Soap, circularity and systems change: an interview with Amplify Goods

What does it look like when a purpose-led business uses something as ordinary as soap to drive extraordinary change? In this interview, we dive into the story of Amplify Goods, a social enterprise reshaping sustainability and creating meaningful work in the process. Co-founder Camilla Marcus-Dew - an On Purpose Fellow who completed the Associate Programme 10 years ago - shares the ambitious vision behind Amplify and the systems change they’re working toward, from transforming supply chains to landing their products in major organisations from the Big Four to the NHS.

We also speak with Kirsty Wivell about her role as an Associate: the projects she led, including the launch of the award-nominated SUDZERØ, the hands-on experience she gained across the business, and the meaningful achievements that shaped her understanding of what creating real impact requires.

Camilla, how would you describe Amplify Goods' purpose?

We're one of those businesses trying to do too many things. I am told too often, 'just focus on one marketable good thing, like tree planting'. We disagree, so introducing Amplify Goods - a black, LGBTQIA+, women owned social enterprise, with profits to the intersection of mental health and climate, making premium B2B washroom products that are low carbon, no single use plastic and with loads of circularity in action. We're proving soap is consequential - an easy switch in the consultancy PwC created 47 hours of work for homeless and disabled people. But that's multiplying, now we are in all of the Big Four. But it's not just professional services, its private members clubs, the NHS for body wash, buildings like the Walkie Talkie and places like the National Theatre, and rolling out to dozens of new workplaces every month, and hopefully soon schools and live events venues too.

Camilla, tell us about a moment when you thought "this is why we do what we do!"

I guess I do it because I'm impatient for change, and a stickler for the details. It's great to get to really work on the tricky but viable triple balance of people and planet and profit. And this is all On Purpose's fault. Long ago (10 years) when I became an On Purpose Associate and joined a soap factory in London employing disabled people, I knew I had the best placement for me. And I also knew at that moment, that I just needed to focus on one thing and do it really well in the world, then systems shift. 10 years later, with just a small break in the middle, I'm still working in soap, with at-risk adults and chipping away at the footprint too. I guess we might agree that almost everything in the world needs redesigning, but if we lose focus and keep jumping around to different causes, the depth of change we want won't happen.

So, here we are, challenging the (not always exciting) facilities management industry to do more. And we are doing this at a time when everyone is convinced their products are already "sustainable" - it's time to burst their bubble, as almost nothing is. So we try to broaden the definition, getting people to think about the complexity of sustainability and all the facets. The example I often use is that an organic t-shirt made by a child in a sweatshop wouldn't be called sustainable, so it's important to look at the details through more than one lens, and also continually push for incremental change. If anyone likes graphs, this is something that is in my head all the time.

It’s a graphic, and concept by Jakobsen from 20 years ago, and the short summary is that if we shoot for sustainable, we will likely tend towards "0" but we will never get to positive - we have to aim for net positive from the outset, so I guess this is why I do what I do.

Kirsty, what was your role during your placement with Amplify Goods?

My placement gave me the opportunity to work across many areas of the business, from product development and customer engagement to warehouse operations and ESG reporting. My main project was managing the launch of the SUDZERØ range, but as a small and growing social enterprise, I’d pitch in wherever needed.

No two days were the same: one moment I’d be updating spreadsheets on products, pricing, or sustainability; the next I’d be responding to customers, managing CRM data or preparing pitches. I also drew on my creative side to design product labels, flyers, webpages, and even shoot product and PR photography. Sometimes all on the same day!

I spent one day a week in the warehouse, preparing shipments, managing the pack team, and testing packing processes for SUDZERØ. Plus more random tasks like rinsing soap containers in the Crisis warehouse showers or boiling a sponge in a pan of water to see how durable compostable ink are (turns out very).

I also had the chance to attend events and speak with customers about Amplify Goods’ mission and products. It was rewarding to meet people who genuinely wanted to create change within their organisations and were excited to support the work we were doing.

Camilla, tell us about some of the people you work with.

My day is so wonderfully varied across our impact team, clients and suppliers - from working with a prison leaver making their way back into work, or talking to a supplier how they can bring more environmental innovation into their supply chains, benefiting way more than just us. The most weirdly complex thing we navigate is the supply chain of soap - from manufacturing, to a distribution hub, through a facilities management company and sometimes a property management company too, poured by a cleaning operative, and finally dispensed onto tens of thousands of hands every week. And of course, as a business founded by two On Purpose Fellows, with the support of other Fellows and now Associates, my day still includes a chat about MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) ;)

Kirsty, what's something you're proud of achieving during your time with Amplify Goods? What makes you particularly proud of this achievement?

I’m particularly proud of leading the launch of SUDZERØ, a powder-to-foam hand wash designed for Net Zero and circularity that also creates work for people facing barriers to employment. Managing the project from testing through to launch gave me a real insight into how products move from idea to impact.

Over the six months, I sourced and designed packaging, developed pricing, sales and marketing strategies, and created web pages, slides and infographics to pitch SUDZERØ to customers, helping to secure early interest and sales. I also wrote a press release and coordinated a PR photoshoot, which was featured in industry and social enterprise media.

I learned how complex circular product design can be. For example, while SUDZERØ sachets are fully compostable, sourcing labels with biodegradable inks and glues was more challenging than you’d think.

The proudest moments came when the impact became tangible: hearing from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that SUDZERØ offers an 84%+ carbon saving over traditional liquid products; seeing the final product, with packaging I had designed, being packed and shipped in the last weeks of my placement, creating valuable paid work for the pack team; and hearing that SUDZERØ has been nominated for the SEUK Innovation of the Year award.

Kirsty, how has working with Amplify Goods shaped your understanding of what it takes to create change?

My placement showed me that meaningful change doesn’t come from a single product or business. It comes from many small, often invisible decisions, combined with the collective, conscious action of individuals and organisations, who set an example and hopefully drive wider systems change. Even with something as simple as soap.

However, I also saw the challenges of communicating impact and creating change within established systems, where sustainability and social impact risk being a tick-box exercise. The experience showed me that integrity and persistence are just as important as innovation in creating genuine, lasting change.

Amplify Goods show that sustainable product design and social impact don’t have to be separate goals, and it is possible to balance business needs with impact. Whether it’s partnering with a local SME making boxes from reused cardboard, or choosing slower manual processes like hand-labelling bottles because it creates valuable jobs for people often excluded from work.

Camilla, what's something you're proud of achieving since launching Amplify? What makes you particularly proud of this achievement?

At my On Purpose placement at Clarity Employment for Blind People 10 years ago, governance was initially an after-thought. I grew a big business with Soap Co and BECO, but not fast enough to stop a very troubled 165 year old charity out of a £4.4m pension hole. It taught me a lot - the importance of what leaders do when the shit hits the fan, pardon my French. I'm proud of the decisions I've made to come past that, creating a business that isn't compromising (for people or planet) to grow. We call it Business 2.0.

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