Helping businesses support the community | ourballarat spring 2023

That’s why the City of Ballarat’s strategic partnership with not-for-profit Runway has aimed to support local businesses to explore how they can do good in the community, through the delivery of Runway’s program ‘Get READY, Get SET, GROW’.

Father of two Adam Slater started his business, Zero Plastics Australia, following two lifechanging experiences: the first, a heart attack which led to a diagnosis of a rare and potentially life threatening heart condition; the second, canoeing with turtles in north Queensland and learning that single-use plastics were killing those turtles in droves.

After these experiences, Adam felt compelled to do something right away. So, he began experimenting, turning milk lids into new products.

Zero Plastics Australia, the social enterprise he now operates out of his garage, was born. 

With a science background, the work of repurposing milk lids was fairly straightforward for Adam. 

Operating a business, however, was new territory.

After learning about Runway’s ‘Get READY, Get SET, GROW’ program designed to support local businesses and social enterprises to accelerate innovation and leverage opportunities, Adam signed up. 

“I’ve learned so much from the program and it’s changed my approach to a number of things,” he said.

City of Ballarat, Acting Executive Manager, Economic Growth Kelli Moran said the strategic partnership with Runway had arisen from investigations into how council could foster community wealth building – a term that refers to a community’s ability to generate its own wealth for the benefit of everyone in the community.

“We can attract great businesses to invest in Ballarat, but often those businesses are based outside of Ballarat and the profits don’t stay here,” she says.

“We wanted to invest in what is already happening in Ballarat, and we thought we could support that to grow more quickly with the establishment of social enterprises.”

While there is no strict definition of social enterprises, Kelli says they are generally business that have a mission to do good in society or for the environment.

“Social enterprises can certainly make a profit like other businesses can, but often they reinvest a significant portion back into their cause or mission,” Kelli says.

Runway Managing Director Linda Wong said the ‘Get READY, Get SET, GROW’ program was specifically designed for existing businesses.

“It not only provides a theoretical learning opportunity, but also the cohort itself comes together and shares their experiences and supports each other, because they’re all in that same boat,” she says.

The program is delivered over three stages, with each stage building on the outcomes of the previous stage.

Not all social enterprises are the same. 

Karon Farm Coffee Roasters owner Luke McPherson is taking a different approach to Adam at Zero Plastics. After completing the Runway program, Luke launched a separate business that would function as a social enterprise by donating 50 per cent of profits to local charities.  

“Through the program, I learned that you can’t effectively help if you don’t actually make a profit,” Luke said.  

“I learned that you don’t have to be a non-profit to do good in the community – you can still operate as a business that makes a profit and do good.  

“The Runway program really helped me understand that.”