Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I’m a mum of two, with the third on the way. At the moment my time feels focused on either our business or kids, and that just kind of feels like the season of life I'm in at the moment.  I have always been really interested in health and wellbeing, and prior to having kids and running a business - this took me on a journey of travelling, yoga & meditation training.

My partner James and I run GoodFor, and we’ve been working together for 7 years on the business. We are really passionate about spreading the message of sustainability and the need for that shift in culture around the way people shop for their food. It started through us not feeling as though we had a safe place to shop and feel comfortable to buy whole food, organic, and all the healthy things we loved but in a way that created less waste. With all of the small packaging and plastic that comes with food shopping, we thought surely there is another way to do this.

GoodFor offers an enjoyable shopping experience, often a ritual for many on Sundays (including us!). What was the main inspiration and purpose behind the design of GoodFor?

That’s more James’ area—he has a real eye for design details and sourcing the right materials. For our Grey Lynn store, he tracked down reclaimed timbers and incorporated as many natural elements as possible. We collaborated with an architect friend on the new Grey Lynn location, but each store has been its own evolution. With every new space, we’ve learned what works well and what could be improved, refining our approach along the way.

We can see that sustainability is really woven into your life and is at the core of your business plan. What role does sustainability play in your life, and how do you incorporate it into both work and play?

Personally, sustainability feels like it's woven into everything we do as a family, in no means are we perfect - but every decision we make - it comes into our mind. Whether it’s the clothes we choose, the vegetables we consume, or how we spend our weekends, we’re trying to pass on the lessons we’ve learnt to our kids and that feels really important. 

In the business, sustainability is something we are continually trying to improve on, whether that's with our suppliers and placing bulk orders to avoid unnecessary plastic, and trying to encourage as many of our suppliers to move to reusable containers.

When we first started we were probably aiming for perfection, everything had to be zero waste or no plastic at all. Over time we’ve realised that you can only do what you can and everyone just doing their best is going to make a big difference.