As part of the Morning Lazziness series highlighting empowering women who are making a remarkable impact with their ideas, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rhonda Sweet.
Rhonda Sweet is the founder of Terra Tag, a Queensland-based business rethinking event waste one badge at a time. After three decades as a service designer and strategist at Bain & Company, McKinsey, Optus and Westpac, Rhonda turned her expertise to solving a small but overlooked problem: plastic conference name badges that sit in landfill for centuries.
Every Terra Tag badge is handmade from rescued office paper, printed in-house, and paired with biodegradable cotton lanyards. After the event, they can be planted to grow wildflowers or herbs, composted, or recycled. Since launch in 2023, Terra Tag has supplied 200+ events, prevented over two tonnes of CO₂ emissions, and eliminated thousands of plastic badge sets.
What sets Terra Tag apart is its “category of one” stance. While rPET, PLA, Tyvek and bamboo composites are marketed as eco but usually end up in landfill, Terra Tag uses no coatings and no plastic — just paper that returns to the earth. Behind the scenes, Rhonda has engineered a lean, resilient operation: solar-assisted drying boxes, greywater processes, upcycled tools, and a codified, modular papermaking system where one papermaker can produce 1,500 badges/day.
Rhonda’s goal is simple: to make the sustainable choice the easiest choice for busy event teams. Terra Tag was a Queensland finalist in the 2025 Telstra Best of Business Awards (Promoting Sustainability), reflecting both its innovation and its measurable impact.
When she’s not in the studio, Rhonda experiments with AI workflows, mentors founders, and walks her stubborn English bulldog on the Sunshine Coast.
In this interview, she reveals the mindset shifts, bold moves, and lessons that helped her turn ideas into impactful online businesses.
What inspired you to start your business, and what problem were you passionate about solving?
Most people don’t think about emissions when they look at a conference name badge. But one plastic badge and lanyard create 0.12 kg of CO₂. Multiply that by Australia’s 484,000 events and you get 34,000 tonnes — the equivalent of powering thousands of homes, just from name tags.
I’d spent decades in strategy and design at Bain, McKinsey, and corporations. I knew the overlooked problems often hold the biggest impact. Terra Tag was born to solve this one: we replace plastic with name badges made from waste paper, plantable after events, and fully compostable.
How has your business evolved since launch, and what key decisions drove growth?
Papermaking is not a craft hobby; it’s material science. We spent two years codifying a system that controls cellulose fibres, pressing, and drying with precision. We built a solar-assisted dry box to flatten sheets in two days instead of energy-hungry dryers, and a greywater system that uses less than 15 litres per batch — the same as one laundry cycle. All our equipment is upcycled: café blenders, flyscreen moulds, salvaged benches.
From there, we evolved into a full end-to-end service. We created the two-stage print model to handle late registrations, reverse-engineered production schedules from the event date so badges always arrive ready-to-wear, and added AI-assisted artwork guidance to reduce errors.
The result? A repeatable, teachable system where one papermaker produces 1,500 badges/day, and ten can produce 15,000. Handmade, yes … but engineered to scale.
In your view, what truly sets your brand apart in today’s competitive market?
We’re a category of one. Every other so-called “eco badge” fails under scrutiny:
- rPET = still plastic, sheds microplastics.
- Bamboo = usually mixed with resin, not recyclable.
- PLA = only breaks down in industrial composting.
- Tyvek = 100% HDPE plastic, marketed as eco, usually landfilled.
Terra Tag is the only Australian company hand-making badges from waste paper. No coatings, no plastic, no half-steps, no greenwash. Just paper: recyclable, compostable, or plantable.
In fact, we’ve just become a finalist in the Telstra Best of Business Awards for promoting sustainability. It validates not just our business, but the idea that real sustainability counts. In a sea of “eco” products that don’t live up to the promise,
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to date, and why did it work so well?
The back of every badge has a QR code linking to our planting and recycling page. Guests scan it, share it, and the product itself tells our story. It’s the best marketing we’ve ever done and far more powerful than any ad spend. We also invest heavily in SEO.
How do you stay connected to your ideal audience and understand their needs or behaviours?
We work directly with EAs, event managers, sustainability officers, procurement leads — the people under pressure to get it right. Their pain points are consistent: late guest lists, short timelines, and the stress of “looking good” in front of their teams.
As a service designer, I use journey maps and personas to shape our end-to-end service. That’s why we ship badges pre-sorted by guest list, attach lanyards by hand, and offer two print runs. It’s not just about sustainability; it’s about removing stress.
What’s one branding move or campaign that helped elevate your business to the next level?
We turned every order into a story. Tourism Australia: 600 badges, 72 kg CO₂ saved. Bloomberg: seed paper badges that met strict ESG targets. Nando’s: vivid full-colour badges with biodegradable red lanyards. Guests loved them, shared them, and talked about them at morning tea.
By tying client brands to measurable impact, we created marketing that’s both authentic and social-proofed.
What does success look like for you, not just in numbers, but in purpose or impact?
Success is when an organiser tells me: “The guests loved them and I looked good.” That single moment combines everything we stand for: cutting emissions, removing plastic, and helping our clients shine in front of their peers.
Can you share a challenge or setback that ultimately became a turning point for your brand?
Early on, we had a contaminated scrap batch that set us back. It forced us to build stronger quality controls, diversify sourcing, and hold buffer stock. That moment transformed our supply chain resilience. Today, it’s why we can guarantee quality every time.
What daily habits or rituals keep you focused, creative, and grounded as a leader?
Papermaking itself grounds me — it’s meditative, scientific, and tactile. And I walk my bulldog every morning before opening my inbox. It keeps me present, calm, and ready for the day.
How do you approach innovation and risk in your business strategy?
We innovate where it matters most. We built solar-assisted drying systems, codified modular papermaking, and created an AI deadline calculator that reverse-engineers delivery schedules from event dates. We’re developing Australia’s first fully biodegradable lanyard clip to eliminate the last synthetic component.
Risk is managed by prototyping small and scaling what works. The principle is simple: sustainability without stress. Every decision has to reduce waste and make life easier for event organisers.
What advice would you give to someone starting a business in today’s fast-changing digital world?
Don’t chase scale, chase systems. Start with one overlooked problem. Build a solution that removes friction. Use digital tools to make your promise more reliable, not more complicated.
Where can our audience connect with you and learn more about your work or offerings?
Website: www.terratag.com.au
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhondasweet/
Email: hello@terratag.com.au
