GSL: A Good Start to Life is a wonderful organisation that provides support to children and young people living with disabilities. The Cairns-based business was founded by married couple Lyndsey and Rudolf Kotsch in 2011 and has a strong regional focus. Lyndsey adds, “Our mission is to change the perception of disability in our community and our vision is that every child living in regional Australia has a good start to life.”

Connecting sustainable practices with learning life skills that can lead to meaningful employment was the key.

Inspired by Rudolf’s observation that, “As long we have humans, we’re going to have waste,” Lyndsey recognised an opportunity to do something that benefits both the environment and the young people in her care. Lyndsey continues, “In our business, we focus on developing the life skills of children and young people with disabilities. It became apparent that we need to look into the future so we can focus on the skills that our young people will need. That is when sustainability, and introducing sustainability practices, became a business focus.”  Connecting learning life skills with sustainable practices that can lead to meaningful employment was the key at GSL.

“We engaged with the ecoBiz program to help guide us in what more we could do.

GSL: A Good Start to Life joined the ecoBiz program in 2023 and quickly attained 1-star partnership.  Lyndsey explains, “We engaged with the ecoBiz program to help guide us in what more we could do. The support has been realistic and being part of the program helps us to feel purpose and accountability.”

The GSL team has grown to more than 100 and their passion for recycling, led to a joining the Precious Plastics movement.  This collaboration created a local recycling hub that turns plastic into fun, practical items, which GSL now sells at local markets and through an online shop.  “A benefit of the online shop is that it now provides valuable work readiness skills and employment opportunities for our clients, learning how to download the orders, pack and send off”, Lyndsey said.

Lyndsey added that their commitment to sustainability has also filtered into other areas: “With recycling the bottle caps, some of our clients have used these to create a beautiful artwork that is featured, along with the lush living wall we built.”

Organisations across the world are recognising that the benefits of adopting sustainability practices are rich and rewarding in many ways. In the case of GSL, their passion for recycling has led to a world of opportunities for the young people whose lives they enrich.