SAUBERKASTEN
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
SAUBERKASTEN is a DIY kit which helps you to make your household not only clean but also more ecofriendly. Our DIY kits provide everything you need to mix up your own sustainable laundry detergent, multipurpose cleaner or scouring cream: easy recipes for at least 10 scopes, proven household remedies like citric acid, sodium bicarbonate or vinegar and useful accessories. SAUBERKASTEN wants to show that it is very simple to reduce waste in your household and that cleaning can actually be fun.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
SAUBERKASTEN is a start-up from Leipzig, Germany, that provides DIY kits which help you to make your household not only clean but also more ecofriendly and pollution-free. Our DIY kits provide everything you need to mix up your own sustainable laundry detergent, multipurpose cleaner or scouring cream: easy recipes for at least 10 scopes, proven household remedies like citric acid, soda, natron, vinegar, curd soap or essential oils and useful accessories. SAUBERKASTEN wants to show that it is very simple to reduce waste in your household, to make things on your own and that eco-firendly cleaning can actually be fun.
Key objectives for sustainability
SAUBERKASTEN aims to show that sustainability can easily start by changing your habits at home. We actually don't need all these fancy plastic bottles with colourful liquids to keep our households clean and tidy. As our great-grandparents already knew: You only need a small selection of household remedies to manage diverse scopes whether it be in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the workshop or even in the garden. For SAUBERKASTEN it's important to show how easy and fun it is to reduce waste, to do things yourself and to clean your household in a simple, easy and eco-friendly way. SAUBERKASTEN concentrates on few ingredients without unnecessary additives which can cause allergies, pollute our environment and waste water.
SAUBERKASTEN proposes different DIY kits to find an uncomplicated way to start to change something. In general the recipes only take some minutes and are illustrated with clear and lovingly graphics.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Jeanette Schmidt, one of the foundresses, developed the idea of SAUBERKASTEN during her studies of design at the Anhalt University of Applied Science in Dessau. For her bachelor thesis she wanted to do research on "something about sustainability". That's why her supervisor recommended her to begin the research with herself and her daily life and habits. In this way she discovered that she had lots of different colourful plastic bottles at home for all kinds of fields of application. On the product labels she found lots of different ingredients with difficult unpronouncable names that often only chemists understand.
During her research in 2016 Jeanette talked to her grandmother and discovered the valuable experiences she had in her life with old household remedies. In 2016 it was not that easy to find useful information or easy recipes for the simple daily use of natron, soda, citric acid, vinegar and essential oils. Furthermore it was pretty difficult to find the right quality and quantity of household remedies in local shops. That's why Jeanette finally decided to develop this easy starter DIY set called SAUBERKASTEN which simple means "clean box". SAUBERKASTEN in German sounds like "Zauberkasten" which refers to "magic kit". With this set the foundress wants to make the beginning of a more sustainable and eco-friendly household as simple and fun as possible. As her major in Dessau was applied design, she wanted to create a DIY set which has a clear and clean design ans also a clear and clean content. She found a way to combine her aesthetic demands and functonality.
Thanks to motivation by fellow students, her supervisor, friends and family Jeanette Schmidt was encouraged to proceed the way of SAUBERKASTEN after finishing her master's degree. She gained a scholarship from the Social Impact Lab in Leipzig and could proceed the evolution of her invention with the support of her friends Henriette Grewling and Nina Schönfeld.
Key objectives for inclusion
For SAUBERKASTEN sustainability not only means to produce and sell products that are useful and eco-friendly but it also means to act sustainable in every way that concerns the company which was founded in 2017. The foundresses always try to find sustainable solutions whether it concerns new products, the plastic-free packaging and delivery in reusable boxes, new cooperations, new suppliers or new jobs within the company. SAUBERKASTEN tries to act as local as possible in order to keep the environmental footprint as small as possible. Since the very beginning the company collaborates with so called "sheltered workshops" managed by the social associations Lebenshilfe and Diakonie. These workshops care about the assembly of some of our DIY kits and about the filling of the bags with our ingredients. SAUBERKASTEN is very happy that these cooperations exist for almost four years now and relies on these trustworthy partnerships.
Furthermore the foundresses always try to pass on their experiences and knowledge. Therefore they organise and participate in workshops about the eco-friendly use of household remedies or about founding a social company with purpose, when time and circumstances allow it. During the coronavirus pandemic these workshops took place less often.
Naturally profitability of the company also plays an important role in order to keep it alive as well as its workplaces. Therefore not all demands can always be met. SAUBERKASTEN aims to grow continously in an healthy way. That's why the foundresses refuse bigger investments from the outside.
Results in relation to category
Over the last 3, almost 4 years, Henriette Grewling and Jeanette Schmit were able to found their start-up thanks to the support of the Social Impact Lab Leipzig and thanks to a succesful crowdfunding in 2017. They started whith the idea to create a DIY starter set and developed more and more useful eco-friendly alternatives for a sustainable household. In the beginning the products were sold primarily online and in some small local shops. Until now more and more resellers got interested in the products. Therefore you can find SAUBERKASTEN's products in different local and online shops in Germany but also in other German-speaking countries like Austria and Switzerland. Besides more and more zero waste shops where you can buy unpacked food and ingredients collaborate with us as the DIY sets fit very well in this concept. Furthermore we also sell bigger quantities in order to reduce packaging.
SAUBERKASTEN sells its products also on local markets and trade fairs where a direct exchange with customers is possible. Often the market booth is combined with a DIY station so that customers can mix their (first) own eco-friendly household cleaner directly on-site.
SAUBERKASTEN would like to expand the product range to show how much more is possible with natron, soda, citric acid, curd soap, vinegar and essential oils. In general SAUBERKASTEN wants to spread more information with manuals or books and create more useful material like a DIY workshop set.
How Citizens benefit
As mentioned before SAUBERKASTEN was founded thanks to a succesful crowdfunding in 2017. This beginning already prove that the idea met expectations of lots of interested people. The foundresses Henriette Grewling and Jeanette Schmidt intentionally chose this kind of financial support in order to test if there was enough demand on the free market. Luckily their expectations were met so that they could start the production of their first eco-friendly DIY sets. A new crowdfunding in order to realize new products and inventions in the future could be possible. The coronavirus pandemic showed that other small companies that had to struggle during these times were able to survive thanks to this kind of support by the civil society. Besides the pandemic showed us that more and more people are willing to change their habits in order to act more sustainable and to preserve the environment. This encourages SAUBERKASTEN to stay on track and to expand the distribution network. As Jeanette's researches for her bacherlor thesis showed, it is after all essential to concentrate and pass on profound knowledge and to enable the access to it.
Innovative character
SAUBERKASTEN wants to show that it is very simple to reduce waste in your household, to create things on your own and that eco-friendly cleaning can actually be clean and fun. SAUBERKASTEN aims to wash away any fears that household remedies are dangerous chemical substances and that these old recipes that already our grandparents used aren't made for our modern everyday lifes. It is not true that we need colourful plastic bottles with smelling liquids for every different type of cleaning use. Thanks to the well designed and explained DIY sets it is very simple to create effective individual houshold cleaners and washing detergent which can suit everybody from baby to allergy sufferer to zero waste fan. As the recipes are recommendations everyone can discover step by step what they realy need. SAUBERKASTEN shows how minimalistic and pollution-free your household can be all by reusing old glass bottles or containers to fill up your own cleaning products and washing detergent.
