The next ten years at Seed & Sprout: a letter from Sophie

When people ask me how it feels to turn ten, my first response is ‘10 years? Wow! What a rollercoaster!’. But what really gets me fired up is when I spend time thinking about the next ten years because our work at Seed & Sprout isn’t finished, it’s only just begun!

When I started Seed & Sprout, I wanted to solve one small, specific problem. I wanted a plastic free lunchbox for my son Archie to start school. A decade later, the problem we’re trying to solve as a business looks much bigger, and much more interesting. It’s no longer about one lunchbox. It’s about how a whole home runs.

So before we look back, I want to share where I think we’re going.

The swap era is ending

For the last ten years, sustainability at home has mostly meant swapping one thing for another, like a plastic bag for a reusable one, or plastic containers for glass. Those swaps mattered. They got millions of us started on a more sustainable path and I’m proud of the part we played.

But the next decade won’t be about individual swaps. It’ll be about systems: what comes into our homes, how long it stays, and where it goes when we’re done with it. The question will shift from “what should I buy instead?” to “how should my home actually work?”

Things will be made to stay

I genuinely believe that in ten years, disposability will look as strange to us as smoking on a plane does now. We’ll expect things to last. We’ll repair before we replace, and pass things on instead of throwing them out. The most sustainable product will always be the one you already own and still love using.

That changes what good design means. It’s not only how something looks on the day you buy it. It’s how well it works on day three thousand. I love it when we hear from customers that they’re still using the OG Crunchbox from 10 years ago. That’s 3,560 lunchtimes ago.

The effort will move off individuals

Right now, living sustainably still takes effort. You remember the bags, you research the brands, you sort the bins. That’s a lot to ask of busy people. It’s also not fair that so much of the responsibility sits with individuals.

Over the next ten years, I think that weight will shift. Legislation, retailers, packaging and infrastructure will start doing more of the heavy lifting. The better choice will become the easy one, and the default. And that’s in part thanks to your individual effort paving the way for change.

The kitchen comes back to the centre

So much of a home’s footprint lives in the kitchen. It’s where food is bought, stored, cooked, wasted or saved. It’s also where people gather. I think the next decade brings the kitchen back to the heart of how we live: less waste, more cooking from scratch, more sitting down together at the table.

Sustainability stops being a ‘category’ and become the norm

This is the one I care about most. Right now, “sustainable” is a section of the shop, a filter on a website, a premium you pay. One day it’ll just be how good things are made.

And honestly, that’s the future I want. I’d love to reach the point where brands like ours aren’t “the alternative”, because there’s nothing left to be the alternative to.
We’re not there yet. So until then, we’ll keep going. And we’re enormously grateful that you’re here with us. This is what we mean when we say your small steps have a big impact.

How we got here

If I have a think about how our bestselling products over the years have shaped us, I can see that we started with one meal in one lunchbox. Slowly we moved through the supermarket shopping, the scraps, the pantry, the fridge and the freezer. Ten years spent following food all the way through a home.

Gosh, we’ve learnt a lot and failed a lot. One product, one customer and one lesson at a time. Thanks for your patience with us!

2016: The CrunchBox (or as it was originally known, the "Stacker" and idea that sparked it all)

The Kickstarter lunchbox that is still a bestseller a decade on.

2017: Market Essentials (shopping bags)

We swapped plastic bags for these, and so did thousands of you, well before the ban.

2018: Compost Bins (kitchen gold)

The year we got serious about scraps before the green bin era!

2019: Bars (my personal fave)

Solid soap, zero plastic, zero fuss.

2020: Bread Box & Veggie Storage Tins

Proof that good design can be this simple.

2021: Glassware (food storage)

See what you’ve got, so less of it goes to waste.

2022: Wategos (pantry storage)

Named after our famous Byron beach, made for every pantry.

2024: Chopping Boards

Where function finally met beautiful.

2025: Freezer Moulds (meal prep)

Meal prep, solved.

2026: Enamel

From storage to the table.

What hasn’t changed

The products have evolved as our customers suggested we try this or try that. But the reason we make them hasn’t changed at all.

We started in Byron with a simple idea and we’ve been carried to where we are today by you. You backed a lunchbox on Kickstarter and told your friends. You sent us photos of your pantries, your kids’ lunches and your compost wins. You told us honestly when we got something wrong.

That’s the part I’m proudest of. We didn’t build a brand that talks at people. We built one that people talk with.

What the next ten years ask of us

The next decade will ask more of all of us: the brands, the retailers, the people making the rules, and every household trying to do a little better at home.

I don’t think it asks for perfection. It asks for better systems, better-made things, and the determination to keep choosing them even when the easy (disposable!) option is way more convenient sometimes.

We’ll keep doing our part: designing things that are meant to last, helping to build habits that make a home system work effortlessly, and pushing for the day sustainable isn’t something you have to work at anymore. It just is.

Thank you for the first ten years. I can’t wait to show you the next ten.

Love Sophie x


Founder, Seed & Sprout