Cambodia & CCIFC: The ambition of Sarah Kolbenstetter with Little Green Spark

Sarah Kolbenstetter is a Franco-German entrepreneur based in Phnom Penh. She is the founder of Little Green Spark, a start-up aimed at helping companies improve their overall environmental footprint.

Sarah Kolbenstetter during a workshop. Photo supplied

"These experiences made me aware of the environmental crisis we are currently living through and motivated me to do my part. I have always been very sensitive to the issue of waste and its environmental, economic, social justice, and public health implications. I discovered the zero waste movement in 2018 while I was still living in Senegal, and I began to engage in a zero waste journey at that time."

"Building on this experience, I decided to found Little Green Spark, hoping to inspire more people to implement small changes and aspire to a zero waste lifestyle," says the company’s creator, specializing in environmental footprint.

While Cambodia strives to achieve an upper-middle-income economy and meet the United Nations' sustainability goals, corporate responsibility and consumer environmental concerns are growing in importance. However, this is a sector the government increasingly wants to see in the hands of the private sector rather than NGOs, and that is where companies like Little Green Spark come in.

The company describes itself as an environmental consulting firm: "contributing to reducing and improving the management of waste generated by companies and organizations operating in Cambodia."

Our partners at Cambodia Investment Review spoke with Sarah Kolbenstetter to discuss her broad goals for the company and the environmental sector as a whole.

What does environmental consulting consist of in Cambodia?

While the sector can take many forms, such as advising on carbon or plastic credits, Sarah emphasizes that Little Green Spark is somewhat more proactive in how it advises companies:

"When we go to a company, it is with the goal of helping them reduce their waste and improve recycling, rather than paying a fine for pollution, as is the case with carbon credits," she says.

Carbon and plastic credits allow a polluting company to pay for its pollution or "offset" it through other projects, which, according to Sarah, is not really the ideal solution.

"I believe carbon credits are flawed because I don't think you should encourage people to keep creating waste but rather solve the problem at the source. ''If a company can pollute and then buy credits, it is not motivated to go green," explains Sarah.

This is exactly what Little Green Spark does by going into companies and offering various programs, ranging from a one-day to a full month of training, as Sarah explains:

"We organize one-day training sessions in which we examine problems and propose solutions, as well as more intense month-long programs that also involve us coming back six months later to check on progress made."

Companies can then receive a certificate of completion, with Sarah noting that she works with different organizations to provide some form of accreditation.

Achieving the United Nations' sustainability goals

In addition to advising companies, Little Green Spark grants accreditations to companies and government agencies, particularly concerning the United Nations' sustainability goals.

"By working with Little Green Spark, you can directly contribute to the achievement and implementation of 14 of the United Nations' 17 sustainability goals, such as climate action and forest conservation," explains Sarah.

The United Nations has set a target to achieve 17 sustainability goals by 2030. Cambodia is not only a signatory but has also added its own 18th goal, which is the country’s demining.

As for how business is going, Sarah is very optimistic:

"We see that companies are increasingly interested in initiatives like ours simply because the richer people get, the more they care about corporate responsibility. Companies want to take care of it rather than leaving it to NGOs."

Regarding the growth of the company, it is about raising awareness of its work, Sarah adds:

"We joined EuroCham this year, which has been great for networking, but we really need more people to know about our work so that we can grow and help Cambodia become a more environmentally friendly and cleaner country."

CG & Gareth Johnson with our partner Cambodia Investment Review