About Ripple
ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEUR
Ripple Products Pty Ltd was established in 2003 and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Ripple Products is a design business focused on social behavioural change. Our product solutions are tools that enable and facilitate more responsible water consumption and energy usage.
Our aim is to provide well-designed, sustainable, functional items for the home and office. These products raise awareness and acknowledge all of our responsibilities to our environment. We provide water saving and energy saving products for all sectors of the market. Our products are designed to assist and educate. From a shower timer and a bucket to a recycle bin or a shopping bag - all of our products help raise awareness of environmental campaigns and educate provide a product solution to the end user.
We believe that product design and associated visual communications can play a critical role in helping the community and business improve their overall environmental performance through low-impact, lifestyle oriented habits and behaviours.
This means our commitment goes beyond conventional business success. Ripple Products strives to deliver products and services that can achieve social and environmental change. It’s about going beyond ‘business as usual’ but doing it in practical way so that it becomes everyday activity when using a precious resource like water.
As part of an ongoing process to make Ripple Products a company driven by innovation and sustainable outcomes, we have engaged product-oriented sustainability specialists at WSP Environmental. WSP have a long history of working with designers, manufacturers and brand owners across diverse sectors to provide life-cycle thinking advice, Design for Sustainability strategies and broader Product Stewardship guidance.
Identifying and prioritising what the environmental and social impacts of our operations are, is an early task. Ripple is engaging suppliers – asking for information on the products, components, working conditions, production methods and materials; the varied sources we bring together to form our business. Once we have a clear picture of this, we will preference the top performers from a sustainability perspective.
Drilling down further, we are assessing what our products are made out of – which are the best types of materials to use, and which are the worst in relation to environmental impact. Then de-selecting the bad stuff. It’s not easy or clear at first but our environmental intelligence is growing.
This leads us further – how to alter the very conception of our products to maximise the above – design for sustainability as it is called. The environmental intelligence of our products is growing too.
In day-to-day business function we incorporate our ideals. Ripple head office is based in 60L, one of the first green buildings in Melbourne. Here our energy, water, waste, indoor air quality -everything- is managed for the minimal environmental impact.
Sustainability is just as much about learning and taking a long-term journey, and the higher we get the more we can see. We are learning how to manage global supply and distribution, details of our products and our operations from this vantage point. As our capacity to understand our impacts grows, we will take on other challenges: carbon accounting, a formal environmental management system, and whole new ways of assisting society in change towards sustainability.
Ripple Products has a focus on developing internal tools, policies, procedures and guidelines that will directly contribute to higher levels of socio-environmental performance
The following initiatives developed in collaboration with WSP Environmental are noteworthy from a sustainability perspective and how we are strengthening our approach:
Design for Sustainability Strategies and Guidelines
Materials Sustainability Review Matrix
Sustainable Procurement Policy and Guidelines
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 Founder and owner, Tracy Bialek
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