Citizen Zero stories spotlight: tackling waste in the hospitality industry with Tommie Eaton, and the importance of financial inclusion with Nick Holt
You don't always have to start a business with a strategy or a plan. A vision, a desire to invoke some sort of change, or a deep passion for what you're doing can go a long way. Like in Tommie Eaton's case. After spending a few years exploring the world and seeing firsthand the impact of plastic and other waste - a lot of it a direct result of the hospitality and travel industry - Tommie set out to make a difference and drive a more sustainable hospitality sector. This week he tells us more about how that mission and passion developed into two organisations in Clean the World and BambuuBrush, explains how he and his team are tackling the industry's waste problem, and highlights the incredible soap recycling operation that's helping disadvantaged communities worldwide.
We also speak with Marqeta's Nick Holt, who sheds light on the crucial importance of financial inclusion and financial literacy, explains more about how technology and innovation provide an important bridge to economic access to millions, and considers the steps needed to make a fairer financial landscape for all.
Turning trash into treasure: Tommie Eaton, Director of Clean the World and founder of BambuuBrush on tackling the hospitality industry's plastic and waste problem
Tell us about your journey from education to being a sustainability and circular pioneer. How did that happen and where does your passion for positive impact come from?
I always wanted to become a teacher, and did actually work in education for two years after university. I then went on a three-month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia and Australia which ended up lasting over six years. In that time, I worked as a travel agent and fell in love with travel, which completely pulled the rug out from under me in terms of my own narrow-mindedness – experiencing life from other perspectives, and seeing other cultures and ways of thinking had me hooked.
While working in social media marketing for brands, hotel chains, tourism boards and travel companies I spent 18 months travelling through Asia, where I had three lightbulb moments after witnessing the irrefutable negative impact of plastic waste on such a beautiful part of the world:
1) I realised that the natural beauty of our planet’s beaches and environments was diminishing because of mindless plastic pollution across the region.
2) I watched and filmed a turtle trying to eat a plastic bag, most likely mistaking it for jellyfish in Moalboal Philippines.
3) I spoke with a family in a fishing village in rural Cambodia. They told me children in the village got nosebleeds and headaches, and they believed it was from the toxicity of plastic waste burned in the village because there were no waste management systems in place.
These moments changed the trajectory of my life. I wanted to keep building a career in travel, but had a deep desire to influence the industry to consider more sustainable actions, from hotel chains assessing their amenity offerings to working with tourism boards to organise clean ups. This led my partner and I to set up @BambuuBrush to inspire people all over the world to make one simple change: stop using plastic toothbrushes and replace them with bamboo brushes.
How did your experiences travelling highlight the impact of waste and plastic pollution? Do you remember what that felt like?
I felt pure disappointment that we, as a civilisation, failed people who don’t have the opportunities that we have, and that that failure is leading to the destruction of the planet and causing serious illness in impoverished communities.
On the flip side, it also made me realise that we can do much more by simply educating populations on the issue at hand – one simple change multiplied by millions, and I genuinely believe that we would change the world.
How do you go from seeing that level of destruction forming an effective strategy or vision for tackling a challenge of that scale?
To be honest, we didn’t really start with a business plan or strategy. The foundation for our business was sculpted by passion and vision more so than a plan. We have a desire to inspire and empower people to create change in their own lives and understand that, when coming together, this can create behavioural change in society.
That’s why the education and workshops we deliver in schools and the clean ups we organise in communities are so important to us for creating that ripple effect. The whole premise of our vision and belief in circularity is that many people take small actions to make a difference, therefore it shouldn’t need to be daunting.
Can you tell us more about the hospitality industry and the scale of its impact on the planet?
Data sources vary, but hospitality is considered to contribute to upward of 1% of the entire global carbon emissions, and up to 15% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Within hospitality, hotels are a major contributor of the sector’s output of carbon emissions. A large part of hotels’ struggles with sustainability is waste management. In the EU, waste is the fourth largest source of emissions, and in the UK alone, hotels produce 289,700 tonnes of waste each year.
The supply chain relies heavily on packaging, which makes up 24% of the UK’s total emissions. Mass produced plastic packaging, such as hotel toiletries, poses harm to the environment by adding to CO2 emissions from their conversion from fossil fuels in the manufacturing process. As it stands, the plastic problem isn't going away, it’s only getting worse.
The power of financial inclusion: Marqeta's Nick Holt tells us how access to financial services improves lives, and how technology helps provide equal rights to economic resources
How does financial inclusion and accessibility to financial services make a positive impact in people’s lives, and what kinds of challenges prevent inclusion?
The importance of financial inclusion cannot be overstated. People being able to access, store, move and manage money is crucial for the global economy, firstly at a businesses level, to ensure innovation, competition and growth, but also to enable consumers to manage their daily lives, and drive economic growth through buying goods and services.
The Financial Conduct Authority estimated that 1.1 million adults in the UK are without a bank account, highlighting the widespread nature of the challenges that surround gaining access to financial services. Being unbanked is the ultimate example of financial exclusion, as individuals can’t store money or send/receive payments.
As well as those who are unbanked, there’s also a large portion of people in the UK that are underbanked. While they might have access to a bank account, they aren’t being properly served, often resorting to alternative financial services, such as money orders and high-interest payday loans to make ends meet. This is a result of the many barriers people face when trying to access financial services, including credit score, income, and credit history requirements, etc. This issue has been compounded by the ongoing cost of living crisis. Despite consumers needing to rely on credit and borrowing more to help cover rising costs, Marqeta research found that 46% of UK respondents who applied for a credit card in the past year had their applications denied.
A positive outcome of the mounting pressure on consumers, however, is organisations offering and consumers engaging with alternative credit options. For example, Marqeta’s report found that 38% of UK consumers surveyed used Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) to make ends meet during the last year. Fifteen percent of those surveyed were using BNPL because they had no other access to credit, but savvy consumers were also utilising microcredit options due to the lack of interest charged, and to help with budgeting and flexibility.
This is not to suggest that innovative credit options are the sole answer to increasing financial inclusion. The solution to this will be multifaceted, global and involve systematic changes. However, consumer pressure for revisions to financial structures will likely lead to innovative solutions that can enable people to access financial products in a more equal manner.
Challenges in areas like this are so often multifaceted; how does lack of financial inclusion or poor financial literacy impact how people live?
Being able to access funds in a secure, reliable manner is an essential tool to survive in the modern world. In fact, without access to financial products and services, people risk not having their basic needs met (e.g. water, housing and food) and losing access to vital resources (internet, education). Essentially exclusion from financial services, bleeds into exclusion in almost all other areas, meaning individuals can’t access the products and services they rely on to survive.
How important are things like digital finance innovation and new technology for giving equal rights to economic resources and access to basic services?
The best example of how digital solutions can transform access to financial services is to look at the impact of COVID-19 in developing countries. When safety regulations led to greater digital adoption of services, new economic opportunities were created, the gender gap in account ownership was narrowed, and households were more resilient and better equipped to handle financial ups and downs.
According to the Global Fintech Database, about 40% of adults in developing economies (excluding China) who made a digital payment from their account did so for the very first time since the start of the pandemic. This is a vital step for developing economies, as digital banking allows individuals to receive wages or government money more safely and easily.
Impact Connect: our network of purpose-driven businesses, organisations, and people
We are a global community of organisations, businesses, and visionary leaders chosen by Citizen Zero because of our passion for positive impact and commitment to delivering change through our work. We understand the value of collective action and the power of connecting industries, businesses, leaders, and social enterprises through one unifying goal: to make a difference.