Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Chen and Eliza Cambay.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Kathryn: We both work in healthcare, which is how we got to know each other. Over time, we realized that we both share a real passion for the environment. Eliza loves to beach camp with her family and grew up surfing in Hawai’i and SoCal; I learned to surf in my late 30’s and also love to hike. Because of this, we feel a real connection to the earth and a strong need to prioritize ways to protect it.
Eliza: Part of our strong desire to do more stems from our feeling of responsibility to future generations. I have two school-age kids, both of whom I want to leave the planet better than we found it. Kathryn feels the same about her niece and we both have many children in our lives who remind us that we are temporary guardians of Mother Earth and have a duty to care for her for posterity’s sake.
Kathryn: We began talking and sharing tips for living more sustainably and soon realized that we actually have a lot of resources in the South Bay, such as composting and food recycling. We wanted to raise awareness which led to starting our Instagram account, Sustainable Republic (@sustainable_republic). This account was created to share general tips and knowledge with our community. Over time, we also realized that there was a lack of shops selling sustainably and ethically made products in our area. Some of our friends and Instagram followers were asking for product suggestions, so we decided to start our online shop (www.sustainablerepublic.net). We focus on selling plastic-free and reusable alternatives for home goods and personal care items, and we try to source from California and US green businesses when possible, and always with businesses that engage in fair trade and labor.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Eliza: It has definitely not been a smooth road! We both work full-time in healthcare; I’m a nurse practitioner, and Kathryn is a physician. Finding time to run the business and marketing has been challenging. We had the intention of selling at Farmers Markets a few times per week, but after several months of doing so we realized that this was not feasible while working full-time jobs! The hardest part about stepping back from the markets is we miss interacting with our customers in person, many of whom are just as passionate about sustainability as we are. We also miss the other vendors with whom we’ve gotten to be friends with. Fortunately, many of our customers continue to order from us online, and we currently go about once a month to the Palos Verdes Farmers Market to catch up with everyone. We are still trying to figure out which direction we want to move forward in.
Kathryn: The other major challenge has been finding vendors who sell sustainably AND ethically made products. For instance, it’s easy to find bamboo toothbrushes on many wholesale sites, but then we have to ask: “How are the toothbrushes manufactured? How was the bamboo grown and harvested? How are the people making the toothbrushes treated and paid?” We’ve been lucky to find some really incredible companies, but it is still a difficult task as we continue to look for new products.
Sustainable Republic – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Kathryn: We really began as selling products to support an eco-friendly surf lifestyle. We started with reef-safe, organic surf wax and beach bags handmade from recycled sails in the US. However, we rapidly evolved into carrying sustainable alternatives for all facets of life. This includes plastic-free hair care and bath products, plastic-free locally made laundry detergent, reusable wool dryer balls and other home goods and more recently, zero-waste, ethically made office-supplies. We are proud to work with many local businesses in the South Bay/Los Angeles and in California.
Eliza: What we are most proud of as a company, and what we think sets us apart, is how carefully we vet our vendors and how they manufacture their products. We are transparent about where we source and where we may be lacking. However, our customers can feel confident that whatever product they buy from us is made as ethically and sustainably as possible.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We consider ourselves successful whenever we are able to show customers the importance of sustainable living. Many people, for example, don’t realize or haven’t thought about the permanence of single-use plastic and the damage it does to our environment. When we show that you can swap out a plastic shampoo bottle for package-free bar shampoo, and it works just as well and is made in a better way, we feel that we are doing our part to raise awareness. We want to show that there are better alternatives that support local communities and small businesses to nearly anything mass-marketed, and often products you didn’t think about before – for example, reef-safe, organic surf wax!
Pricing:
- Free local delivery to select cities in the South Bay area
- Free shipping for orders over $75
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sustainablerepublic.net
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @sustainable_republic_shop
- Facebook: @sustainablerepublic
- Other: @sustainable_republic (Instagram account sharing tips and info on sustainable living)
Image Credit:
Carlo Cayetano
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