We set up Giki to help everyone understand and reduce the environmental impacts of their own lifestyles. We are a social enterprise and we provide digital products to help them.
Giki Zero is your interactive, step by step guide to a sustainable life (a webapp). We also provide a Giki Zero Pro version for organisations to team up together for more sustainable lifestyles and to work towards Net Zero.
Giki Badges : Scan a supermarket product to find out whether it’s sustainable and healthy (a native app – on the App Store and Google Play in the UK)
Giki stands for Get Informed Know your Impact and we believe that if everyone can build their own personal plan, then we can all play a crucial role in preserving the environment on which we all depend. We are a Social Enterprise.
I set up Giki with my husband, James in 2017. I was previously the first woman on the executive Board at CDP, a climate change charity where I was Head of Partnerships. Before that, I spent ten years working as a journalist in current affairs at the BBC and Channel 4.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
We set up Giki for one simple reason. We are facing a climate and environmental emergency and many people want to do the right thing, but are not sure what “right” is. Almost no one wants climate change, endangered wildlife or plastic pollution, but the reality is that it’s a consequence of the lives that many of us lead in the world today.
We believe that if everyone can build their own personal plan for what they can do to protect their world, then we can all play a crucial role to preserve the environment on which we all depend.
Giki provides easy to use, evidence based tools that allow everyone to make the decisions which are right for them, their lifestyle and their budget. We launched Giki Badges, an app that rates supermarket products in 2018 and Giki Zero went live in 2020.
More from Interviews
- Meet Stephen Kines, COO And Co-Founder Of Goldilock
- Meet Henry Wilkinson, Co-Founder at Drop-in, Ahead Of The Opening Of Drop-in Richmond
- Meet Oli Cook, CEO and Founder of ekko.
- Meet Marko Maras, CEO and Founder of Trustfull
- Meet Jeff Warren, Chief Technology Officer at Netwrix
- Evgeny Filichkin, Investment Advisor at Keytom & FinTech50 Judge, Tells Us What He’s Looking For From Entrants
- Tracy Prandi-Yuen, VP, Global Partnerships at Boku Inc. & FinTech50 Judge, Tells Us What She’s Looking For From Entrants
- Valentina Drofa, Co-Founder and CEO at Drofa Comms & FinTech50 Judge, Tells Us What She’s Looking For From Entrants
What advice would you give to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Build the foundations well. This is such a good way to ensure your success in the future. Our amazing Lead developer has this wonderful phrase – ‘Be kind to your future self’ . This is what building strong foundations does. Also trying things is crucial, but stopping things is also crucial – if they don’t work, either change them, or stop them. It is also quite common when you first start out to feel like an imposter. Remind yourself, that you are an expert in what you do. You may well know more about it than most other people in the world. When you stand up in front of a big audience, this reminder can give you the confidence boost you might feel you need at times!
What can we hope to see from Giki in the future?
Our aim is to help millions of people across the world live more sustainably and enjoy life without damaging the environment. Giki Zero shows them how they can and by working with partners like the UN Climate Champions, businesses, schools, universities, our aim is to make this fun and relevant for everyone. It’s all about us being Kind to our future selves.
