It started as a uni assignment.

I'll be honest about that, because I think the origin matters.

Third year at the University of Tasmania, studying a double degree in Design and Sustainability. The unit was KDA102, Developing your Creative and Entrepreneurial Potential. The task was to develop a creative and entrepreneurial concept, map out a business model, think through your customer, your value proposition, your channels. Standard stuff.

I called mine Small Steps with Sustainability.

The brand was Circlarity Events Co. The concept was a free, inclusive, hands-on community sustainability event for Launceston families and residents who cared about the environment but felt overwhelmed, time-poor, or unsure where to begin. The proposed event date was 27 June 2026, at the Inveresk Precinct. Tickets through Humanitix. Funding through the City of Launceston Small Events Grant.

I submitted it. I got marked on it.

And then I just kept going.

The thing about a good assignment is that it forces you to think something all the way through. You can't hand-wave the hard parts. You have to name your customer, sit with their frustrations, figure out what you're actually offering and why it matters. You have to be honest about what's missing.

What I found, when I did that work honestly, was that sustainability conversations in our community were full of guilt and complexity and an unspoken expectation of perfection. People wanted to do better. They just didn't know where to start, and a lot of the messaging made them feel worse for not already knowing.

That felt like a real problem worth solving. Not just for an assignment. Actually.

So I kept the idea alive. I tested pieces of it. I talked to people. I applied for the grant I'd written about in my appendices. I found a venue. I built a community platform. The brand evolved from Circlarity into Kinda., with a philosophy that felt truer to what I was actually trying to do: make sustainability practical, accessible, and shame-free. For households, for families, for small businesses. Not for people who already have it figured out.

The ethos from that assignment is still the ethos now. Small steps. Progress over perfection. Sustainability as something that belongs to everyone, not just the people with time and money and a perfectly curated pantry.

Kinda.forward happens on 27 June 2026 at the UTAS Inveresk Campus in Launceston. It is free to attend. There will be speakers, makers, fixers, growers, and a composting walk. There will be a children's space and a community garden and a wall made entirely of fabric where you can leave your small step.

It is exactly the event I described in my assignment, and also nothing like it, because a concept on paper and a real thing that exists in the world are two very different animals.

I am so glad I kept going.

If you've been sitting on an idea, I'm not going to tell you it's easy. But I will tell you that sometimes the clearest thinking you do is when someone gives you a deadline and a marking rubric and says: work it out.

Free tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/kinda-forward-small-steps-to-sustainability.

Come and take a small step with us.