CAMP seminar: how to turn a sustainable mindset into a profitable business?

Environmental protection and the circular economy sound good, but when developing a product or service, a creative entrepreneur soon faces harsh reality: how do you do all this so that the business is also genuinely economically sustainable and profitable?

Every year hundreds of tonnes of sheep’s wool, once considered worthless waste, were thrown away in Estonia. Woola took this resource and created from it an aesthetic, functional and internationally award-winning packaging material that replaces petroleum-based bubble wrap. It is living proof that material development, environmental care and an ambitious business model can go hand in hand.

At the seminar we will talk about the real kitchen side of sustainable product development, both its successes and its painful lessons.

What we do at the seminar

The Woola story: from design and research to an international company

Katrin Kabun opens up Woola’s journey from the viewpoint of a designer and co-founder:

How did research and sheep’s wool studies turn into a business idea with growth potential?

The charms and pains of product development and material experiments.

The most common stumbling blocks to learn from: keeping focus, building a team and winning market trust.

The moderator, Pille-Riin (founder of Full of Junk Design and head of CAMP), joins Katrin in dialogue. Together they unpick how to make sense of sustainability in creative entrepreneurship, what commercial compromises have to be made, and what every creator should take from Woola’s journey.

There will be an opportunity to ask for advice, reflect on your product ideas and discuss them directly with the speakers.

Speakers and discussion hosts

Katrin Kabun (Woola co-founder, textile designer and researcher at the Estonian Academy of Arts)

Katrin’s research focuses on the properties of sheep’s wool and how it can be used in modern product design. At Woola, her research, material development and business come together, giving local sheep’s wool new value and creating circular alternatives to petrochemical packaging.

Pille-Riin Lillepalu (founder of Full of Junk Design, head of the CAMP creative enterprise centre)

Pille-Riin runs the circular design studio Full of Junk Design, giving production waste a new life as interior elements. As moderator of the conversation she brings both the direct experience of a circular maker and a broad view of developing the creative sector, helping to draw the most practical lessons out of Katrin’s story for the audience.

Who the seminar is for?

Everyone who wants to apply the principles of the circular economy and sustainability in their product or service.

Starting entrepreneurs looking for a working balance between a green mindset and a profitable business model.