From shoes that grow with your child to DIY oat milk: Meet the UK start-ups Amazon is helping to make everyday products more sustainable
Start-ups creating innovative and more sustainable consumer products are set to supercharge their businesses, after being hand-picked to join the latest Amazon Sustainability Accelerator. The eight companies from across Europe, including six from the UK, will now benefit from a 10-week bespoke programme featuring expert-led workshops, specialised mentorship, a tailored curriculum, as well as a €12,000 equity-free grant and $10,000 in AWS Activate Credits.
Since launching in 2022, the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator has supported more than 40 start-ups across the UK and Europe, provided more than €1 million in grants and credits, and helped those businesses on average increase sales by 700% and raise over €18.7 million to date.
The six UK-based start-ups join the Accelerator designing products to combat some of the world’s most challenging sustainability issues such as circular food production, fast fashion and menstrual waste.
- Asan [UK]: Asan is on a mission to eradicate period poverty and tampon waste with its innovative reusable menstrual cup. Designed at the Harvard Innovation Lab and rated by The Standard as the number one menstrual cup for easy removal, it’s simple-to-use ring design may stop thousands of pads and tampons from going to landfill every year.
- Morrow [UK]: Morrow’s ‘beanless’ coffee is crafted from more sustainable, locally grown and up-cycled ingredients, such as fruit pips, peels and ancient grains. Through advanced flavour chemistry and biotransformation, Morrow replicates the flavour and aroma of traditional coffee to provide a cost-effective and more environmentally friendly solution to the challenges posed by conventional coffee production. This includes addressing the impending supply crisis, with estimates suggesting that up to 50% of land currently used for coffee cultivation is projected to become unsuitable by 2050 due to the effects of climate change[1].
- MYOM (Make Your Own Milk) [UK]: Oat milk company, MYOM, is minimising packaging waste and transportation emissions by selling an oat premix that turns into a milk when mixed with water. Offering a more sustainable alternative to traditional oat, nut and soya milks – which are usually shipped in cartons containing 90% water – MYOM is available in convenient, recyclable pouches that are delivered through the letterbox. This avoids both excess packaging materials and incremental carbon emissions associated with additional materials and weight. MYOM is the first UK oat milk to win an ‘outstanding, above and beyond delicious’ Great Taste Award.
- Paint Zero [UK]: Paint Zero has developed an innovative fossil-fuel-free, plant-based paint. With a palette of 75 colours, Paint Zero transforms into a vibrant, non-toxic paint in 90 seconds when mixed with tap water. The novel paint avoids 100% of the petrochemical liquids and plastics used in standard paints, eliminating toxicity and reducing transport emissions and costs.
- ReBorn [UK]: Wiltshire-based ReBorn turns industrial waste into useful, stylish and recyclable homeware products. Launched in partnership with Brunel University in September 2023, the company claims to have already saved more than 10 tonnes of waste from landfill and 100 tonnes of carbon emissions as a by-product of the materials they use accelerating the sustainability of the global homewares industry[2].
- ZIG+STAR [UK]: ZIG+STAR is an innovative children’s footwear business seeking to solve the challenge of fast-growing feet with its collection of expandable and durable unisex kids’ shoes. Their Good-to-Grow removable midsole allows six months additional wear of their shoes and boots, and their range of sustainably designed sandals allow maximum adjustment around growing feet. On a mission to reduce waste, they also offer an incentivised Trade-In scheme where old shoes can be sent back to be donated or recycled free of charge, in exchange for product discounts.
“We are committed to empowering the next generation of ambitious business founders,” said Amazon’s Sustainability Director, Justine Mahler. “The Amazon Sustainability Accelerator is a springboard for those scaling a more sustainable product business, giving founders the skills, connections and confidence to reach their full growth potential. I am delighted to welcome this year’s start-ups founders who are showcasing innovative alternatives to everyday items.”
“We’re thrilled to learn from Amazon’s experts and Europe’s leading climate innovation agency, the EU’s EIT Climate-KIC, and fellow founders to build a scalable, impact-driven e-commerce, good food business. We’re committed to great taste and less waste by dramatically cutting excess packaging and the need for refrigeration during shipping,” said Mike Curtis, MYOM Founder. “The Accelerator will help us reach new customers and bring our delicious, healthy and convenient oat milk nationwide and beyond.”
Ira Guha, founder and CEO of Asan, said “As a challenger menstrual health brand, Amazon is our primary go-to-market channel when entering new geographies. We’ve already had amazing success selling on Amazon so I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the official backing of the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator. With Amazon’s support, we hope to lift millions of girls out of period poverty and to end plastic waste from tampons and pads.”
“It was such a joy to learn that ZIG+STAR had made it onto Amazon’s Sustainability Accelerator. As an entrepreneur, you have to be ready to learn every day and the programme offers an amazing opportunity to dig deeper into our climate impact, connect with likeminded businesses and explore new routes to market,” said Ali McAleavy, founder and CEO of ZIG+STAR.
The Amazon Sustainability Accelerator is a ten-week programme designed, in partnership with EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s leading climate innovation agency, and innovation strategy consultants, Growth Studio, to help start-ups developing more sustainable physical consumer products that are on the cusp of go-to-market or have recently launched. Start-ups meet and work with experts in Amazon’s Sustainability teams, attend workshops, receive mentorship, and benefit from a tailored curriculum, designed to help founders navigate the challenges of scaling a sustainable business. Amazon and EIT Climate-KIC will also guide start-ups through a Climate Impact Assessment where they will learn how to self-assess their business’ climate impact, and develop strategies to improve their environmental footprint.
“We’re excited to continue our journey with the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator, empowering start-ups to not only scale their businesses but also drive meaningful change for the planet. At Growth Studio, we believe that purpose-driven innovation is key to tackling global challenges, and through our hands-on mentorship, we aim to help founders turn bold ideas into impactful, sustainable businesses,” said Rayan Jawad, co-founder of Growth Studio.
“At EIT Climate-KIC, we are excited to support more entrepreneurs to reach their greatest climate impact potential. By equipping emerging start-ups with the tools to measure their climate mitigation potential and supporting their capacity to think systemically, we can foster a critical cultural shift in business mindsets,” said. Dr Kirsten Dunlop, Chief Executive Officer, EIT Climate-KIC.
