Lunapads – two women embrace the principles of conscious capitalism

• With my professional – and, indeed, personal – interest in the issues of Conscious Capitalism and Women in Leadership, I’m delighted to draw attention to a blog that was posted recently on HuffPost British Columbia. It was authored by Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens, co-founders of Lunapads. And as they say themselves on the Lunapads website, the company “is a women-owned and operated social mission-based business”.

• Shaw readily admits that in her early 20s, she viewed business as “inherently exploitative” and aspired to become a “social change leader”. But having designed a reusable feminine hygiene product that changed her own life profoundly, “the light bulb went on: What if I could change the world by starting a business?”

• That was back in 1993, before the days of eco-consciousness and environmentally friendly products. But despite Lunapads being regarded initially as everything from “odd” to “off-putting”, the company held fast to its firm belief that “capitalism can in fact be a powerful force for positive social change”.

• And experience has proved them right. Indeed, not only is Lunapads a highly successful business more than twenty years on from its foundation, the company has estimated that its products, used by thousands of women worldwide, are diverting 1 million disposable pads and tampons from landfills every month. Women in leadership living out the principles of conscious capitalism.

• And I find it fascinating that not only does Shaw cite Anita Roddick’s The Body Shop as an early source of inspiration but also that she endorses the neatly phrased words of Simon Sinek – "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.