about nul
Nul is a not-just-for-profit company with the mission to make the personal and household care industry more sustainable by offering eco-friendly alternatives that actually work. No water. No plastic. No toxins. No nonsense.
We believe in giving back; pledging 1% of all sales to environmental charities as a member of 1% for the Planet.
who we are
Hello! I’m Katie, the founder of Nul. I was born in New Zealand but later moved to Switzerland after I met my husband and co-founder Stephan. We live in Meilen, Zürich with our dog Harry.
Working in technology marketing for the past 10 years, I saw a large number of start-ups working to solve environmental issues. In stark contrast, the personal and household care industry appears to have stagnated with little innovation or focus on making more sustainable products. Instead, many brands are putting a lot of effort into “greenwashing” instead of actually making a difference.
With my MBA and a passion for green chemistry-based natural cosmetics, I decided to challenge the status quo. In 2020 I founded Nul, a not-just-for-profit company bringing sustainable products to consumers in Switzerland and the world.
With Nul, we hope to do what we can towards a more sustainable future with no-nonsense products our customers love.
why we care
Look around you. Whether it’s the food you eat, the technology you use, or the house in which you live. Everything you see is from this planet. It has given us so much.
Our society continues to consume many finite resources to produce products that are harmful to the environment and to human beings. Once produced, there’s also the additional harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions during transport, especially for products that contain 95% water (like most cosmetics and cleaning products).
Even though we can’t change the world overnight, we believe that by developing no nonsense products we can contribute to a more sustainable future.
what we do
In our workshop in Meilen, Switzerland, we produce every natural soap and shampoo bar we sell. We spend hours researching natural cosmetic ingredients, reading books on green chemistry, and experimenting with formulas with our Patreon testers. Then we manufacture, label, and ship our products to you.
how we hope to make a difference
Looking after the environment is very important to us. So we work hard to minimize our carbon footprint. How? We choose local or European suppliers, ship only to neighboring countries, and offset the carbon emissions. We also only use plant-based packaging and minimize it as much as possible. Finally, we check that every single ingredient we use poses no harm to the environment, by following the EWG and COSMOS standards.
We don’t yet use solely organic ingredients in our natural cosmetic products as we’re currently too small to make this financially viable. However, we use organic where possible and will transition to more organic ingredients as our business grows.
We produce our products here in Switzerland. All our products are vegetarian, and most are vegan. We don’t test any of our products on animals.
We’re also aware of the ethical issues surrounding many of the products we use, like shea butter and mica colorants. We go out of our way to source these ingredients from reputable fairtrade sources, so the communities that produce these fantastic products get paid fairly for their labor.
Mica is a wonderful natural product, but sourcing it can be problematic. Mica miners notoriously use child labor in their mines. This is why we only purchase mica from suppliers who are part of the Responsible Mica Initiative.
We believe in giving back. That’s why we donate 1% of our sales (not just profits) to 1% for the planet. 1% for the planet is a program that ensures donations are given directly to highly vetted environmental nonprofit organizations.
Doing what you can to make a difference shouldn’t come with an outrageous price tag or marketing claims.
At its core, we make natural shampoo and soap bars that are good for you and the environment. We state the benefits of our products simply and clearly and let you know our sources if we make any specific claims.
And we don’t artificially inflate our prices *just* because it’s eco friendly.
nul GmbH
Feldgüetliweg 76
8706 Meilen
CHE-482.845.282