How Sarah Spliethoff of Sunniemade is Helping To Tackle Climate Change & Inspire Sustainable Routines
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Starting a business means taking personal and professional risks. Rather than having a boss evaluate your work one-on-one, the general public will, and you should be prepared to embrace that. You’ll get all sorts of input (often unsolicited) and your big swings will now have an audience. Try to have a thick skin and give yourself credit for showing up and putting yourself out there every day.
As a part of our series about how companies are becoming more sustainable, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Spliethoff, Founder of Sunniemade.
Sunniemade is a plastic-free personal care brand started by Sarah Spliethoff in 2022 with a simple idea: sustainable self-care should be easy and indulgent. Sunniemade offers a range of hair care bars and bar soap that champion plants–not plastic–with nourishing ingredients, eco-friendly packaging, and 1% for the Planet.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
After 10 years in the marketing agency world, I wanted to find a way to use my storytelling skills to make a more positive impact on the world. I’m passionate about preserving the environment by reducing waste and eliminating plastic, and over the years, I’ve made many small (and big) changes to make my personal routine more sustainable. But there was one swap that I felt was often overlooked by others: moving from bar to bottles. Most liquid products are up to 90% water, and the addition of water creates unnecessary plastic packaging, increases shipping emissions, and requires the addition of preservatives (because water attracts bacteria). It seemed obvious that switching to a bar format was better for both people and planet, but I found that most conventional soaps were not telling a compelling sustainability story, and there was a huge awareness gap about shampoo and conditioner bars. That’s when I decided to build a brand that could educate and excite consumers about making the switch.
What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve?
I started Sunniemade to make the world a little bit brighter — one bar at a time. We inspire others to make sustainable swaps in their daily routines by offering products that are easy and fun to make a habit out of. I believe that if we’re going to fight climate change successfully, the most responsible choice can — and should — also be the most desirable one. That’s why I set out to create plastic-free personal care that’s not just sustainable, but affordable and enjoyable too. Our brand attracts customers to the category with empowerment and positive reinforcement, and our concentrated, effective products show that sustainable self-care can be both nourishing and indulgent.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
Our singular goal as a company is to put more plants — and less plastic — on this earth. For us, this is more than a single initiative or a response to trends: this has been our core mission from day one and is embedded in everything we do, from products to packaging to philanthropy. Here’s how we deliver on this goal:
Product — Our effective, plant-powered formulations are completely free from parabens, phthalates, SLS/SLES, synthetic fragrances and dyes, animal cruelty, and animal products. This ensures that we protect both people and the planet from ingredients that can harm the environment, animals and human health.
Packaging — Our bars come in boxes — not bottles — so our packaging is completely plastic-free. Each box is both recyclable and compostable and printed with soy-based inks on 100% recycled paper. Each hair care bar replaces up to three plastic bottles, and each bar of soap is equivalent to one bottle. Further, our solid, low-weight, long-lasting products significantly reduce emissions compared to liquid products.
Philanthropy — We are a 1% for the Planet partner and direct all of our donations to organizations that support reforestation efforts.This helps offset the paper packaging we require, and ensures that we’re truly delivering on our commitment to putting more plants — and less plastic — on this earth.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
Research shows that businesses that weigh the triple bottom line — people, planet, and profit — perform better than those that don’t. The key here is to balance all three of these aspects to ensure your business can be viable and impactful long term. In a world where consumers are more informed and principled than ever before, it’s increasingly important to be able to transparently and authentically tell your sustainability story to resonate with consumers.
One example of how we accomplished this is with a small change to our boxes that made a big difference. We realized that by evolving an early box prototype that opened from the top to an updated box that opened from the side, we could cut the overall paper necessary by 50% (see what we mean here). With this change, the final box was still the same physical size, the flap placement worked better aesthetically and ergonomically, we reduced our printing costs, and we cut our paper use by 50%. This really boosted the triple bottom line with no real trade-offs, and it was a great story to share with our customers, too.
The youth led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion what are a few things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
I think learning and growth can be exchanged both from child to parent and parent to child! Older generations have become so desensitized to single-use plastic and consumerism that they often have blind spots when it comes to sustainability. On the flip side, youth are very aware of the climate challenges their generation faces and they are prepared to make the changes they need to to combat it — even if that means educating their elders.
That said, I think that mindful and conservative consumption starts at home and should be taught to children at a very young age. I’m lucky to have grown up in an environment that emphasized frugality, thrifting and reducing waste, and it planted the seeds for my sustainable mindset early on. Whether its ensuring no food gets wasted, organizing carpools, upcycling and crafting holiday gifts, making a family field trip out of thrift shopping or any other of the many tactics for building low-waste habits, parents set the tone in the household. The sustainable norms and customs they cherish as a family become lifelong habits and philosophies that get passed onto the next generation. Over time, these small shifts in households all over the world can lead to massive cultural change and sustainable progress.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Be a student of your customer. Founders are often inspired to develop a product in response to a need they felt as a consumer. While personal insights are totally valid and often lead to great businesses, they don’t replace the research you need to do about the industry and customer. Whether its through informal conversations with customers in person or more formalized focus groups or surveys, having a really deep understanding of your target customers’ decision making process, pain points, and needs will ensure your product and brand really resonates with more people on a deeper level.
- Always be optimizing. As a business owner (especially a bootstrapped business), the work is never done, and that’s okay. As soon as you’re done celebrating version 1.0, you should be thinking “how can I improve upon this?” Always look for opportunities to evolve and elevate your product, message, website, etc.
- Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Starting a business means taking personal and professional risks. Rather than having a boss evaluate your work one-on-one, the general public will, and you should be prepared to embrace that. You’ll get all sorts of input (often unsolicited) and your big swings will now have an audience. Try to have a thick skin and give yourself credit for showing up and putting yourself out there every day.
- Have a plan — and be prepared to change it. When you’re navigating uncharted waters, it’s hard to know where to start or what to expect. Despite your uncertainty (you’ve never done this before!) you still need to have a plan to work towards. Make some educated guesses, set some goals, and give yourself deadlines to stick to. Then, reevaluate them constantly as you learn and gather more information. Everything can — and should — change.
- Learn from your mistakes. You will inevitably make mistakes, and that’s okay. As long as you’re learning from them, you’re still making progress. The road from point A to point B is never a straight shot. The twists and turns (and sometimes U-turns) are all part of the process. Just be sure you take what you learned to power more forward momentum.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I wouldn’t have taken this leap of faith if I hadn’t seen others do it before me. I credit many entrepreneurs — past and present — for showing me what’s possible with passion and persistence. I’m always inspired by the stories of grassroots entrepreneurs that started out with just an idea and overcame huge obstacles to bring it to life. They give me the motivation I need to keep creating and keep pushing to make my dreams a reality.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Aside from my mission of inspiring folks to cut out plastic, I’d love to see a broader movement to return to old fashioned habits. I think if more people spent time making and building, and less time consuming, we’d have a better understanding and appreciation of the resources we consume. In a world where food and products are cheap and delivered instantly, its easy to lose sight of their value and impact on the world. Whether it’s making food from scratch, growing goodness from a garden, or crafting/upcycling things for your home or closet, simple hobbies like these remind us of the resources and effort that go into every item we produce. This mindset can help us overcome the societal addiction to instant gratification, single-use, convenience, and overconsumption that’s at the root of a lot of our current climate problems.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
“Perfect is the enemy of done.” As a perfectionist myself, this quote really resonates with me, because in both starting a business and in making sustainable progress, there’s no such thing as perfect. As a business owner, I’m balancing tight budgets, limited resources, and an endless to-do list, and I have to prioritize action over perfection. As an environmentalist, I have to recognize that there will always be environmental consequences to every choice I make, and it’s okay to take small steps towards a “better” option rather than endlessly seeking a “perfect” option that doesn’t exist. By focusing on progress over perfection, we liberate ourselves from analysis paralysis and open ourselves up to innovation, optimization, and evolution.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
Learn more about our brand at www.sunniemade.com
Follow us on Instagram @Sunniemade!
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
How Sarah Spliethoff of Sunniemade is Helping To Tackle Climate Change & Inspire Sustainable… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.