Greenhouse Pioneer: Samuel Austin & Owen Fisher, Humantico

Humantico is a full-service creative design agency in Kent. They design and build brands, develop websites and create beautiful photography and film, collaborating with businesses that work collectively for the good of humanity and nature.

It was founded by two digital creatives, Samuel Austin and Owen Fisher. Itwas formulated through a natural progression, combining the founders’creative skill sets with their altruistic drive that stemmed from their original project “Live Learn Evolve“, a media platform that inspires individuals to expand and explore their minds through self-development and thought provoking material.

Humantico is the next stepping stone, fusing innovative ideas and creative experience to actively build and develop businesses that make progressive changein the world.

Tell us about Humantico – what’s your mission?

We create, consult and collaborate with businesses that help solve social and environmental problems.

What motivates you?

An underlying optimism and positive belief in human nature that naturally emanates from seeing the tangible impact collaborative social entrepreneurship is having, both in Humantico’s projects and globally. It makes you want to roll up your sleeves and get involved right now.

What is your greatest achievement to date?

Building and developing Enviromate – a circular economy focused marketplace for up-cycling landfill materials in the construction industry. It has the potential to revolutionise the way big businesses handle waste and reduce the harrowing 50% of the UK’s landfill waste rooted in our construction industry.

What are the challenges you face?

To date, we didn’t anticipate the complexities of juggling large influxes of projects between just the two of us. It has been a very difficult but incredibly rewarding learning curve that we look to ease out with carefully considered expansion.

What are you working on that’s getting you fired up and excited?

We’re incubating a couple of interesting projects right now. I don’t want to give away too much, but we’re focusing on making positive environmental change far more convenient on an individual level within both the food and construction industry.

Where do you want to take Humantico next?

We want to continue to build and develop the type of invaluable business relationships that allow us to go beyond the general transactional process of business, and instead collaborate through partnerships to extend our positive impact.

What can we do to make a difference?

We vote for the kind of world we want to live in every day, through the purchases we make.

Be conscious of the companies you’re supporting and consider each items necessity over just its convenience. I’ve found the greatest of opportunities in being mindful of the little things.

If you were Prime Minister for a day, what would be the first thing you’d do?

Close the tax loopholes that corporations are abusing and redirect those billions of pounds back to the people by raising the minimum wage, to a liveable wage.

Then, I’d look to introduce a democratic voting system. Ditching the first past the post structure and facilitate legislation that makes politicians and parties accountable for the promises they make, so for example when said policy is broken we have a re-election.

What’s the coolest project you’ve come across, that’s inspired you?

The Centre for Effective Altruism – I can’t give this project enough praise. It’s a growing social movement founded on the desire to make the world as good a place as it can be, combining evidence, reason and action to find and execute the solutions

Can you recommend a game-changing book for our readers?

Visionary Business by Mark Allen is a game changer. Think business meets philosophy. It’s like a guidebook to building thriving businesses with the powerful core foundations of Eastern and Western philosophical teachings.

What do you listen to when you’re cooking dinner?

IfI’m baking something fresh – The Duncan Trussell Family Hour Podcast. Just a vegetable stir fry? – Hidden Orchestra it is.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

My parents always told me to follow my intuition. A piece of knowledge I often undervalued as cliche until I understood intuition as an inner insight that always has your best interest at heart. For that reason, I always trust the feeling it imbues.

Can you leave us with who’d be your Eco Hero?

Buckminster Fuller, his mind was truly way ahead of his time.

‘You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.’