Female Disruptors: Susie Hewson of Natracare On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
A lot of people said “Don’t do it” so be safe in the knowledge that I never followed their advice. Now people ask me for advice….
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Susie Hewson, Natracare’s founder and CEO was on a mission to change the world for the better…along the way, she launched a global business.
A TV exposé of the pulping industry was the launchpad for Natracare. “It turned out that factories around the world making paper, toilet roll and sanitary products were using a chlorine-based method to bleach their materials. And that produces dioxin, something that’s incredibly bad for people and for the environment,” says Susie Hewson.
“That was back in 1989. I decided then and there to try to change things. After all these products get used by billions of women around the world. If manufacturers started using safe, chlorine-free methods instead, it would make a huge difference to women’s health — and to the world we live in.”
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I first have to tell you that for my entire life I have wanted to stop nature and wildlife from being destroyed. I have an abundance of empathy and a need to take action. Art schools are cultural hotbeds for creating disruptors, so I joined Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Conservation Corps so I could campaign and take actions as appropriate.
It was while I was living in Sweden that I first identified a negative impact on the marine environment in how the raw materials for menstrual pads were produced. As I cycled from my home in Mölndal to Göteborg, I noticed each day that the streams and brooks, exiting a major manufacturer’s site, were often flowing green or red. This site worked with pulp production as well as making pads and liners. Fast forward half a decade and eventually the Swedish Government would bring in environmental legislation and controls for Swedish producers. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Greenpeace were campaigning to stop the North American pulping industry from dumping highly toxic chlorine at sea and I was able to get to see scientific reports on the impact of this toxic bi-product on all life. Then in 1988, I saw a World in Action documentary reporting on the scientific findings of this known carcinogen, dioxin, a by-product from the pulping and chemical industry, on our planet’s water, air and soil. Think Agent Orange! The program interviewed big brand menstrual hygiene companies and confronted them with the scientific findings. Without exception, the menstrual hygiene industry’s response was one of denial. They were not about to make any changes. Remember what I said about an excess of empathy. I got very angry and at that moment decided I was going to campaign hard to make them change and if they didn’t, I would create my own products to challenge them! I had two very young children whose planet I wanted to protect. I had acquired a lot of education and skills and an awful lot of inside knowledge I was about to take to the market….without capital.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I seemed to have poked a stick in a hornets nest! What started as a campaign, evolved into a business, whilst never giving up as a campaigning brand. Everything about the status quo of the design and ingredients for pads and tampons had multiple issues. Natracare’s 100% cotton tampons were included in peer reviewed research* conducted in 1994 by New York Medical School’s Philip Tierno, into the role of synthetic materials, commonly used in tampons, on the production of toxins produced in the body that led to toxic shock syndrome, in the presence of a menstrual tampon. Natracare organic 100% cotton tampons were the only ones to not generate any toxins and 100% cotton was deemed, by the research, to be the safer option to avoid TSS. I immediately became a target for harassment and the beginning of the attempts to damage the integrity of my brand. I became a no smoke without fire messenger. It took almost two decades before any other brand stepped into the organic cotton tampon category. In 2000, I produced an outline standard to protect the integrity of organic tampons, seeing endless unverified claims for organic. Eventually, my outline standards were included in the Global Organic Textiles Standard version 5.0. However, with the recent influx of investors into “me too” brands in this category, I found multiple organic cotton brands in North America making ecological claims for their “plant-based” applicator labeled tampons — I had tested these applicators back in 2014 and knew they were no better for the environment than any other type of plastic applicator — so I spent 4 years gathering evidence and analysis, thanks to Greenpeace laboratories and the University of the West of England, to present to GOTS to show how this damaged the organic integrity of the category that I had spent years trying to keep clean. I am proud to say that GOTS version 6.0 banned organic tampons from containing synthetic overwraps from March 1st 2021 and from using plastic applicators from March 1st 2022. The latter was delayed by a year due to lobbying, presumably from those brands affected by these changes to the GOTS standard. Oddly, starting from the first time I began my campaigning in this sector, back in 1989, the industry had tried its best to undermine my efforts, and yet now identifies it as a growing, profitable market to enter into. Over 45 billion menstrual products are dumped in the environment every year. Natracare has received many ecological accreditations along its journey to make change happen in the industry. Already we have the lowest carbon footprint of any disposable pads. However, those 45 billion plastic pads could be made better with encouragement and pressure from a brand like Natracare that just achieved EN13432 and ASTM D6400 making them the first brand to become part of the circular economy by being able to be commercially composted, turning the pads and liners into valuable soil for agriculture.
Then there’s the wipes industry….and flushability. Ask me what we already achieved here and the consequences for legislation and claims for the industry!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t recall anything funny by way of a mistake, but in 1988 I was searching for a contract manufacturer to make pads to my specification, and the start of my early journey to get manufacturers to change their processes. One particular company wanted me to explain who I was and what my plans for the brand were. I naively sent them my extensive marketing plan to review! They rejected me on the basis that they saw me as a future threat to their category! Lesson learned. Trust no one with your trade secrets… Remember that stream in Sweden…go figure.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Maybe this is hard to believe, but I did not have any mentors. I self financed my product development. Banks were not interested in a female startup back then. Learning curves were steep ( no internet when I began — just the city library ). I had two degrees and a mission. I was full-in to find out what I needed to do, submitting to FDA and Health Canada for my medical device registration; how to identify and get to talk to retail buyers; insurance; storage and distribution; shipping — the list of skills I needed to quickly get seemed endless, but I started this as a campaign and wasn’t deterred. My now husband was my greatest supporter, and as a math and computer science graduate, by 1996, we were on the World Wide Web with our very first website! The playing field was now leveling, allowing me to have my voice and messaging amplified. So thank you Sir Tim Berners-Lee!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
The term Disruptor has been used a lot in recent years, but from where I came from, analysis, classification and creative solutions to problems was my profession. My influence as a disruptor allowed for me to identify how design for change can lead to ecological and health improvements in a product category. This was clearly a positive disruption. So if an industry is doing good, by this I mean is conducted ethically, responsibly and sustainably, why disrupt it? Technology drives disruption in many industries, and just as with rapid climate change, nature is slow to adapt appropriately. When technology accelerates changes for the workforce, which may be slow to adapt to new skills and practices, then there needs to be a conversation about the obligation of a society to help people adapt where necessary. Clearly we need technology to advance positive changes, but we also need to be mindful that at speed, and without appropriate legislation, rapid technology change can be damaging for people in careers and the workforce to adapt appropriately.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
A lot of people said “Don’t do it” so be safe in the knowledge that I never followed their advice. Now people ask me for advice….
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
See answer C above!
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I can only speak for myself at the point I started this journey. Getting start-up capital was impossible. Imagine asking a bank for a loan to stand up against the largest and most powerful brands in the feminine hygiene industry, me a woman to boot. No one shared my courage or tenacity and definitely I suspected it was also a few ounces of chauvinism and prejudice behind those desks. Over the years, as I have become well known in my sector, and I hope values have changed for the better, I am no longer asked whose personal secretary I am!
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
I studied a lot of philosophy and classical literature during my formative years, and many environmental activists have fed into my green root system, none more so than the most inspiring and incredible woman I have ever met, the late Polly Higgins who campaigned to create a law to criminalize ecological damage. Read her book, “Eradicating Ecocide”
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I believe that Polly Higgins already got there before me!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Share how that was relevant to you in your life.
“Sink or Swim” — I think it is safe to say that I have been swimming for all of my life and I don’t like snorkeling!
How may our readers follow you online?
Follow @natracare for all about the brand…otherwise, if you want a fire brand experience..look for me on twitter.
Propensity of Tampons & Barrier Contraceptives to Amplify Staphylococcus aureus Toxic Shock Syndrome & Toxin-1 by Philip M Tierno, Jnr & Bruce Hanna. Published in Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology 2: 140–145 (1994)
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
