🚌 It All Started With An MBA Project
Now serves 40k people in 6 countries, daily!
Today’s sustainable snapshot👇🏽
It All Started With An MBA Project
Quiz Time!
Startup of the Week: RecycleSmart
5 Sustainable Brands That I Recently Discovered
3 Stories That Lifted My Spirits This Week
🚌 It All Started With An MBA Project
In 2011, Eva, Alejandro, and Rui were part of the MBA program at IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. One of the projects that they were working on as part of their course was to propose an idea that would disrupt a traditional industry.
At that time, Alejandro was also working as the CEO of a third-generation motorcoach operator in Spain. Being aware of how the industry operates, he suggested the “commute to work” problem.
The commute to work is a challenge for companies to solve. Unless you have batches of people coming in and leaving at the same time every day, how can you optimize it?
Add to it factors like hybrid work, door-to-door pickup, and multisite visits, and you can see why the problem is so complicated and, well, unsustainable (from an emissions perspective).
Eva and Rui had experience in innovation and strategic operations consultancy, and agreed that this whole commute to work model can be more efficient. And that’s how their project, “Busit your way” was born.
One thing led to another, and in 2015, these 3 were joined by Danilo, CEO of a Motorcoach Operator in Brazil, to the founding team
And finally, BusUp launched in 2015 with an aim to create more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable shuttle programs.
The brand manages Corporate Mobility Programs with the help of technology.
The company tailors the commute to work program for every company. Whether it’s hybrid or in-person, door-to-door pickup or clubbing employees from different companies into a shared bus route, BusUp has all the solutions.
This helps to bring down the costs for the company.
Reduces the stress on employees.
Brings down the number of cars on the streets.
Making it easy for everyone on the planet.
⌛ Time for the quiz of the week
Note: Answer at the end of the newsletter. No one (including me) can see your response, so feel free to vote. 😉
✨ Startup of the Week: RecycleSmart
Recycling is one of the most common ways to get rid of your stuff. But recycling across the world is broken. The recycling systems haven’t been able to keep up with the evolving products and packaging.
They can’t handle stuff like e-waste, textiles, kitchen items, blister packs, batteries, and vapes. So these products end up in landfills and sit there for decades, if not centuries.
RecycleSmart is solving this problem for Australians. It’s making recycling easy and accessible for everyone.
So what can you recycle with them? Well, anything that’s dry and you're not sure what to do with it.
RecycleSmart picks it up from your home or business
They then sort all of this tricky waste by hand.
And works with vetted partners who can recycle or reuse them.
For instance,
♻️ Soft plastics are turned back into oil or asphalt additives.
♻️ Wearable clothes are donated to local charities.
♻️ Gold, silver, copper, and rare earth metals are extracted from your e-waste.
Their only condition: they pick up dry and reasonably clean stuff. No food, no organic, liquid, hazardous, or dangerous materials. That’s fair!
Solving this tricky waste problem is no easy feat.
✅ 5 Sustainable Brands That I Recently Discovered
🇮🇳 Jhappi: Helping individuals & institutions to buy & gift more mindfully.
🇮🇳 Onedotfive: Infusing planet-friendly practices like natural dyeing into everyday clothes
🇦🇪 Carbonmark: Scaling climate finance with a global carbon credits marketplace.
🇺🇸 Aircela: A fridge-sized machine that makes gasoline out of thin air.
🇺🇸 Clean Composting: A paper-pulp container designed for quick and easy composting.
😹 3 Stories That Lifted My Spirits This Week
🧤 All in one: Sustainable apparel brand Patagonia has integrated its Worn Wear trade-in service into its main website, making it easier to buy and sell used clothes.
⚰️ RIP: A man in Maine, US, was laid to rest in a mushroom casket, instead of wood and concrete that is used in traditional burials.
🐮 A better alternative: Karnataka Milk Federation in India is experimenting with new biodegradable milk packets that break down naturally within 90 days(as opposed to 500 years for a plastic one).
Give that 💚 a little tap if this edition helped you learn something new about sustainability and climate change. Have a good weekend, and see you next week :)