In this episode of The For Love & Money Podcast, I speak with Abigail Forsyth OAM, co-founder and Managing Director of KeepCup—the company that kickstarted a global revolution in reusable coffee cups and helped change the way we think about single-use packaging.

From her early days as a lawyer to co-founding a bustling Melbourne café chain with her brother Jamie, Abigail shares how a growing discomfort with packaging waste led to the creation of KeepCup—the world’s first barista-standard reusable cup. We explore the highs of fast growth, global expansion, and viral adoption, as well as the confronting challenges brought on by COVID, shifting market narratives, and scaling a purpose-led organisation.

This is a raw and honest conversation about entrepreneurship, purpose, leadership, and the tension between impact and profitability. Abigail’s insights are as grounded as they are galvanising—and essential listening for anyone building a values-based business that aims to drive real change.

Abigail is a leader in the global campaign to promote sustainability.

Known worldwide for its bright, bold and instantly recognisable reusable cups, KeepCup is a global campaign for reuse. Since launching the world’s first barista-standard reusable cup in 2009, KeepCup is now embraced by reusers the world over, diverting millions of single-use cups daily.

KeepCup is in business for better - a certified B Corporation, living wage employer and member of 1% for the Planet, donating at least 1% of global revenue to environmental causes.

Following a successful career as a solicitor, Abigail and her brother Jamie set up their own chain of cafes across the city. Alarmed by the amount of disposable packaging being wasted, Abigail started her search for a more sustainable and environmentally conscious way to serve food, and the concept of KeepCup soon became a reality.

Abigail has been honoured with an Order of Australia Medal in the General Division, for her years of outstanding service to sustainable design on the Queens Birthday list for 2021.

Abigail has opened offices and warehouses in Australia and the UK, and set up hub operations in the USA to service growing consumer demand in over 76 countries around the world, but the business has stayed loyal to its roots. KeepCup’s HQ is located in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, where Abigail lives with her family.

• Abigail’s leap from law to entrepreneurship

• The inspiration behind KeepCup and how it found early traction

• How KeepCup became a global lifestyle brand with a loyal tribe

• Navigating major setbacks—from COVID to cultural backlash

• Why profitability is vital to sustaining purpose

• Leadership lessons learned through growth, failure and recovery

• The evolution of KeepCup from innovation to lifestyle

• The launch of their new campaign, #SipCheck

• 🌐 KeepCup: keepcup.com

• 📸 KeepCup Instagram: instagram.com/keepcup

• 🔗 Abigail Forsyth on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/abigail-forsyth-68886211

• 💡 The Cause Effect (Carolyn’s consultancy): thecauseeffect.com.au

• 🎧 More podcast episodes: Podcast Page | Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Summary

What does it take to turn outrage and opposition into legitimacy and consent?

In this episode, we explore that question with one of the world’s leading authorities on social licence and legitimacy. My guest, Katherine Teh, is the founder of a pioneering social purpose company that’s rewriting the rules of mining—transforming the industry’s most polarised conflicts into powerful opportunities for inclusive, ethical development.

You’ll hear how this consent-based model is unlocking stranded assets, accelerating approvals, and delivering long-term value for people, planet, and business.

We explore:

The power of empathy in business—even in high-stakes, high-conflict sectors.

Why legitimacy isn’t a compliance issue, but a foundation for resilience and profit.

The real meaning of social licence—and why it’s vital to the net zero transition.

How the “DAD” model (Decide, Announce, Defend) is being replaced with “DAVE” (Declare dilemmas, Acknowledge issues, unify Vision, Evaluate).

Why partnering with Indigenous communities is essential to ethical growth.

This is a conversation about reimagining what development can look like when business begins with humanity, listens deeply, and leads with purpose.

Guest Bio

Katherine Teh is a strategist, reformer, and changemaker whose work has helped reshape some of the world’s most complex and contested industries—from mining and renewables to public policy, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals.

Katherine Teh is one of the world’s foremost authorities on social licence and legitimacy. For over three decades, she has worked at the intersection of sustainability, governance, and public trust—bringing sharp clarity where others see only risk. Her ability to align fractured interests and rebuild trust has made her a trusted adviser on more than $200 billion in major projects around the globe.

But Katherine’s story begins far from the boardroom.

Driven by an early ambition to become a war correspondent, she rose quickly through the ranks of journalism—becoming the youngest female A-graded journalist in Australian history. At 29, she led one of the country’s most influential gender justice campaigns, mobilising over one million women to reframe gendered violence as a workplace safety issue—more than two decades before the #MeToo movement swept the world.

Since then, she has led national and international public dialogue processes on polarising issues, designed innovative products and business models to solve systemic problems, and helped industries navigate outrage, restore legitimacy, and deliver long-term value. In 2002, she founded the world’s first social licence agency—developing a methodology that combines strategic foresight, stakeholder alignment, and social impact design to turn opposition into durable, earned support.

Today, as Executive Chair of Spektrum, Katherine leads a new kind of critical minerals company—one that does development differently. By partnering with Indigenous communities and applying consent-based models, she and her team are unlocking stranded assets, accelerating approvals, and creating nature-positive regional futures.

Katherine is on a mission to transform not just who development is done with—but how it’s done, and what it leaves behind. She builds systems that restore legitimacy, resolve conflict, and demonstrate that ethical, inclusive development isn’t a trade-off—it’s the foundation for resilience and long-term success.

She’s an entrepreneur. An activist. A visionary. And a woman who’s never waited for permission to lead.

• Learn more about Spektrum: https://www.spektrumdevelopment.com/

• Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: Katherine Teh

• Book Mentioned: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Explore how purpose-led business can drive systemic change: 👉 thecauseeffect.com.au

Grab your copy of For Love & Money—and help protect rainforest with every sale: 📗 Buy the book

In Part 2 of this two-part feature on Woollahra Council’s transformation, Carolyn speaks with Craig Swift-McNair, the Council’s General Manager. Craig offers a refreshingly candid account of what it takes to embed purpose and values across a whole organisation. He reflects on the early culture challenges, the creation of a new leadership structure, and how trust, honesty and consistency enabled real change to take root. From navigating tough decisions—like a significant restructure—to seeing the payoff in a post-redundancy engagement survey, Craig shares how a unifying purpose helped guide the organisation through both challenge and change.

- How leadership enables culture and values to move beyond strategy documents.

- Why organisational transformation requires investment in people.

- The challenges of shifting legacy mindsets and breaking down silos.

- How a clear purpose and set of values can guide even the most difficult decisions.

- The importance of embedding purpose into leadership behaviours, not just branding.

- What it looks like to lead with honesty, integrity, and accountability.

• Aligning a leadership team around shared purpose
• Leading through transformation and restructure
• Reimagining culture in a historically siloed organisation
• Building a respectful, values-led workplace culture
• The role of storytelling, transparency, and consistency in leadership
• Why council staff engagement improved after one of the toughest periods

Craig Swift-McNair is the General Manager at Woollahra Council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, a role he commenced in July 2020. Prior to this, he was the General Manager of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council on the mid north coast of NSW, from 2014 to 2020.

Craig has spent over 20 years in local government in NSW in a range of roles across three Councils and prior to his time in the public sector, he had a twenty-five-year career in the private sector. Craig is dedicated to giving back to the local government sector and as part of that, he has been on the Board of Local Government Professionals Australia, NSW since 2018 and is currently the Vice President.

Craig is focused on building a strengths-based and values-based organisation that delivers on its purpose; provides its people with opportunities to grow in their roles and as individuals, which in turn delivers an improved customer experience and services for our community.

Woollahra Council Vision, Mission & Values: Woollahra Council Website

Episode 81 (Part 1): Patricia Occelli on Culture, Community & Customer Experience

Connect with Carolyn Butler-Madden: LinkedIn | The Cause Effect

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