Locally Grown: Stories from Sustainable Small Businesses
Ever wondered what it’s really like to build a sustainable business? Join the owners of local startups Aho Creative and Sustained Fun to find out.
Come join in conversation with local business owners Kristy Bedi (Aho Creative | New Zealand Indigenous Design) and Helen Townsend (Sustained Fun: Toys for Climate Confident Kids & The Rubbish Whisperer) to find out. Kristy and Helen will share their journey and lessons learnt while setting up small businesses embedded with sustainable principles. There’ll also be an opportunity to ask questions if you’re keen to learn how to follow a similar path.
Helen is the co-founder of Sustained Fun, the world’s first climate-change focused toy company. While working at the botanic gardens in Kathmandu Nepal Helen had a light bulb moment about the amount of rubbish we produce. This led her to establish her first high-impact business, The Rubbish Whisperer, which was influential in NZ’s single-use plastic bans.
Her business interests have now broadened to include the invention of toys that use play to address climate anxiety. Her goal is to catalyse sustainable change in the world’s most plastic intensive industry – toys.
Kristy Bedi (Kai Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Kāti Pākehā) studied Māori Visual Arts and Political Science. Er deep interest in social justice and cultural identity led her to establish her own design company, Aho Creative, based around a kaupapa Māori World view.
Weaving whakapapa (the connections between people, environments and processes) and kaitiakitanga (the responsibility to take care of the world) into her work, Kristy seeks out processes, practices and materials that are sustainable and ensure a better future for the people and environments involved.
She focuses on creating beautiful, sustainable and practical products (fabrics, ceramics, and décor) that affirm indigenous identities, have a positive environmental impact and whakamana the communities that make them.
Come join in conversation with local business owners Kristy Bedi (Aho Creative | New Zealand Indigenous Design) and Helen Townsend (Sustained Fun: Toys for Climate Confident Kids & The Rubbish Whisperer) to find out. Kristy and Helen will share their journey and lessons learnt while setting up small businesses embedded with sustainable principles. There’ll also be an opportunity to ask questions if you’re keen to learn how to follow a similar path.
Helen is the co-founder of Sustained Fun, the world’s first climate-change focused toy company. While working at the botanic gardens in Kathmandu Nepal Helen had a light bulb moment about the amount of rubbish we produce. This led her to establish her first high-impact business, The Rubbish Whisperer, which was influential in NZ’s single-use plastic bans.
Her business interests have now broadened to include the invention of toys that use play to address climate anxiety. Her goal is to catalyse sustainable change in the world’s most plastic intensive industry – toys.
Kristy Bedi (Kai Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Kāti Pākehā) studied Māori Visual Arts and Political Science. Er deep interest in social justice and cultural identity led her to establish her own design company, Aho Creative, based around a kaupapa Māori World view.
Weaving whakapapa (the connections between people, environments and processes) and kaitiakitanga (the responsibility to take care of the world) into her work, Kristy seeks out processes, practices and materials that are sustainable and ensure a better future for the people and environments involved.
She focuses on creating beautiful, sustainable and practical products (fabrics, ceramics, and décor) that affirm indigenous identities, have a positive environmental impact and whakamana the communities that make them.
Tūranga, 60 Cathedral Square, Christchurch Central
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