goodchat. - Jason Rahilly from B-Alternative

Welcome to our goodchat. series, where we’ll be interviewing people in the music, events and sustainability space about how they got to where they are, what inspires them and what’s next.

For the first #goodchat, Sam spoke with Jason (Jace), carpenter, Earthship builder and founder of the wonderful organisation B-Alternative who provide practical solutions to help events reduce their waste all over Australia.

Hi Jace, you’re an established businessperson, starting with personal training out of high school, playing sports at a semi-professional level, moving into construction and now you run B-alternative. Which of these or any other business ventures or experiences you’ve had do you think taught you the biggest lessons about running your own business?

I feel like the reality has been "failing" as often as possible! Taking away the negative connotation with failure to change that to a lesson, and listening to advice. All the companies and sporting associations have taught me teamwork and collaboration.

Would you say your peers in the construction industry have a similar attitude to environmental issues that you do? Are there obvious ways to make the building industry more sustainable with waste management, and do you incorporate any of these or are they more large-scale solutions?

I wish I could say yes, however, the majority of the industry is more of the profit side of the conversation rather than the ethical/environmental side. Our building company GYPCO Carpentry Group has worked hard to find trades that will meet our simple efforts to have no single-use plastic on site and manage any unavoidable plastics and waste where possible.

We have started some smaller-scaled solutions and are seeing some excellent progress and potential for our industry to improve out of site! With over 60% of all landfill being generated from the commercial sector we know this is not even up for debate, action needs to be taken.

Tell me about how you first discovered Earthships and why you’ve chosen them as something to pursue over other sustainable dwelling types.

The reality with Earthships is they upcycle really effectively and that’s what inspired me when I saw them for the first time about 10 years ago through some friends at Sea Shepherd. However I wouldn't say they are the one stop shop in sustainable building models. There are always so many things that are unique to any project and understanding a wide range of different products and models has helped me personally evolve hybrids of many models to meet the unique ability of individual projects.

For example, understanding Permaculture models, available resources that are cluttering landfill, basic building engineering and various other little ideas, these Earthship based buildings and lifestyle properties have given me so much appreciation for lacking limitation! We do want to make sure things are safe and structural as a guarantee, but where there is space for creation we can all have a play.

You originally bought B-alternative’s wash trailer as a vegan food truck and then decided to change direction. Was there a really obvious turning point, or was it a more gradual decision?

The demand increased for the wash station and it was always a hybrid model to serve multiple uses. Though when it became clearly obvious that a wash station was better suited to our goals and the demand was there it became a pretty simple choice.

Can you give us an overview of what was involved with kitting the trailer out- were there any really big challenges?

It was definitely new territory. The challenges with weight for transport, whilst ensuring versatility for multiple drivers and space in the working location was one of the hardest.

Getting the most efficient low energy and water process going we could was really enjoyable yet challenging. We are very happy with what we have learned and what it has become through that research!

The two of us worked together at Falls in Lorne and WOMADelaide, with us supplying the reusable bar cups and B-alternative supplying reusable cups, plates, bowls and cutlery for back of house, and sharing your wash station to ensure everything got cleaned and went out ready to go. What are your thoughts on collaborating with other businesses that may have similar objectives, or intersecting services (competition)?

Working with bettercup was one of the more rewarding experiences we have had to be honest. It has been challenging in this space where a competitive element can form where financial revenue is crucial for companies. I guess with our business model being we aim to go out of business (if the planet is healthier we don't need to exist) finding other groups that have similar objectives has been extremely rewarding and energising.

Learning from other experienced groups has been such a gift that we have such a huge amount of gratitude for, it really feels like a new paradigm of business when people work together for more holistic results.

“We are not perfect and are doing our best to be less wrong. Focussing on the wins whilst welcoming the mistakes has helped us grow”

- Jason Rahilly