Positioned for Impact: Jacquie Hutchings, co-founder of Friendlier

Inspired by slow morning coffees in Sweden and a desire to combine her chemical engineering background with her drive to combat climate change, Jacquie Hutchings, along with her co-founder Kayli Dale, launched a circular business that is taking a serious bite out of the plastic waste problem in Canada – Friendlier. 

Their goal? Make reusable packaging mainstream and enable re-use at scale.

Below is a conversation Generate Canada had with Jacquie Hutchings about her career journey and what motivates her to keep going. It has been edited for clarity and length. 

 

Generate Canada: Can you tell me about how you got involved in this work and how Friendlier began?

Jacquie Hutchings: I went to the University of Waterloo for chemical engineering and at that point, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Chemical engineering was really interesting and I was able to learn a lot of new skills, especially through the six co-op placements I was able to do. I had the opportunity to work in manufacturing facilities across all industries – food manufacturing, tissue paper, car parts, chemicals – all kinds of things.

In these places you are looking for efficiencies, but it’s really about getting as much product out the door as possible. I saw how much waste is created, not only in the products themselves (like a granola bar wrapper, for example), but also all the byproducts that are wasted in the process of making the product. 

I started to struggle with this idea of, okay, I want to do something in my life that I’m good at and that I can apply my skills to, but creating slight efficiencies within a manufacturing process didn’t feel like the best way to use my time. 

 

GC: Was there a moment where things started to fall into place for you?

JH: In my third year of university I, along with my Friendlier co-founder Kayli Dale, had the opportunity to travel abroad and live in Sweden. The culture was so completely different from North America. Everything is slow, everyone takes their time and they actually seem to care about the actions they’re taking in their everyday lives. They’ll sit down and have a coffee with their friends and they’ll drink it out of an actual mug, not a paper cup, because they are enjoying their coffee while they sit together and talk. 

I saw how this slow pace led to more sustainable behaviours; sustainability was built into their everyday routines. This really opened our eyes to a world that’s a little more friendly to the environment – more than we are here in North America. 

This is where it started for us. We went down this rabbit hole of realizing how bad we are at caring for the planet right now.  How resource overconsumption and waste production was putting us on this path that is so harmful. This is what sparked our interest in getting involved in the circular economy and put us on the path we are on today. 

 

GC: The concept of “circular economy” isn’t new, but it’s not exactly mainstream either. How did you tap into that idea?

JH: When Kayli and I were living abroad we actually made a spreadsheet where we listed every single problem that we saw in the world that we wanted to tackle – all of them related to climate change. Within the list we realized that each problem was either a resource depletion problem (cutting down too many trees, or pulling out too many resources etc.) or it was a waste problem (too many emissions, physical waste etc.). Being chemical engineers who are always thinking of processes and their related inputs and outputs, we decided we wanted to be a part of minimizing the amount of inputs and outputs so that everything can stay in circulation. Essentially, we realized the need to reuse things. 

We found the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that articulated this so well and we realized we aren’t the only ones thinking about the circular economy – there are so many people already involved in this work. 

 

GC: How did you translate this interest in the circular economy into what has become Friendlier?

JH: We decided we wanted to make it so that Canadians could very easily access reusable products so that they didn’t have to participate in this wasteful practice that has just become our culture. So, we set out on a goal at the end of our school year to make reuse simple. 

It took a lot of turns. When we graduated school and decided to go full-time with Friendlier at the beginning of 2020, we started with the idea of sports and entertainment venues using reusable cups. But when venues shut down in 2020 because of the pandemic, we had to re-focus our efforts. 

At that time takeout was absolutely huge, and also hugely wasteful, but it was also the only way restaurants could survive at the time. We saw this pressing problem and decided we wanted to pivot quickly to help tackle it and capture the market. 

 

GC: How did going full-time during the pandemic shape your approach and philosophy?

JH: Launching our business during those uncertain times actually helped us build a really strong foundation – we quickly learned what’s needed to make things safe and efficient. 

As soon as we graduated, Kayli and I sat down and we had our first official “we’re doing this full-time now” meeting. We asked, which of our ideas are relevant now? Do we want to wait for some of these ideas to be relevant again or do we want to take a look at what we want to address now? Moving into the takeout industry was our first major pivot, but there have been so many times since then when we have reevaluated what’s working, what’s not–and we’ve made decisions to follow the path that is working. 

 

GC: Tell me more about the “we’re doing this full-time” meeting that you had with Kayli. What was it like to take that major leap right after graduation?

JH: That was the moment we started treating our idea as a full-time gig. And we told each other in that meeting, we’ll give it one year and work as hard as we can while we are young and see where we get. In one year from then we decided we would review everything – did we get anywhere? What happened? And at that point we could decide if we needed to get ‘real jobs’. 

Fortunately for us, our idea was received really well and turned positive quite quickly. 

 

GC: How did your background in engineering help you get Friendlier off the ground?

JH: Engineering taught us how to solve problems, work hard and how to figure things out. Those skills have been super important as we built Friendlier, but we had no idea how to run a business or lead a team. That’s why we pursued DMZ Base Camp at TMU, which is basically like business 101 for entrepreneurs. 

At the end of the program there was a pitch competition where we ended up winning $5,000. That money allowed us to actually start paying for things and investing in our business. 

 

GC: Was there a tipping point for you where you realized your idea might actually take off?

JH:  There was one moment in the early days with our first ever pilot. We were working with a group called The SEED in Guelph who deliver meals to people experiencing food insecurity. We convinced them to change to a reusable model for their containers at a price point that was really similar to what they were already paying for disposables. 

The first couple of weeks we got something like ten containers back. Not great. Then, one day, I went to pick up containers on my bike, as I always did because I didn’t have a car.  There were two massive garbage bags full of returned packaging. I was so excited! Even though I had to figure out how to carry the bags on my bike I was like ‘okay, this is really cool’. People are starting to participate in this. 

 

GC: What’s one of the barriers you’ve come up against in scaling your idea?

JH: When you are proposing something new there is always going to be hesitation. You grab a coffee, you throw it out when you’re done – that’s what customers and businesses are used to. Telling people that you can introduce reusable containers and have their guests be excited about this change is hard, especially in the beginning when we didn’t have a lot of examples – it’s hard to gain that trust. 

So in the beginning, and now, we took the approach of providing really excellent customer service, excellent training and onboarding, and basically hand-holding through the process of making the change to reusables so that it is a really easy process for our clients. The change management piece is so important. 

Moving away from single use packaging comes with logistical changes (where to put the return bins, communicating to clients etc.) but it is also a cultural shift – you’re suggesting a big change in people’s daily habits. It takes time to adjust but we make the process as easy as possible. 

 

GC: Can you tell me about your partnership with Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) ? As part of the CPP Accelerator Pod, you’ve already diverted over 81,000 kg of plastic waste from university campuses – how are partnerships important in achieving this kind of progress?

JH: One of the biggest values we get out of being a member of CPP is being amongst other organizations that want to be better and work toward targets that they have created together. That, and it creates a really great network for idea-sharing and understanding the pain-points that some organizations are facing in trying to hit the targets they have set. This helps us figure out how we can work together to address the barriers they are facing. 

For Friendlier, the CPP Accelerator Pod was super beneficial. It helped us scale our operations in the higher education sector and to be able to tell that story.

 

GC: What advice would you offer to someone pursuing a similar career path?

JH: I would say, figure out why you want to do this, what you’re passionate about and what’s driving you. Because any time you’re starting out on your own career path or jumping into something, there’s going to be ups and downs. Having that passion to pull you through all of the low points and get you to the high points is really important. I don’t know how I could do it if I wasn’t so passionate about this problem and helping the environment.

And then once you have your ‘why’ and your passion, it’s about surrounding yourself with really great people. At the end of the day, you’re not going to be able to know what to do in every single circumstance (and probably most circumstances!). But what’s really helped me has been surrounding myself with awesome mentors, a great network, some of which is through CPP, and then also a really great team.

 

GC: What are you reading/listening to right now?

JH: Right now I’m focused on building a strong team, so I’m just starting to get into The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, which is about how to build up a great team culture. 

There are so many great resources right now, it can get a little overwhelming so I try to have a healthy mix of learning and then take in fun books or podcasts like the Giggly Squad just to keep it light! 

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 If you’re in the food industry or want to introduce your favourite take-out place to a “Friendlier” container option, visit: friendlier.ca/for-businesses for more info. To learn more about the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) and benefits of joining, go to: plasticspact.ca