Ellie Degraeve, founder of Go for Zero is passionate about zero waste and toxins

Ellie ( founder) began her toxin-free journey when her newborn (Gracie) developed rashes using ‘mainstream’ skincare products. Determined to help her daughter, she dedicated her time to researching product labelling. She was horrified to discover the ingredients involved (and it is safe to say that she became a bit of a toxin-free nerd). When she researched and tested toxin-free products, there were so many suppliers producing top quality products in plastic containers. This created a sore spot in our heart and fire in our bellies to only provide products that are safe for you and our planet. It led us to a business decision that shaped us to be who we are today. We decided to stop plastic at its source and no longer sell any products that were predominantly packaged in plastic. Ellie spent a whole year learning about all things business, accounting, marketing, websites, wholesale, packing processes, writing product descriptions until her hands were sore (not kidding). She was finally ready to press the launch button and send out her first EDM to a few hundred emails she had collected through her pop-up store test model. From then on go for zero quickly outgrew her spare room, then Murrays (Ellie’s husbands) grandmas garage, then to another pop up store on the main street, Warehouse all within 9 months of launching! After 2.5 years we seriously outgrew our Moffat Beach Warehouse, ran another 2 pop-up stores in Sunshine Coast shopping centres, and secured 3 permanent mini-stores from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast. We have now moved into our new space at Kunda Park that is 3 x the size of our Moffat Beach Warehouse! Go For Zero aims to help people reduce the amount of waste and chemicals in their home, whether that be through our products, educating them on sustainable actions they can make (e.g. how to recycle properly), or motivating them with positive things that people are doing in the sustainability space (a topic that can often become so negative and scary).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.