Our Impact Summary in 2022
Your Sunscreen Purchase Gives Back: Here's How
Did you know that every time you make a purchase with us, you're contributing to our environmental give back commitment? Without you, none of this would be possible. We want to say a huge thank you for choosing business for planet and people (not just profit).
Here's seven impacts your sunscreen purchases had in 2022:
- Saving single-use plastic from landfill
- Donating funds to ocean conservation
- Creating opportunities for wāhine Māori in business
- Making sunscreen accessible to schools and charities
- Supporting our staff involvement in hands-on coastal conservation work
- Saving water
- Supporting the local economy
1062 plastic bottles saved
Every single tin of Seasick Sunscreen saves at least one - and up to five - plastic bottles from being manufactured and ultimately from ending up in landfill. Plastic sunscreen bottles are difficult if not impossible to recycle whereas our aluminium tins are infinitely recyclable.
In the 2022-23 financial year you helped us save at least 1062 plastic bottles from landfill bringing the total number of plastic bottles saved to 6062 since we started just four years ago.
$700 donated to ocean conservation
We donate 2% of revenue (not profit, so for a small business it adds up) to support local ocean conservation and education. In 2022, Love Rimurimu and Mountains to Sea Wellington were our chosen charities. Our donation of $564 (bringing our total donated overtime to $1632) will support the restoration of Wellington's seaweed forests which provide important habitat for marine life as well as the education of our local communities.
Additionally, our customers that chose to off-set their carbon emissions at the checkout raised $40 for Carbon Click projects that are fully certified and help to support the UN Sustainable development goals.
Learn more about how your donations support ocean conservation on the Love Rimurimu website or watch this really cool video below (redirect to Instagram).
2 Wāhine Māori Mentored
2022 saw the launch of our Mana Wāhine mentorship programme which created the opportunity for two wāhine Māori to be supported in a number of training opportunities. Lee (Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Arawa, Ngāti Pu) and Natalie (Ngā Wariki Ngāti Apa) are both young, wāhine Māori entrepreneurs with backgrounds in science, mātauranga Māori and creative arts. The Wāhine Māori mentorship programme taught them new skills in finance and marketing.
Sunscreen made available to one school and two charities
We believe in equitable access to sun protection products. Sunscreen is costly, especially in Aotearoa New Zealand which more often means schools and charities end up purchasing the cheapest sunscreen products. These sunscreens are filled with harsh UV chemicals and are almost always packaged in non-recyclable single-use plastic. Sunscreen chemicals can cause skin irritations and stinging eyes which is not what we want for our little ones, hardworking teachers and charity workers. That's why we provide sunscreen at reduced rates to schools and charities! Please email us at seasicksunscreenco@gmail.com if your school or charity is interested in this.
Giving Back to The Environment
Founder Nat has a background in conservation so creating a business that gives back to the environment was always in the plans. Nat gets out of the office on a Friday to get her hands dirty planting natives and restoring costal dunelands for a number of conservation groups such as Mercury Bay Environmental Trust and Conservation Volunteers New Zealand.
Anyone can get involved in conservation volunteering - it's not only a great way to give back to Papatuanuku but also to meet people and form connections within your community.
Saving Water
Our zero water formula means we don't use a drop of this precious resource in our sunscreen products. Conventional sunscreens are up to 70% water which not only means you need to use a lot of the stuff to get adequate sun protection but they also use a heap of water to make.
We have saved approximately 70 kg of water - this is enough drinking water for one person for 46 days.
Making the Local Economy Go Around
As a local New Zealand business, supporting other, local NZ businesses is at the core of what we do! We conduct almost all of our purchasing and contract work in New Zealand! This has allowed us to work with more than 14 local businesses helping the NZ economy go around.
Seasick Sunscreen in the Media
2022 was a big year for us. We completed our first ever business accelerator programme which meant pitching live in front of hundreds of people and Kōkiri made a really great video about us (see above).
We were also featured in Kia Ora Magazine, Focus Magazine, NZ Entrepreneur, This is Lagom, Ethically Kate's Blog, Salt Water Journal and many more! We love sharing our story so please email us if you are interested in writing a piece about us.
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7 great reasons to keep on using this great product.
Really good to see where a part of the purchase price actualy goes towards Ocean conservation and this truly great New Zealand company continues to make a real difference to our ever threatened environment.
Thanks to Natalie and the team at Seasick for a great product.