"The trend towards more sustainability is just getting started"

Sara Stichnote sells sustainable gift packaging with her start-up Goodgive. So far, it has involved a lot of effort and still little return.

Sara Stichnote's world is all about sustainability. It started with her parents, who focus on organic clothing and are more likely to go grocery shopping at the health food store than the discount store. So it seems only logical that she also focuses on sustainability in her start-ups. Stichnote is part of the founding team of Good24, a sustainable insurance broker. This interview, however, will be about her company Goodgive, founded in 2019, which sells reusable gift packaging made of fabric.

Ms. Stichnote, with Goodgive you have developed sustainable gift packaging that you distribute. How did you actually wrap your gifts in an environmentally friendly way before?

I more often used towels, which I used to gift with. I also often used small cloth bags that could be tied shut with a cord. Sometimes I didn't wrap the gifts at all.

Why didn't you stick with it and start Goodgive instead?

The gift wrapping thing was always a running gag in our family. I felt it was a waste from a young age. Everyone else always apologized when they received the gift that they didn't have anything else to hand than the usual packaging, some of which was harmful to the environment. At some point I realized: Maybe there really is just a lack of an alternative.

You took part in a founder's workshop in 2018 and started selling Goodgive in 2019, how did that go?

I started all by myself back then, today I would look for a team first. If you start up together with others, you are much more productive. Then in 2019 I had the first 350 packages produced according to my ideas. I was able to sell them completely in the Christmas business.

So your family has since been fully equipped with sustainable packaging?

I actually had the first buyers at Christmas markets. At that time, I was mainly on the road in Cologne, but also in Düsseldorf. I had also already started an online shop. Then, at a Christmas market, I also found someone through a mutual friend with Alex Lange who wanted to help me set up my start-up and who, in a way, became a co-founder.

Sustainability is a big word that many companies use today. How sustainable is your packaging?

I think there's always room for improvement. For example, I wanted to use a 100 percent waste product for the fabrics. There are already initial approaches, for example from citrus or milk waste, but when we sourced our materials, they were not yet ready for cooperation. That's why we are currently relying on certified organic materials from German production. In addition, we use recycled gift wrap made of PET, which is produced in Germany.

Where do you produce your packaging?

From the sourcing of 350 workshops, we have chosen a total of eight production sites with which we have a final cooperation. Some of these are workshops for adapted work, people with impairments or disabilities. I got to know each of the workshops we work with personally.

That must have taken a lot of time. Where do your materials come from?

It's always very important to look at the supply chain for all materials in order to understand where the individual parts come from. In the case of our fabrics, the cotton comes from organically certified cultivation in India, as no cotton grows in Germany. The recycled PET as raw material for our ribbons and yarns comes from Italy. Currently there are no recycled PET tapes or yarns on the market with German raw material.

Your packaging also contains a QR code, what is the purpose of this?

We use an organic label from the Netherlands. Anyone who scans the code can use it to track where the packaging has already been and also enter their own city there. We have calculated that around 100 grams of waste are produced per gift. So, starting from a static value, we can extrapolate to show how much waste is saved with each individual package.

How many of your customers scan their gift packaging made of fabric?

We could still work on communication here so that even more customers use it. Currently, about ten percent scan the code on their gift wrapping.

You seem to have a hard time with marketing anyway. You only ever advertise on social channels at Christmas time.

I don't think we struggle with it, but we have focused 2021 marketing on our main season "the Christmas season", as we currently run Goodgive as a side business. However, it would actually be important to do more marketing during the year as well, especially because our packaging is designed to be used at a birthday or wedding for example.

How many packages did you sell in 2020?

That was something like up to 4,000 pieces. Our production costs are relatively high, which is not nearly enough to live on, and certainly not to pay employees. Many consumers are used to far too low prices due to their habit of buying fast fashion items, for example, and there is a need to educate them about the actual production and distribution costs for sustainable items. What we have achieved in the year, however, is this: We were able to raise awareness of our brand significantly - and we received a lot of positive feedback from our customers. In order to be able to run Goodgive as a main business, we would have to develop other products besides gift packaging. Currently, we've decided against it for now, but that doesn't mean we can't tackle it again in the future. We were all pretty burnt out by the end of 2020, didn't do any re-production and are currently selling our stock so that we can start a new production with a full cash register.

Why haven't you relied on outside capital to grow your startup faster so far?

The "Höhle der Löwen" actually asked us at the very beginning. But we simply weren't ready yet. Later, we did apply, but we haven't been accepted yet. Our packaging is a product that needs a lot of explaining, because gift packaging is currently still anchored in most people's minds as a disposable product.

That all sounds like quite a task. Was that it already with Goodgive?

Absolutely not! The idea of sustainable packaging is not dead. By the way, even more so if single-use packaging were to be banned. I still believe in the product. Besides, the trend towards more sustainability is just getting started.

Your cheapest and thus smallest gift packaging currently costs 17.90 euros and, according to the description on your website, is suitable for a tea or a perfume. That sounds very expensive.

I totally understand that the price seems very high. But if you honestly calculate how much money you spend on packaging every year, you'll quickly realise that with one of our reusable, sustainable packages you'll quickly recoup the cost. The idea is that families or groups of friends use this packaging among themselves, thus creating small individual cycles. They can then quickly save money and do something for the environment. Many of those who order from us do so in large quantities in order to get the packaging among the people. That makes us very happy, of course.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details:

Even as a child, Sara Stichnote was taught by her parents how important sustainability is. When she spent a semester abroad in California in 2011, she noticed that the USA was already much further ahead than Germany in some areas. Plastic bags were banned on campus, for example. Stichnote nevertheless did something else first, working as a web producer for a while. In 2018, she quit her old job and started Goodgive. Stichnote is also part of the founding team of Good24.