Roger OngOne person refusing plastics may seem insignificant at first, but one billion people refusing plastics has a substantial, positive impact on the environment. As more and more seek a sustainable lifestyle, starting your small, daily, sustainable habits today can greatly impact the future.
And the kammeko app is building a sustainable future that goes beyond just plastics. kammeko is a new startup helping consumers to build habits for a sustainable lifestyle, including areas like plant-based food, plastic-free packaging and organic products. It connects consumers and vendors, while not forgetting to sprinkle a little bit of fun on top too!
We interview Raphael and Apolline, co-founders of kammeko, to find out why their app may become one of the new major beacons for sustainable lifestyles in Japan.
Intervewee Profile: Raphael Hodé
Arriving from France, Raphael worked in design consultation and innovation strategy in Tokyo for most of seven years. After exploring how to integrate sustainability in his daily design consulting job, he decided to go on his own and dedicate himself fully to helping others lead sustainable lifestyles. Leveraging on his skills and experience in consulting and strategies, Raphael set out to build the kammeko app.
Intervewee Profile: Apolline Daimaru
Apolline started her career in marketing and branding six years ago when she moved to Japan from France. She believes shifting perceptions can create a desire in sustainability. Disagreeing with businesses that believed Japanese consumers are not interested in sustainability, Apolline partnered with Raphael to co-found kammeko and help consumers live a sustainable lifestyle.Moving us from intention to actual action
The penetration rate of the SDGs topic in Japan is at its peak right now. With the COVID pandemic and climate emergency looming in the background, “SDGs” is becoming a buzzword to rally awareness and action to create a sustainable lifestyle in Japan. It is the perfect time to begin the next step.
Raphael: “I think we are past the point where we can say, ‘People don’t know about [sustainable living].’ It is also in our experience where we feel like it is present everywhere. But the challenge is that this intention rarely translates into action fully. So, we’re really interested in solving: how do we give people the tools to translate their values into behaviors?
“We’ve been trying to dissect this issue, trying to understand what it is that is stopping people from living the way that is more sustainable, and with a digital product that we have, how can we help them to do that in a simpler and effective way.”
Apolline: “Based on our experience in advertising, in how we change behaviors, willpower doesn’t work at the end. And fear doesn’t work that well. Some people think that using very shocking visuals is very powerful, but that does not. Actually, what works better is building small habits, little by little.”
This is the common mistake many of us make. We jump into going vegan, carbon-neutral, zero waste, etc., from Day 1. The change is too great, and it becomes unsustainable and even depressing. Giving up is the outcome. It is the same experience of kammeko founders. What if living sustainably is not an all-or-nothing option?
Raphael: “What we are trying to do is to debunk that [all-or-nothing option]. What really worked for us, and what we are still working on as individuals, is that if you do take it one step at a time, you’ll build habits day after day progressively. Over time, they add up to something consequential, and that’s the way to transition into a sustainable lifestyle.
“kammeko will make sustainable living more actionable, turning to daily shopping behaviors that you can do, reward you for it, and add a layer of playfulness and education that you keep motivated through the process. Sustainable living is not such a big scary thing, but rather something simple and fun that you can do every day, and amounts to something at the end.”
Getting sustainable habits to stick
Through the kammeko app, users can discover simple, daily shopping habits to adopt for a sustainable lifestyle. On top of that, the app will give users a synthesized and summarized explanation of why your actions are good through bite-sized educational content too. So, how does it help us build sustainable habits?
Raphael: “We try to make these behaviors a little bit playful. When you go to one of our partner shops, and you purchase something according to those behavior guidelines, let’s say you purchase plant-based instead of animal-based products. You don’t just earn points, but you also earn stamps that have a little bit of character to them, a little visual aspect to them. You collect them and complete challenges and, at the end of the challenges, redeem coupons at the partner shops as well.
“We get people to stick to certain behaviors. There’s something about completing the point card, where if you have five stamps, you kinda want to get to ten. When you are trying to shop in a responsible way, sometimes you just relapse easily. You forget your personal shopping bag at home, and you think it’s okay I get a paper bag once. We’re hoping this system can help you to stick to sustainable behaviors, not because you have to, but because you want to, and it’s fun to do it as well.”
Designing kammeko to reevaluate and find gaps in our lives
Even though the app is about making purchases, kammeko doesn’t want you to buy more. The team wants to help users reallocate where people spend their money, designing it away from requiring people to make additional purchases from daily life. In the future, they also want to avoid monetizing models like “per transaction” earnings.
kammeko is also designed to help us discover other sustainable habits we may never have thought to explore before.
Raphael: “What’s more important for us is rewarding you for doing several behaviors in parallel. What we learned was that people who are trying to lead a sustainable life tend to get deep into the vertical. There are a lot of people changing their diet and trying to go all the way. But they should also look at how they manage waste, for example. So what we are trying to do is get people to try out behaviors they do not necessarily think of. That’s why we have cross-behavior challenges.”
Apolline: “It is also one of the ways to help the shops, get people who would not visit other vendors to do so. For example, if I went to an organic, vegan hairdresser, but I am not eating vegan. But if I’m using the app, because the organic hairdresser and vegan restaurant are in the same challenge and appear together, creating a connection. This way, the shops are stronger together, connect with each other and share the same audience.”
kammeko’s big focus on environmental sustainability
kammeko is launching with five categories and five stamps first, as the team wants to make it simple by not overwhelming people with new terms or concepts that may not be easy to understand. kammeko also intends to expand its categories on environmental sustainability. There are many categories in the social sustainability area, but environmental sustainability is where it wants to focus first.
Raphael: “We also want it more varied because there are a lot of ways to have a better impact on the environment than we’re doing today. For example, plant-based is proven to be way better for the environment than animal-based. But we are interested in introducing new categories, which could include sustainable seafood. We don’t think that it is contradictory to have both on our app. On the contrary, we believe that sustainable seafood is wonderful, is way more sustainable than traditional seafood. And again, we keep the mindset of progress. That is how it’s guiding us creating the categories and stamps.”
kammeko is also for sustainable vendors to become more
Apolline: “We decide on partners on a case by case basis. Right now, we have a close relationship with our partners. We spend a lot of time with them. When we visit them, we check the products, it’s easy. But in the future, we’ll need to find a process.”
Before the kammeko team decides on onboarding vendors onto the platform, they do a thorough check. Because they have just launched the app, they are doing checks personally. Furthermore, they have a dedicated team member to check numbers and facts.
But more than just onboarding truly sustainable vendors, they also want to use the platforms to help vendors improve. Selected vendors may be sustainable in some aspects (e.g., selling plant-based products) but not so in others (e.g., needing to work on plastic alternatives for packaging). The gap is something that kammeko can go int and help them make the transition, and even let them acquire the ability to give, for example, the plastic-free stamp.
Raphael: “For us, it’s about progress, not perfection. Doing something good is better than doing nothing at all. And if we only welcome shops that are perfectly sustainable, we probably cannot accept any of them. And so, what we are trying to do is valorize what they do good and put them on the platform for what they do well. Even if there are many other areas where they can improve.”
Overcoming initial obstacles
Of course, no startup is free from its share of troubles. The team came together early this year, while Japan was still amid COVID. It presented a unique circumstance for Raphael and Apolline, including the vendors’ situation.
Apolline: “The most difficult part is that [kammeko] is a new product. kammeko app uses a common point system shared with different stores, and users can earn points in one store and spend it in another store. Some stores are worried about the balance: what if everyone spends their points in their store? Furthermore, Japan also has a lot of point systems in place, so they’ll need to include another point system. Timing is a consideration for many too, as they may be struggling with other issues.”
At the moment, kammeko has several partners in the Tokyo area and is onboarding one partner at a time. As COVID infection numbers begin to stabilize in the recent weeks, kammeko is expected to grow when opportunities return to the market.
Helping vendors gain visibility during COVID
Talking about COVID, the pandemic had an overall positive influence on kammeko. The Stay Home policy implemented in Japan during the pandemic meant that many workers were at home with extra time and a lot of unchanneled energy. This allowed Raphael and Apolline to share their passion, attract like-minded members and connect with the team.
The pandemic also spurred their purpose for working on kammeko.
Apolline: “COVID has helped us in a good way in the beginning, but it was also sad because shops didn’t get the credit they deserve, especially new shops. We actually work with a couple of shops that opened during the pandemic, and they are super committed, production is amazing, but unfortunately didn’t have time to build their audience. That is one of the reasons why they are happy to work with us. In the short term, shops have a lot of battles right now. We are in discussion with many of them, and they will join us after things get sorted out.”
kammeko has only begun to impact sustainable living in Japan
Even though the app just launched, the kammeko team already has a few features they plan to add. Each stamp you accumulate has an impact behind it, and kammeko can visualize the impact for the users, even into category types.
Raphael: “With these, we can build more confidence and motivation in more people, but we can also potentially foresee recommendations in areas where you didn’t explore in your portfolio of environmental behaviors. So that will empower people to build sustainable habits, and we’ve just scratched the surface of this in the current version, and we’ll looking forward to exploring that.
“And the second one, we want kammeko to be your favorite place to interact with your favorite vendors. Right now, vendors have a profile page with basic information about them. We’re planning on developing that, like giving a place for vendors to communicate news, give their audience a place to interact with them, to post questions, to have a little bit of interaction here, maybe the possibility of leaving a review, add vendors to favorites, maybe even to financially support certain vendors or to crowdfund certain initiatives that vendors could do. It’s really a platform to connect vendors and users.”
If you are looking to create a sustainable lifestyle and habits but are unsure on how to start, give kammeko a try to build them. The kammeko app will be in Japanese at launch, as the team slowly works on an English interface. Register here and try it at one of their partner stores.
If you are a sustainable business with a physical retail point in Tokyo and are interested in being part of the network, do reach out to the kammeko team.
