Planet Protector uses waste wool to create an alternative that thermally outperforms polystyrene at the same price point. The solution is 100% biodegradable, and produces ZERO landfill. For customers, the switch is a no-brainer. Currently, Planet Protector has over 300 active customers, a number growing exponentially thanks to the rise of Ecommerce through COVID.
Adopting circular economy principles, their product is made by breathing life to a waste stream, sheep wool, that would otherwise go to landfill. They process the wool and turn it into proprietary films that are used to insulate the product in transport.
“We are able to manipulate the wool to create different performance suitable for different industries ranging from vaccines (we are the preferred COVID-19 Solution in NZ), food, seafood, IVF, meal kits, produce,” explains founder Joanne Howarth.
With 5 patents pending for various solutions and processing steps, a crowdfunding campaign through Birchal and a stack of sustainability awards, Planet Protector Packaging is one climate tech startup on the rise.
Customer Focus
Although a B2B business, Planet Protector has a large consumer-focused presence on social media. Primarily focused on the cold chain industry - pharmaceutical, seafood and FMCG industries as well as the increasingly popular meal prep kits.
Highlights
Polystyrene packaging isn't great. It’s used once, then dumped into our oceans and never disappears. However, until now it’s been the only viable way to keep things cold in transport (e.g. vaccines, food).
Planet Protector helps customers ship their items within their temperature requirements without having a negative impact on the environment. In fact, due to the increase in performance they also allow businesses to expand their geographical footprint previously limited by the EPS performance and lower the amount of spoilage in the process.
Report Card
- Team: According to Linkedin, they have a team of 13 spread across two offices, one in NSW and one in New Zealand.
- Product: WOOLPACK, a sustainable, thermally insulating packaging product made from sheep waste wool.
- Market: EPS packaging alone is a $234 million dollar market across ANZ. Globally, it is an $18 billion USD market and rapidly growing.
- Momentum: They anticipate achieving close to $4.5 million in revenue FY21 (unaudited numbers), and have over 300 active customers across Australia and New Zealand.
- Impact: Since their inception in 2016, they have sold over 7.5 million units, repurposed over 3,500 tonnes of waste wool and paid more than $7 million to sheep farmers*. They estimate that 97,000 metres cubed of polystyrene has been replaced with their product.
*Numbers as of June 2021
From the Founders
- Company Name: Planet Protector Packaging
- Themes: Reduce Emissions, Ag, Improve Environment, Circular
- Summary: Planet Protector uses sheep waste wool to produce sustainable thermal packaging products.
- Country: Australia & New Zealand
- Founders: Joanne Howarth
- Product stage: Scale
- URL: https://planetprotectorpackaging.com/
- Capital raising: We just completed a crowd-funding campaign where we raised ~$1.25M AUD. Prior to this we have been successful in securing a number of government grants and proceeds from high profile awards such as the Cartier Woman of the Year. Our crowdfunding campaign: https://www.birchal.com/company/planetprotector
Company Mission:
We are in the race to become the market leader in sustainable thermal packaging that does not harm the planet.
Why the team wants to solve this problem:
Every year 8 million metric tonnes of plastic enters the ocean, with 42% coming from the packaging industry. Our mission and passion is to end this destructive and unsustainable behaviour.
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