Alison Covington – The Economy, Equality and Collaboration
Welcome to Episode 20 of Good Will Hunters! This week on the show we have Alison Covington, Founder and CEO of Good360 Australia. Good360 is to manufactured goods what OzHarvest is to food – a recycler, a repurposer (if there is such a word!) and a champion of the circular economy.
Alison discovered Good360 in the USA and knew immediately that it was a concept Australia desperately needed. Australian corporations are not required to report on the end-use of their goods, meaning we have very few ways to track where unused manufactured goods end up, but we could safely assume that many go to landfill. Landfill is cheap in Australia compared to other countries, and the combination of a low cost and little transparency means that we have a waste crisis in our manufactured goods sector.
Enter Good360! Good360 takes brand new, unused goods that may have been surplus or “last season” and connects them to charities who distribute them to people in need. The stories Alison shares in this episode are truly heartwarming. Giving someone the dignity of a brand new blanket, or a toy on a birthday, or even a bath bomb (listen to the episode for that story!) can make a profound difference on their sense of self worth and equality with others. It’s a seemingly obvious concept, but difficult to execute and even more difficult to scale to the heights Alison has set her target on – but I have no doubt she’ll do it.
Whilst we don’t discuss scaling Good360 to developing countries in this episode, I urge you to consider it as you listen, and share your thoughts with us on our social media. How would a model such as this work in a country like Papua New Guinea or Nepal? I’m intrigued to hear your ideas!
Enjoy!
Rachel and the GWH Team
[Royalty free music by Bensound]
