Cameron Saul, BOTTLETOP: “We empower vulnerable women through the creation of skills and livelihoods via our ateliers in Salvador, Brazil and Nepal.”
Cameron Saul talks about his ethical and sustainable fashion business.
Cameron Saul, co-founder.
BOTTLETOP's approach is shaped by a belief that businesses must play a leading role in driving positive change in the world. For almost 20 years it has used creativity and culture to deliver positive change while engaging the public with critical sustainability issues. Its global #TOGETHERBAND campaign has received over 6.6 billion digital impressions and delivered over £1m of impact on the ground through select NGO beneficiaries in each area of the Goals.
Ethical and sustainable production sits at the heart of BOTTLETOP’s mission. Founded by Cameron Saul and his father, Roger Saul, they were determined to marry luxury and contemporary aesthetics with a deep sense of social and environmental responsibility for their customers. From the design of its signature bags and accessories to the supply chain, production and distribution, BOTTLETOP empowers vulnerable women artisans to sustainable livelihoods and economic opportunity. Read on to learn more about the incredible impact the business is having across the UN SDGs and Cameron’s favourite motto.
1. Describe your start-up in two sentences
BOTTLETOP is a British sustainable luxury brand. Our collections positively impact people & planet and transform our customers into advocates for sustainable development.
2. What gave you the inspiration?
I grew up in the fashion industry with Mulberry as our family business and after working for Hugo Boss in Paris and Maurizio Baldassari in Milan, I went to Uganda to teach health education for nine months. I was inspired by the young people I worked with and the abundance of beautiful African craft. I discovered a handbag made from waste metal bottle tops, which I knew could be a commercial success. We added a leather lining made from waste offcuts and launched it in 2002 through a design collaboration with Mulberry and it became their best selling bag globally; generating skills and livelihoods for artisans in Kenya and enabling us to raise funds for health education projects. The campaign formed the blueprint of the BOTTLETOP brand.
3. How did you meet?
I co-founded BOTTLETOP with my father Roger Saul. Oliver Wayman joined us as a Co-Founder in 2005 as we set out to create our first artisan program in Brazil.
4. What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?
Our greatest success has been launching our #TOGETHERBAND Campaign in partnership with the UN Foundation and raising global awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals framework through 6.6 billion digital impressions and the world’s largest Ambassador network in support of the Goals and donating over £1m to impact projects across each area of the 17 SDG’s.
5. How has COVID affected your business?
Our team acted swiftly to implement the revised strategy in response to the COVID crisis; focusing on operational cost control and organisational changes that protected staff while leveraging support schemes from governments. We were forced to close our flagship store on Regent Street for a long period and the cancellation of in person events removed a key mechanism for our customer activations, partnership revenue and bulk product sales.
Emma Watson with the Blue Bellani bag.
We pivoted our strategy to focus on digital channels and infrastructure to maintain momentum; creating immersive digital-only activations to maintain momentum and execute partnerships. We also launched the #TOGETHERFUND and #TOGETHERLIVE concert series with leading artists in Brazil and Mexico (two of the worst affected nations) to support the installation of clean water and hygiene stations in hard hit areas locally. We donated over 55,000 medical grade face shields. Despite the disruption, BOTTLETOP was able to outperform its planned FY20 revenue target by 29.5%.
6. What kind of impact is your business having and how are you measuring it?
We believe in the power of business to drive positive change for people and planet. BOTTLETOP engineers quantifiable impact directly into our supply chains and business operations. As our commercial success and operations scale the impact we have across multiple impact programmes proportionally scales as a result.
We empower vulnerable women through the creation of skills and livelihoods via our ateliers in Salvador, Brazil and Kathmandu, Nepal and the Amazon Rainforest. Our ateliers currently directly support over 180 people. We protect our planet through our careful use of waste and sustainably sourced materials. We upcycle, recycle, and re-use materials that otherwise would end up in landfill; from millions of ringpulls to 3 tonnes of acrylic that we have used in our retail and event builds. Our #TOGETHERBAND products have removed over 125 tonnes of plastic from marine environments and recycled steel from over 6,000 handguns. Since 2018 BOTTLETOP has been carbon negative by offsetting our carbon footprint by 500%. In the last year we have reforested over 8 hectares of forest, planting over 36,000 trees that will capture over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 in their lifetime.
On an advocacy level our work is centred around working to empower our audience to become agents of change. We have generated 6.6 billion digital impressions so far. In addition to this, the BOTTLETOP Foundation has distributed over £2m in support to grassroots programmes and charities since 2002.
7. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a fashion designer.
8. If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?
I think I would be working in sustainable development, material science or as a singer songwriter!
9. What would you save in a fire?
I would save my guitar and books.
10. Who is your greatest influence and why?~
From a work ethic and entrepreneurialism perspective my father has been my greatest influence. In terms of my passion for combining design and product creation with driving impact there are many. Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnam's most celebrated Buddist monk is one: “In order to save our planet Earth, we must have a collective awakening. Individual awakening is not enough”.
11. What is your happy track?
Tamanqueiro by Selvagem
12. What is your motto?
Follow your heart and live life to the full.
13. What are you most looking forward to in 2022?
Taking BOTTLETOP and #TOGETHERBAND to the next level. Join us!