Six years ago, entrepreneur Julie Cook was packing orders from a converted chicken shed. She was building a business around one simple belief: sustainable living should be accessible, affordable and achievable for everyone.
This week, the founder of Eco Green Living will swap the chicken shed for the iconic Winter Gardens in Blackpool. She will attend the Enterprise Vision Awards as a finalist in the Sustainable Business category.
It marks another significant milestone for a business that began with humble roots. Since then, Julie has continued to grow the company with a mission to make everyday sustainability easier for households.
For Julie, however, the recognition is about much more than an awards ceremony.
“Being named a finalist means a huge amount to me,” says Julie. “When you are running a business, you spend so much time focused on what needs doing next. You don’t always stop and look at how far you have come.
“To think back to those early days, packing orders in a chicken shed, and then to be recognised alongside so many incredible women in business is something I am incredibly proud of.”
Making sustainability feel achievable
Julie founded Eco Green Living in 2020. From the beginning, she wanted to challenge the idea that sustainable living needs to involve expensive products or huge lifestyle changes.
Instead, she focuses on small, realistic swaps that people can incorporate into everyday life.
That philosophy has remained at the heart of the business as it has grown.
“I would much rather see thousands of people making a few achievable changes than a small number trying to do everything perfectly,” Julie explains.
“That has always been really important to me. Sustainability can sometimes feel overwhelming. People hear about climate change and plastic pollution and feel as though anything they do individually won’t make a difference.
“But when lots of people make small changes consistently, those changes add up.”
Eco Green Living has grown around that principle. The business offers alternatives to commonly used household products and helps customers reduce unnecessary waste. Julie wants people to make more sustainable choices without feeling that eco-friendly living is out of reach.
From an idea to a growing business
Like many entrepreneurial journeys, the growth of Eco Green Living has not happened overnight.
Behind the products and environmental mission are the realities familiar to thousands of founders. Julie has had to learn as the business develops, make difficult decisions and balance competing demands. She has also had to keep moving forward when the route ahead wasn’t completely clear.
Those early days in the chicken shed now remind Julie of just how much can be achieved by starting with what you have.
“You don’t need perfect circumstances, enormous resources or everything mapped out before you begin,” she says.
“There will always be things you don’t know when you start a business. You learn, adapt and keep going. I think sometimes people wait for the perfect moment, but in business that moment rarely arrives.”
Julie hopes that message will resonate with other women who have an idea but question whether they have the experience, resources or confidence to pursue it.
The Enterprise Vision Awards celebrate women in business across the UK. The awards recognise entrepreneurship, innovation and achievement across a range of industries.
Reaching the final in the Sustainable Business category marks an important moment in Julie’s journey. She has worked to combine commercial ambition with a clear environmental purpose.
Business with purpose
For Julie, sustainability isn’t simply a marketing message attached to the business. It is the reason Eco Green Living exists.
She is also realistic about what businesses need to do to create environmental change on a larger scale.
Julie believes companies need to make sustainable choices practical for ordinary consumers. They can’t rely on guilt or expect people to completely transform the way they live.
That means considering affordability and convenience, as well as how products fit into people’s existing routines.
Julie says: “People are busy. They have families, jobs, bills and a hundred other things to think about. If we want sustainable living to become mainstream, we have to make the better choice an easy choice.
“We shouldn’t be making people feel guilty because they aren’t doing everything. We should be encouraging them for the things they are doing and helping them take the next step.”
This combination of environmental purpose and practical thinking continues to shape Eco Green Living.
A moment to reflect
On 2 October, Julie will join fellow finalists at the Enterprise Vision Awards ceremony at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
Whatever happens on the night, reaching the final has already given Julie an opportunity to reflect.
She started by packing orders in a chicken shed. Today, she is building a recognised sustainable business.
Her story also shows that successful companies don’t always begin with huge investment, impressive offices or a perfectly polished business plan.
Sometimes they begin with an idea. They grow through a determination to solve a problem and a willingness to keep going.
“Of course there are always bigger goals and things we want to achieve,” Julie adds. “But I think it’s important to stop occasionally and recognise the progress too.
“If somebody reading this has an idea they’ve been sitting on because they don’t feel ready, my advice would be to start. Start small if you need to, learn as you go and don’t underestimate where those first steps could eventually take you.”
For Julie Cook, those first steps began in a chicken shed.
Six years later, they have taken her all the way to the finals of one of the UK’s leading awards celebrating women in business.
