Meet Lilly Le of Ripple Rating

Lilly Le is currently working on her entrepreneurial project at Manzana while undertaking nursing studies and a retirement care job. She’s an incredibly dedicated worker who seems to work to a 28-hour day.

Her project idea is to create a sustainable rating system for off-the-shelf products. This rating system will look at the environmental impact of an item, from manufacture to usage to discard. The framework accounts for factors like toxins released, carbon footprint from shipments, water pollution and energy, among many more.

Here’s a little more about Lilly and her project outlook:

What experiences have led you to start your own business?

I have always been very passionate about the environment. I thought I would get into environmental politics when I was at university, because I thought that was where changes happen. But I soon realised that doing your own thing has a lot more freedom and movement, and that it gives your idea the opportunity to go global.

When I was at university, I realised that not everyone has access to the kind of articles and scientific studies that university students do, and even if they did, some papers are written in such a way that it can be hard to understand. It was such a waste, I thought, because we have work from some of the most brilliant minds that is locked up and is only ever touched by undergrads when they need it. 

Environmental science talks a lot about the disconnect between the government, the public and the academic, and no wonder because the science world is locked up, inaccessible. So partially, this business is also a bridging tool between the academic and public.

I have always wanted environmental science to be a secondary school subject because [at school] we were so unaware. Environmental issues weren’t spoken of and when we did talk about them, we were made fun of. I remember being made fun of for telling my friend off for littering and made fun of when we had rubbish pickup days. I truly believe that some of us don’t want to believe in climate change and pollution because it is so dooming to think about. We also don’t want to compromise our convenient lifestyle and shopping habits.

Can you tell us more about your project?

Everything will be based on scientific scholarly articles, so that is where this system acts as the bridge between the academic world and the general public. It is very easy to understand with a simple star rating to accommodate our attention span, but you also get the option to review the research. If you like to go into a rabbit hole, you can check out the sources too, so it’s for everyone who is curious and wants to understand more about the effects that consumer products have on the environment.

The message that I want to get across with this business is that it doesn’t have to be hard to be environmentally cautious. You don’t have to buy second hand clothes and you don’t have to be vegan to be a good citizen. Small actions and small changes can have big impacts too. So that is why I wanted to start this rating system, to inform and educate efficiently to accommodate our capitalist world.

I understand that this project might not be perfect, because context of environmental issues is so large. And I know there will be many criticisms when the website is live, but I think the idea of people digging deep to debate about environmental issues is also very exciting.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment?

My sister and I have also started a non-profit. We are both very passionate about mental health, having suffered ourselves and also having acted as a support person for others.

The non-profit is called Impact, it is also in its infancy and we only work on it when we have the time because we are both very busy. The idea of Impact is not just to raise awareness but to have a lasting impact from the things that we do. We want to focus on self-awareness and self-help. And that doesn’t mean “don’t seek external help”, our message is “understand yourself and mental health enough to seek help when you need it and to find that mechanism that works for you.”

Everyone is so different so we shouldn’t expect a one-size-fits-all solution to mental health, so if something doesn’t work for someone it doesn’t mean there’s no hope, just there are different avenues that haven’t been discovered yet. Our goal is to make you aware of those avenues or to provide them.

Our first event, which have been postponed many times (but it will happen!) focuses on mental health in the workplace. We’ll target awareness of burnout, who’s at risk, why we should be aware of it, and most of all, how to get rid of the stigma around the conversation of mental health in the workplace. Now we are also working on a journaling book that helps school children to deal with stress, depression, anxiety and grieving.

You’re a superstar Lilly! Thank you for your time.