GreenPay: Putting Value into Waste

While it has become a habit for most people to bring used batteries to the supermarket or medicine to the pharmacy so that professionals can dispose of them safely, it is not the case for most other products. From bikes to smartphones, we tend to store in the attic the goods we don’t use anymore or dispose of them without giving it much thought. GreenPay is a startup that aims to change this habit, incentivizing private individuals as well as companies to consider the value of the goods they have no use for. As Karel Lammers the CEO of GreenPay puts it, it’s all about putting value into waste, or at least what consumers are used to considering as waste.

How Did the Project Come To Life

It is during a hackathon focused on capturing value from waste that Karel’s team quickly understood that the most value would come from products that are not considered waste but simply reevaluated based on its stage on the product’s life cycle. Winning the hackathon made him realize that he had found an idea with great potential. Not much later, Karel founded GreenPay, a platform allowing people to sell and purchase second hand products, with the benefit of guaranteed buyback and an easy solution for companies to introduce circularity into their business.

The buyback system of the platform ensures that customers can return the products they had purchased to the manufacturer, and get back part of the product’s value based on its life cycle stage. The manufacturer can then give a second life to the product, either reselling it, refurbishing it, or reusing the material to make other products. In other words, GreenPay aims to close the loop for products that were never considered before.

GreenPay aims to facilitate circular buyback systems, being an essential intermediary between customers and manufacturers.

Generalizing second-hand purchases through incentives for individuals…

While it has become more popular in recent years to buy and sell second hand clothes, GreenPay wanted to generalize this practice to other industries like e-bikes, kitchen appliances, or electronics which consumers often don’t know how to dispose of sustainably and are most commonly thrown away.

Of course, consumers are incentivized to use the platform since they know they have a buyback guarantee on the products they have no use for, but what GreenPay really wanted to offer was the option of hassle-free circular purchases. With customers knowing that the manufacturer will be in charge of recuperating the unused products, they are assured that their previous purchases would be managed in a fully circular manner.

GreenPay aims to facilitate circular buyback systems, being an essential intermediary between customers and manufacturers.

‘The goal of GreenPay is to put value into waste’

Karel Lammers

… as well as manufacturers and public institutions

Apart from being able to do good, the sellers also have considerable incentives. Offering circular buybacks is a great way to generate customer loyalty. The company can also get a better idea of the current circular value of its stocks, be it new or second hand, and have access to materials without any additional production required.

GreenPay also aims to work with governmental agencies, which obviously require office supplies but could also purchase a variety of materials for public infrastructure through GreenPay. Considering the emphasis on the ecological transition and circular projects from European governments, it would make sense to use platforms like GreenPay for public institutions. The city of Amsterdam is a clear example of a potential customer, as they have set specific goals for private businesses and themselves in terms of carbon neutrality and circular development. Events like De Staat van de Stad happening later this month, where Amsterdam representatives discuss the circular achievements and challenges of the city, is proof that circular platforms like GreenPay will play an important role in the sustainable objectives of public decision-makers.

City and governmental institutions are important potential customers for GreenPay due to the scope of products required for public projects.

Circular Stories advised Karel Lammers on a communication strategy, showcasing the work and purpose of GreenPay.

The challenge of building a platform

While the concept behind the company is an exciting innovation in the world of circularity, it is highly dependent on users. One of the most challenging parts of building a platform like GreenPay is that the company must find both consumers and sellers simultaneously. This means communicating about their service and making it attractive both in a B2B and a B2C setting. This dual approach is especially complicated when it comes to circular business models. On one hand, collecting products that were sold to customers might not seem profitable to some companies. On the other hand, consumers would have to unlearn the strong habit of throwing away unused products.

Circular Stories advised Karel Lammers on a communication strategy, showcasing the work and purpose of GreenPay.

Reaching multiple stakeholders at the same time

Depending on the business development stage, a company might look into attracting investors, reaching out to a customer base or getting people excited about upcoming releases. Since GreenPay wanted to increase awareness about their service for consumers and manufacturers, their focus was put on finding a way to engage both these audiences at the same time.

In this way, the story told by Karel introduced the problems faced by both sides, namely the issue of consumers struggling to find trustworthy circular companies from whom to buy sustainable products, and the challenge for businesses to obtain fully circular material from which to produce their goods.

GreenPay was here to solve these problems, helping both sides work towards a more circular production system and saying it loud and clear!

Creating value from a human mindset

An essential part of circular businesses is also to show the human side of the business. Karel did not create GreenPay with the only hope to develop a profitable business, but because he was passionate about the topic of second-hand markets. While his experience in the online banking world could have served more individualistic career goals, Karel decided to take a more circular path, creating value from a financial and environmental point of view.

The rise of digital business created huge potential for online platforms, with some developing solid CSR strategies and solutions to a sustainable problem, but the most valuable ones might very well look more like GreenPay, with long-term circular goals and a dedication to closing the loop in as many industries as possible.

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Marielle, Ellekari, and the Circular Stories team have set themselves the mission to help tell the story of your sustainable business and advise your company to become among the leaders of the circular economy!

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