The team behind Who Gives a Crap launches second sustainable product line

The team behind Who Gives a Crap are launching a new line of personal care products with biodegradable packaging, putting its environmental commitment front-and-centre of the social enterprise’s business model.

Who Gives a Crap is launching a new product line aligned to the sustainability and for-purpose ethos the toilet paper brand is known for.

Good Time is a unisex hair and body bar range with packaging made from recycled paper and is sustainable, right down to the ingredient’s shipping (carbon neutral) with 50 per cent of profit, just like its “brother” product, going to water sanitation programs around the world. 

General manager of Good Time Hannah Kamran who joined the company in April, said the product represents an easy way to make a difference.

“What is great is that, even for those who are conscientious with regard to their recycling, rules change from county to county (state to state) and often their plants are at capacity, so why not just avoid the issue of recycling all together?,” Kamran said.

The products are also vegan-friendly and not tested on animals.

 Kamran said each Good Time bar can substitute for the equivalent of three plastic bottles that are used infrequently and which take up to 450 years to break down.

The B-Corp certified addition to the Who Gives a Crap business model is based on the same principles as the 2012 start-up that was launched thanks to a crowdfunding exercise where co-founder Simon Griffiths was the star of a comical campaign.

“It’s a great company to work for as the people who work for Who Gives a Crap all have the same philosophy, and the work culture is really supportive,” Kamran says.

Carbon neutral, 100 per cent plastic free … and it works

 Kamran said Good Time recently employed its sustainability manager Elissa Foster, to oversee the manufacturer of the products.

“She is amazing and comes with 20 years of experience working with Patagonia.”

The general manager explains that every ingredient was assessed for its climate impact and together with utilising carbon offset specialists Pachama they are making sure the soap that can be used after the loo paper is flushed, is just as clean and green as the loo paper that made households smile around the world, every time they went to, well, you know.

“That sense of fun is a huge part of the brand,” Kamran said. “We wanted to honour that and create something a little stylish at the same time.”

The shampoo and conditioner are safe for colour treated hair and there is an extra-conditioning product also available.

Kamran, who has a background in marketing management and then in business development in a not for profit space, is enjoying using the product and managing the business structure of the new product.

“We started off with a really small team, and now it’s all starting to roll out. Right now in Australia and America and soon in the UK, we are starting to build a great team,” she said.

A team that is dedicatedly remote.

“Who Gives a Crap was remote and flexible working before it became a necessity because of Covid,” she said.

“So we have team members from all over the world. We have brought on-board a Sustainability Manager. She’s actually in California, ironically enough,” she says.

The “remote first” company has a hub in Australia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and in the United States.

Personal care “ripe for disruption”

The company was looking for an in-house product, Kamran said, that would marry with the toilet roll brand in a market segment that was “ripe for disruption”, perhaps a lesson for other for-purpose product-based businesses looking for growth opportunities.

“The hair bar market represents a new market that is growing. There are 50 percent of our customers who have used them and 50 percent who would need to create a habit change to take on the product,” she said of research done by the company.

“Two years ago the personal car “bar range” was a small category. Now most people have a bar brand. Both small and large businesses have some kind of ‘bar’ range.

“So when we thought about how we could disrupt it, we wanted to make it a very fun and visual experience. We wanted to make it very human. Clever. Slightly elevated,” she explained.