Jayden Klinac – Climate Impact Award Winner 2020
On 18th September, 2020, Jayden Klinac became the winner of the Impact Award for Climate. Launched in 2019 by the team at Inspiring Stories, The Impact Awards celebrates young New Zealanders making a difference with $25,000 awarded across five categories – climate, enterprise, inclusion, global and wellbeing.
The Impact Award for Climate recognises young New Zealanders demonstrating inspiring leadership and taking action to combat climate change.
As the entrepreneur and founder behind For The Better Good and Edible Earth, Jayden Klinac is driven by a mindset that sees problems as opportunities. Jayden has not only re-designed and produced New Zealand’s first biodegradable & compostable water bottle made from plants, but is also working to completely redesign the system to reduce carbon emissions, reduce waste, and sequester carbon.
The $5,000 prize money will help to expand the community composting system, and employ a gardener to help lead a new local community chapter for this in Wellington. The intention is that with enough compost, they will start growing local food for that community, and run workshops on composting and growing food for locals who would like to learn.
The 2020 Awards attracted a record 400+ applicants & nominations from every region across New Zealand with the celebration taking a virtual twist for this year, if you didn’t manage to join us live jump in and watch the recording, its a special experience!.
We caught up with Jayden to hear more about their experience of winning and learn more about the Impact journey so far - the challenges, strategies and key advise around how to build a movement!
Jayden Klinac, For The Better Good & Edible Earth, takes the 2020 Impact Award for Climate
Q: What does receiving an Impact Award mean for you?
A: A lot of ‘creating change’ involves exploring new territory, finding current situations that are proven to not be working so well and coming up with something new, and hopefully better, to replace it. I can’t imagine adding up all of the hours and efforts into research and trials that have gone into building our regenerative products and systems. Being new, it’s nice to get validation from people in wider New Zealand who agree with our vision of a waste free, regenerative NZ. It also meant a lot to me personally to be awarded for our WHY (climate) rather than just our WHAT (Better Bottles) as it shows that the message behind what we do is coming through, and that takes a lot of groundwork behind the scenes.
Q: What do you think The Impact Awards means for New Zealand & our emerging leaders?
A: We are in good hands. I was blown away with the mahi of other young New Zealanders who were nominated and involved in the Impact Awards. Our whole philosophy at For The Better Good is to focus less on the ‘negative’ past or mistakes, and instead, get excited about what the future holds through the lens of regeneration. The awards really shined a light on the amazing work going on throughout NZ across all categories of Impact and filled me with hope and excitement seeing all of the change agents we have coming through in Aotearoa. The Impact awards in particular has a niche of finding emerging leaders who are working from the ground up, generally with little support, and providing them with a platform to tell their authentic stories. True change always starts at a grassroots level, from generally unexpected people or places, and the platform provided by Guy and the team is so important in order to foster our young emerging leaders.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced on your impact journey, and how did you overcome it?
A: In many situations, Impact generally means change. Change, generally means coming up against whatever systems or processes existed before which is a challenge in itself. We regularly see first-hand how integrated and dominant ‘big business’ is within New Zealand, and the world for that matter, and unfortunately that means we come up against businesses and entities whose compass of ‘success’ is pointed towards pure profit, rather than a more holistic approach that considers the environment, which can still be profitable.
We have experienced first hand the unwillingness of businesses to change due to being too heavily invested in a particular direction, despite being very aware of their detrimental environmental operating impact. This certainly brings up challenges, some you can overcome, some you have to let go of.
I believe that if we keep doing what we are doing, more and more people will hear about us and choose to support us in any way that feels right for them. We feel that what we are doing simply makes sense, and has so many flow on effects, essentially creating virtuous cycles where vicious cycles used to be.
By continuing to provide people with a choice to be a part of something that creates regenerative and positive change, trusting that people will choose to be a part of that over less positive options allows us to overcome challenges and keep pushing for systems that are in harmony with nature and not against it.
Q: How have you funded or resourced your idea(s) for impact, and what advice would you have for other people looking to fund or resource theirs?
A: I feel that I have almost used, tried, or heavily explored every method in the book for getting ideas off the ground. I don’t come from a lot of money, but am also very comfortable living a simple, low cost life.
In my first business, we took on an investor. It looked great at the time and a big part of the deal was that the investor would mentor me as I was 22 and had no idea about business. That situation turned out to be very different from what I was expecting and didn't work for me. Long story short, I have boiled the problem down to values. For anyone looking to take on investment, make sure that your values align 99% with the investor, especially in the impact space as generally money is not the main or only driver, where in older business models, it is.
After this experience I built FTBG off a personal loan. It was really scary, but forced me to perform, and removed any option for me to quit. I’ve since heard the idea that we do our best work when our backs are pressed against a wall, and this is true for me. I also have had many, very hard days where I wanted to give up, however those moments pass and deep down I knew I couldn't, and I’m grateful for having to persist through those challenges. I have taken on investment since, in the way of a convertible note, and we have been lucky to get small grants here and there. I have since found people who share my vision and our values align, which has been an amazing experience after the not-so-fun situations in the past. It's all part of this journey, it's all learning.
Q: How did you go about getting people onboard with your idea and build a team?
A: Getting people onboard and building a team happened organically for us. Our team is a collection of people who heard our purpose and mission in one way or another. Everyone has a story of how they came to be part of For The Better Good and none of them came to us conventionally, which seems to be a pattern for us.
We tried putting ads out and advertising roles, we would get an overwhelming amount of applicants, really talented people, however in my gut, none of them felt quite right. After feeling like we didn’t find the one, and moving on, more often than not, the perfect fit has turned up in some other way.
Jordan, our brand manager for example emailed us two weeks after we failed a conventional hiring process. She was on her way home from London, read about us in the Air New Zealand Kia Ora Magazine and more or less said that she has been looking for a job that aligned with her values and if we hire her, she'll stay in New Zealand. As soon as I got the email It simply felt right and knew she was the one, she started right away and it’s been a blast ever since.
I feel that when you are building a movement or project, you know what you need, even when you can’t express it in words sometimes, that means you feel when things are right, and when they are not. Having a clear vision of who that person is makes it easier to recognise them when they turn up. It also takes a bit of trusting the process and not making a decision that doesn't feel aligned just because you really need an extra pair of hands on deck.
Q: If someone is keen to make an impact but doesn’t know where or how to start – what advice do you have?
A: Start. Even when you don't feel it's perfect, or you have what you need.
I don’t think I’ve ever started something with the right people or amount of resources necessary to pull it off. However I have found time after time, the people will come and whatever you need will show up, generally just after you pass the point of really needing it. Once you start, continue to show up day after day, no matter how hard it is. Trust it will work out (it will) and you can’t fail, you can only learn.
One other tip I can give (learnt from Simon Sinek) to anyone looking to make an impact through business is to find your WHY, then lead with that WHY in everything that you do. Most businesses focus on WHAT or HOW they do things. Using you WHY as your compass when you’re navigating the very windy and exciting roads of impact-led business helps you to stay true to your core values and, persist when times get challenging, as it’s generally something bigger than yourself, let it act as a reminder to persevere and continue on the important path you are on.
