00:00Genesee is an eyewear company that makes glasses in Flint, Michigan from recycled plastic water bottles.
00:21Residents had to use bottled water, there wasn't another option.
00:24And so it was just like a real casual question to myself and
00:29what can we do with all this plastic.
00:32We didn't have plans of starting a business at all when this started.
00:35It was more of, hey we want to help, we want to do something positive in Flint
00:38and how can we use design and collaboration to help solve a problem or just be part of the solution.
00:46The glasses are made from water bottle, reground back into a pellet
00:51and then that pellet is injection molded into the frame shape.
00:56So the main face and then the arms as well.
01:00And then they're assembled with riveted hinges and the lenses are installed.
01:06I really believe like business can be used as a way to do good for people on the planet.
01:12And when we started this business, we set goals out like our North Star of what we wanted this business
01:21to be about.
01:22Or what we wanted at first, it was what we wanted this project to be about.
01:24It wasn't even a business, but we knew the areas that we wanted to make impact.
01:28And the goals were to reduce localized plastic waste in Flint.
01:34And that's because at the height of the water crisis, the city was using more than 20 million water bottles
01:38a day.
01:39And even without a water crisis in the United States, we use 1,500 to 2,000 water bottles a
01:45second.
01:45Our idea was, okay, how do we close this loop?
01:49How do we create a product that has purpose and real need and use this recycled plastic?
01:55And then our second goal was to create jobs in Flint that anyone could be trained to do.
02:01How do we create a product that can be used in Flint?
02:15Eyeglasses can, you know, be manufactured with on-the-job skills training.
02:20We were able to create jobs where we could hire displaced workers, those who are structurally unemployable,
02:26people with any kind of disability, mental or physical, as well as returning citizens,
02:33so people who are coming out of incarceration.
02:34It's hard starting a business and being an entrepreneur.
02:38It's never the path I would have expected to be on.
02:41But every morning I get to wake up, no matter how little sleep that I got,
02:46and I instantly get to think about the people behind the why of our business.
02:52You know, thinking about every single individual that I've met in Flint,
02:55the kids that I've met in Flint who've been so affected by the water crisis, the families.
03:01And it gets my butt up and gets me to work and reminds me to just, like, keep pushing through,
03:08no matter the resistance or the opposition, because there's, you know,
03:15there's people on the other side of your commitment to your work.
03:20And here's what I'm getting into.
03:20I need some work.
03:20I love having him Dev Coast team control down.
03:20That's surprisingly, I am, you know.
03:20And I know that one of the biggest problems they really had is that I'm going through.
03:21So Walk One and 5, where you are going.
03:21And you know for the people씨, that's the most difficult problems.
03:21And it's the most difficult time thinking.
