margins.
Ample Earth: What advice would you give to somebody setting up an ethical business like yours?
Rob: Do it! Make sure you are thorough, know your stuff and make sure you live sustainability. If you lie, people will find out. Go for it. Be honest about the good and the bad bits and your customers will trust you; ham up the sustainability of your project and greenwash and you’ll be in trouble.
Also, have a clear vision and a solid plan. Start with the end goal in mind and work back from that.
Ample Earth: Did you make a conscious decision to create a certain ethos for Rapanui? How important is that ethos to your marketing and success?
Rob: On sustainability, yes. On our content and voice, I guess it is just ‘us’ so it makes that side of things easy, it’s important for us to be informative, and to provide take home messages.
Ample Earth: What would you say is your target market?
Rob: I think we appeal to the 18-35 market, and yes I think I agree that most ‘new’ ethical businesses i.e. not of the ‘eco’ do less; the quieter type appeal to an informed younger audience, but we have a broad range of customers. To be honest it’s more about what people know rather than how old they are. We think that it’s not that people don’t care about where and how clothing is made but just that often they don’t have the information to make an informed decision or to attribute a value more than the money they pay for their clothing.
Ample Earth: Do you think people are becoming more demanding about where their clothes come from? Do you think it has become ‘cool’ to be green?
Rob: There seems to be a rise in consciousness every now and then, with the Bangladesh factory collapse last year and when films like blood sweat and t-shirts are on you get this ‘oh this is bad!’ reaction (these incidents directly involved some of our highstreet shops). Events like this spark a load of press coverage but then it dies down and it seems to be swept under the carpet. We believe that Eco-labelling is the answer, then we can all take responsibility for the products that we buy, the prices we demand and the margins we make — as consumers and retailers alike.
Ample Earth: How much has social media helped you to spread the word about Rapanui? Is there a particular site that you think is the most valuable? Are you interested in newer sites, like Pinterest and Instagram?
Rob: It’s brilliant, Facebook and Twitter are great ways to keep in touch with our audience, and Instagram is big for us too, we’ve got lots of visual content so it’s a great place to distribute it.
Ample Earth: How important is video in your marketing campaign?
Video is big, our most successful campaigns have come about through video; content and product drive features and sales. If you can make amazing stuff people will write about it and they will want to have it too!
Check out their Invisible T-Shirt Video
and Michael Fish’s BASE jump(!):
For a more in-depth explanation of how Rob and Mart got Rapanui going and a story about Street Karting, check out this post on the their blog.
