Zebra Resilience: Livia Zimermann, Zero Waste Era

“It is not our startup against the world. It is our startup with the world”

This month, we're discussing "resilience" with the Zebra community. Berlin Zebra community member Livia Zimermann of Zero Waste Era was kind enough to share her thoughts on the topic.

First, let's hear about the Zebra that you’re building.

We're on a mission to make it easy for everyone to live zero waste and have an impact. Zero Waste Era is our own brand of sustainable cosmetics, without the single use plastics.

We're starting refillable personal care products like hand soap. People can shop online or at farmers markets. They simply choose the products and make a bottle deposit. Then they can choose to visit our refilling stations or schedule deliveries and refills from our online shop.

We produce the products and provide refills from the back of a cargo bike that comes to you. So not only are you generating zero waste at your home, together we're generating zero carbon emissions!

What does resiliency mean to you, specifically as a Zebra?

Resilience as a Zebra has a whole different take. It provides the strength to keep on going and believing. It feels empowering. It is not our startup against the world. It is our startup with the world, trying to find the best solution and the best investors to support it. It goes beyond finding product market fit. It means finding customer fit with the right supporters of your purpose.

Being resilient as a Zebra is about optimizing for impact and creating a profitable company at the same time—and that is not a mainstream practice, just yet.

What helps you to stay resilient?

Our resilience is derived from being in love with the problem we're on a journey to solve. We want to make it extremely easy for everyone to go zero waste and have a meaningful impact on the environment. It is a combination of our driving purpose and the constant support from our future customers that keeps us resilient and thriving.

Interested in learning more about this Zebra company?

Visit www.zerowasteera.com.