<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ns2:project xmlns:ns1="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api" xmlns:ns2="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/project" xmlns:ns3="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/fund" xmlns:ns4="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/person" xmlns:ns5="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/project/outcome" xmlns:ns6="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/organisation" ns1:created="2026-07-08T08:44:08Z" ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/projects/68B880EE-33A0-4333-8321-C94A2C5610A6" ns1:id="68B880EE-33A0-4333-8321-C94A2C5610A6"><ns1:links><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/persons/76F79F78-DFAD-4BDE-9E55-DF8DA35F056F" ns1:rel="PM_PER"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/FF16814D-36E1-4E12-A582-3260F197CAD9" ns1:rel="LEAD_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/FF16814D-36E1-4E12-A582-3260F197CAD9" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:end="2024-03-31T00:00:00Z" ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/funds/96A9467C-2983-47B5-965D-7F4EAB003E9F" ns1:rel="FUND" ns1:start="2023-03-31T23:00:00Z"/></ns1:links><ns2:identifiers><ns2:identifier ns2:type="RCUK">10055912</ns2:identifier></ns2:identifiers><ns2:title>Eco Warrior: Expanding to new Plastic Free Categories</ns2:title><ns2:status>Closed</ns2:status><ns2:grantCategory>Grant for R&amp;D</ns2:grantCategory><ns2:leadFunder>Innovate UK</ns2:leadFunder><ns2:abstractText>Ahead of its' time in 2008, but absolutely of the moment now, Little Soap Company was created by Emma Heathcote-James when she questioned why supermarkets didn't offer any choice of natural or organic soaps. Sustainability, innovation, and being kind to the planet has always been at the heart of the business. Starting on the kitchen table, Emma's handmade bars went on to disrupt the soap category, finally offering customers a choice to buy ethically and sustainably sourced natural products. Now a Carbon Negative business, a proud BCorp and winner of The Queens Enterprise Award for Innovation 2022 they continue to lead the change in sustainable beauty in FMCG with lines from the four ranges found in all major supermarkets, chemists and online giants.

Their latest multi-award-winning range, Eco Warrior launched in 2019 and is entirely plastic-free, formulating traditionally bottled liquids, into bar form - soap is no longer soap, with job-specific bars for hands, face, body, shave and shampoo. They've done the hard work looking at sourcing, carbon emissions, waste and where they give back -- enabling their customers to make a simple swap that literally won't cost the earth.

Now one of the fastest growing companies in the toiletries sector and counted among the &amp;quot;Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders'' and &amp;quot;Scale Up Business&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;Best Rural Retail Business&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Entrepreneur of the Year&amp;quot; - the products follow suit with accolades of their own including awards from Beauty Bible, Free From Skincare Awards, Mama &amp;amp; Baby Beauty Awards, Green Parent, The Grocer and Psychologies Magazine Eco Awards.

2023 heralds the 15th Anniversary of Little Soap Company, and although we are proud to have paved the way for the growth of natural, organic and sustainable bathroom swaps this only begins to scratch the surface of the impact we hope to achieve. We already cover bars that cleanse from head to toe in the bathroom, and now we aim to expand our product range with exciting innovation to branch into new categories, fulfilling new customer needs, and tackling waste with plastic-free products which the customer can truly rely on, and trust.</ns2:abstractText></ns2:project>