Here we are, almost 8 months after launching the Green Stamp, a green business. We have experienced some incredible moments and we have even more amazing goals lined up! Over the last few months, we got to know many green-like-minded people. Some of whom also run a green business. At the same time, we also got a lot of questions from others asking us why we started the Green Stamp in the first place. So, let’s do it, let’s give full disclosure to what made us decide to start a green business.
The beginning
To do this in the best way we first want to give you the definition of the term ‘Green Business’ we work with. For this, we look at the similarity in goals all green businesses have. They all aim to eliminate all sorts of negative impacts on the environment and take full responsibility for the environment. This minimal negative impact also taps into the effects of local community work and a positive effect on (local) economies. These companies we label to be green businesses.
So, what’s our story? While currently living in Bali running our green business, back in 2018 we both still had a 9 to 5 (office) job. Carmen worked as an HR manager and Marijn worked as a doctor. After working a high demanding job for three years straight Carmen wound up being burned out. Sidenote: the company she worked for wasn’t a green business. A few months later she left for a holiday to Cape Verde where she came to a painful realization. While working her 9 to 5 job, she was counting down every single day of the week. During weekdays she was counting down for the weekend to come. During the weekend she was counting down the days because she almost ‘had’ to go back to work. This realization resulted in Carmen simply texting Marijn to inform him they were both going to resign their jobs to travel full time. As a true travel and wildlife fanatic Marijn simply responded by replying “Sounds good, let’s do it!”
So that was that: we both resigned from our jobs and at the beginning of 2019 we left on a one-way ticket to South America. For those wondering what this has to do with us starting a green business, hold tight, we’re almost there!
The realization
Quickly after embarking on this trip we got to know a new version of ourselves. A more relaxed, loose side of us appeared and we felt extremely comfortable getting to know these new versions. This experience made it clear to us that working as an employee in the same office every single day, was not a situation that brings out the best in us. We then decided to start working towards a remote working situation to grant our want in HOW we want to live life. Location independent, continuously exploring beautiful places our world holds.
As mentioned before, Marijn is one of the biggest wildlife fanatics most will ever meet. This given resulted in him literally saying before leaving for South America: “There are only two things I want to do; I want to go to the Amazon Rainforest, and I want to go to the Galapagos Islands. Everything in between you can decide.”
This statement luckily was the starting point of us starting our green business. During our stay in Bolivia, we went to Santa Cruz where we booked our tour to the Jaguar Conservation Ranch. After arriving on the ranch, we learned that a part of our contribution for the tour was designated to educate local farmers about topics such as the consequences of deforestation. Simply phrased; by booking our tour we had donated to help preserve nature and wildlife. The fact that we didn’t know this before, and the fact donating turned out to be that easily got us very excited. It planted a seed to what now turned out to be our green business. Because it was a real-life experience with a green business.
Marijns second wish for this trip was to go to the Galapagos Islands, and we honestly can’t be more grateful to have been there. While now being green business owners, we simply had to go there. It’s an absolute paradise and a true example of a society where humans and nature live side by side. Our travel to the Galapagos Islands increased our awareness of the essence of wildlife and wildlife conservation. We learned how much our ecosystems rely on wildlife and we witnessed how humans and wildlife can live in harmony. This experience stuck with us and made a big impact on us starting our green business.
After returning from the Galapagos Islands, we felt the urge to combine HOW we want to live with for WHAT we want to live. During our visits to the jungle and to the Galapagos Islands, we felt so incredibly alive! The rareness of wildlife, the importance of their existence, and the simple things we humans can do to help protect them, was something that got us extremely excited. A little while later we got asked the question: “What do you want to be known for?”. We instantly answered the exact same: We want to be known as wildlife protectors, helping to maintain wildlife and nature. We had just phrased our WHAT. And it was our responsibility to combine both our HOW and WHAT. This answer led up to us starting our green business.
The Green Stamp
You might be wondering, what does the Green Stamp do to be called a green business? The first thing that we do with the Green Stamp is something not many others do. From all revenue, we earn through the Green Stamp’s website we (mostly) donate 50%. We transfer these donations to our ecological and ethical wildlife partners who all invest these donations to local green causes. We guess it’s fair to say we don’t take the term ‘Green Business’ lightly. The eventual cause of the donations varies per wildlife project. In Bolivia, it’s designated to educate local farmers. In Sumatra, it’s designated to organize plastic cleanups in the jungle to build bathrooms for the local communities with Ecobricks. This way of working equals green business. We provide the platform to collect the donations and we make sure these donations are redirected to eliminate any kind of negative impact on the environment. Besides this, handing over a donation automatically means we financially support by running our green business. In case you would like to learn more about how you can make a donation yourself, make sure to read more about this donation system through this link.
Besides our donation system, we have created our lifestyle in the way we want to live. Remotely, not being fixed in one place. Because this intertwines with our business, we don’t just run a green business, we also try to live as green as possible. For example, we have adjusted our diet. This means we don’t purchase meat or fish ourselves. Solely when we are invited for a meal in very secluded villages in different places of the world, we eat meat or fish when it’s cooked for us. We have also fully adjusted our way of traveling. The things that we do, and things you can do yourself you can find here.
Another green thing we do within our green business is raising awareness. We do this through the social media platforms we use, and also through writing high-quality blog articles.
Now we have given different examples of how we are a green business, so what’s next?! In two years from now, we hope for intercontinental free travel to be possible again. This will open up the opportunity for us to direct all kinds of travelers to the ecological and ethical wildlife projects (rather than the ones who don’t donate for example). This will lead up to us being the next TripAdvisor but focused on ecological and ethical wildlife projects worldwide.
To end this blog article about our green business we will share our personal goal with you as well. Ten years from now, we are going to take our families on a month-long trip through the different islands of the Galapagos Islands. We want to take them back to the place that inspired us upon this journey and the foundation of our green business!
Written by: Carmen Castricum
