Female Founders in Sustainability: Green Business Role Models for Young People

Tessa grew up on a dairy farm in Yorkshire where nothing was ever wasted. When moving house, she couldn't bear throwing away leftover food. She knocked on doors, newborn and toddler in tow, thinking there must be an easier way. When she told Saasha, her eyes lit up. They tested it with 12 neighbours on WhatsApp. Now Olio has 9 million+ users sharing food and household items worldwide.

Charlie founded Müll Club after her South London refill shop slowed post-lockdown. Instead of giving up, she pivoted: if she couldn't change shopping habits, she'd change the recycling system. Only 17 per cent of plastic collected in the UK is truly recycled - Müll Club collects waste directly from homes and transforms it into beautiful products at their Margate studio.

Julie co-founded Cheeky Panda to prove everyday products can be sustainable without sacrificing quality. Their bamboo tissues, toilet rolls, and wipes are now stocked in major retailers across the UK, saving trees while performing brilliantly. As a certified B Corp, the brand has shown that eco-friendly products can compete with the biggest names and win loyal customers.

Inspired by her grandmother, Emma started making natural soaps at her Cotswolds kitchen table in 2008, selling them at local farmers' markets. Within six months she was in supermarkets. Now a proud B Corp and winner of The Queen's Award for Enterprise, Little Soap Company is stocked in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Boots and more. Emma navigates the world through the lens of autism and ADHD, and believes thinking differently is her greatest strength.

A textiles specialist and printmaker, Renuka discovered the potential of onion skins while using them for traditional fabric dyes. She founded HUID (Dutch for 'skin') in Oban, Scotland, to transform this food waste into packaging materials - a cardboard alternative and a plastic wrap replacement, both with natural properties that extend food shelf life. Winner of the Innovate UK Young Innovator Award.

Josephine founded SOJO to make sustainable fashion effortless by connecting customers with local tailors for clothing repairs and alterations through a simple app. Collections and deliveries are made by bike, making it as convenient as ordering food delivery. Since launching, SOJO has saved thousands of garments from landfill by extending their lifespan. Josephine is tackling fast fashion's waste problem one repair at a time, proving the circular economy can be genuinely convenient.

A former investment analyst, Eshita was inspired to tackle fashion waste after witnessing textile pollution first-hand during her honeymoon in Rajasthan, India. She built By Rotation as a peer-to-peer fashion rental app where anyone can lend and rent designer pieces from each other's wardrobes. The app has saved thousands of garments from landfill and built a community of style-conscious women proving that sustainable fashion can be accessible, affordable and genuinely exciting.

Laura left her corporate career after discovering that most kitchen sponges are made from plastic that sheds harmful microplastics into waterways. She founded Seep to create effective, plastic-free cleaning products that people actually want to use. Starting from her kitchen table, she built the brand into a certified B Corp now stocked in Waitrose, Ocado and independent stores. Seep proves that simple product swaps can drive meaningful environmental change.

Juliet founded Good Energy in 1999 when renewables were dismissed as idealistic. She built Britain's first 100% renewable electricity supplier, growing it to serve over 250,000 homes and businesses. Awarded an OBE for services to renewables, she pioneered community energy projects and proved that a business built on environmental values could thrive commercially. Juliet is now a champion for women in clean energy leadership.

Joyeeta co-founded Samudra Oceans after meeting her partner Alex at Cambridge, where they realised seaweed farming could be a powerful climate solution. They built an ocean intelligence platform using AI and robotics to help farmers grow seaweed at scale. Joyeeta is on a mission to prove the ocean holds answers to our biggest environmental challenges.

Rose founded Flora & Curl to create high-performance, natural hair care products specifically designed for curly, coily and textured hair. The brand combines potent botanical ingredients with sustainable practices, offering products free from silicones, sulphates and parabens. Flora & Curl has become a firm favourite in the natural hair community and is now stocked in major retailers including Boots and Selfridges, proving that inclusive beauty brands can compete at the highest level.

Aneisha co-founded Scrumbles to create natural, gut-friendly pet food that is better for animals and the planet. Using sustainable ingredients and eco-friendly packaging, the brand grew from a kitchen startup into a nationwide business stocked in Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Pets at Home. Their recipes are developed with veterinary nutritionists and focus on digestive health. Aneisha is proving that doing good for pets and the environment can also be a brilliant business.

Ruby grew up in Nepal where her mother gave her sari rags during her period. After studying Environmental Science, she realised most girls had never seen reusable period products. So she created WUKA, leak-proof reusable period pants. In 2020 they became the first period pant brand in UK supermarkets, now size-inclusive up to 6XL, B Corp certified and a Queen's Award winner.

Jane is CEO of Rookwood Operations, transforming how we handle phosphate in wastewater. Their patented technology removes phosphorus pollution from water treatment works and converts it into sustainable fertiliser, solving two major environmental problems at once. A Women in Innovation award winner, Jane believes in surrounding yourself with great people and seeking advice. She's proof that deep science can drive both environmental impact and commercial success.

Katie founded Sustained Futures in 2023 to close the 'future skills' gap sitting at the intersection of AI and sustainability - helping organisations quantify, upskill and certify the capabilities their people actually need. She brings six seasons at McLaren F1 (first in AI partnerships, then building its first sustainability function) and decarbonisation work at Capgemini Invent. She was named a 2024 Barclays Outstanding Entrepreneur and Sustained Futures is an official 2026 Earthshot Prize nominee.

Charlotte founded Loved Before after volunteering in a charity shop and seeing perfectly good soft toys thrown away because shops couldn't clean or restore them. She created a toy adoption agency where donated teddies get a full spa treatment – cleaned, repaired, and rehomed with their original story intact. Now stocked in Selfridges and expanding to the USA, Charlotte was mentioned in Parliament and won a Prime Minister's Points of Light Award. Profits support Make-A-Wish UK.

Sian reinvents herself every seven years. She earned a Michelin star aged 25, then launched pregnancy skincare brand Mama Mio, selling it for £3.7 million in 2015. She then co-founded A Plastic Planet, helping introduce the UK plastics tax and ban plastic waste exports. She's won Entrepreneur of the Year and British Inventor of the Year.

Smruti is CEO of Bags of Ethics, also known as Supreme Creations, a second-generation family business she runs with her father. They manufacture reusable bags, eco-friendly packaging and sustainable merchandise for world-class brands including Selfridges, Sephora, Dior and John Lewis. Awarded an OBE for services to sustainability, Smruti proves that ethical business can operate at global scale.

Lucy spent years sharing her heirloom growing journey on Instagram when a chat with her friend Kate sparked an idea - the thing holding people back from growing their own food was not knowing where to start. They joined forces to create She Grows Veg, a seed company dedicated to making unusual and beautiful heirloom varieties accessible to growers across the UK. Today they offer over 250 carefully sourced seed varieties from around the world.

After finding a tired bee in 2018 and struggling to locate flowers nearby, Faye and her partner Jacob gave it a sugar water solution and watched it fly away. That moment sparked an idea – the Bee Revival Kit, a keyring containing bee-friendly syrup for rescuing exhausted bees. They started selling at local markets in Devon and grew the business from their kitchen table to a fully operational studio with a team of six. Their products are now stocked by the RSPB, WWF, Kew Gardens, and wildlife trusts across the UK, and they pitched on Dragons' Den where Deborah Meaden made them an offer.

Emma and her partner Scott started making washing-up liquid in their shared garage while studying at university. They delivered orders before and after work, signing up 300 independent shops within six months. By 2023 Miniml had a 15,000 sq ft Yorkshire warehouse, a team of 40, and over 3,500 stockists. Their pioneering closed-loop system lets customers return empty containers to be cleaned and reused, saving over 3.2 million bottles from landfill.

Helen founded Davy J in Devon after a career in sport and a deep love of the sea. She spotted that most swimwear is made from cheap, planet-damaging plastics, so she started making hers from recycled ghost fishing nets recovered from the ocean. Every piece is designed to last for years, not seasons. Davy J has become a go-to brand for women who want swimwear that looks amazing and does genuine good.

Fran launched Grace & Green to prove period care could be sustainable without compromise. Her organic cotton and bamboo products are chlorine-free, fragrance-free and wrapped in fully biodegradable packaging. The brand became the top-scoring B Corp in its category, won an Innovate UK Smart Grant and got picked for the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator. In 2025, she raised £1.3m to fund two world-first patented innovations.

Frustrated by mountains of barely-worn children's clothes, Charlotte Morley launched thelittleloop to give kidswear a longer life. Evolving from a rental subscription into a secondhand platform, it now offers an effortless way to buy and sell quality clothing and powers takeback schemes for the UK's best brands. The model keeps clothes in circulation, cuts waste and saves parents money - proving sustainability and convenience can go hand-in-hand.