PRIMED FOR SUCCESS

PAINTBACK CEO KAREN GOMEZ IS ROLLING OUT A BRIGHTER FUTURE BY KEEPING LEFTOVER PAINT OUT OF LANDFILL AND REPURPOSING IT.

- ASHTON KOBLER

For most of her career, Karen Gomez has worked in the private sector, but as the CEO of Paintback, she finds a not-for-profit organization to be an exciting business environment to operate in. “I’ve worked with the largest listed companies in Australia,” she says. “I’ve seen all kinds of models of business and I think what’s fascinating to me about the not-for-profit sector is having financial sustainability as well as doing good.”

Paintback takes unwanted paint and packaging and repurposes these materials to stop them from reaching landfills and waterways. At the heart of the organisation is collaboration; it teams up with various companies around Australia to deliver its services.

First, it deals with the paint industry. “We work with the leading paint companies in Australia,” Karen explains. “The first step was for the industry to set aside its competitive urges and come together and change the way it deals with end-of-life paint. We worked with councils who agreed to provide a collection site where people can drop off their paint, and we are now partnered with more than 100 councils to offer this service.”

The company also contracts with commercial businesses in its supply chain that offer collection services and more. “We work with many different people to build a network so that it’s convenient for people to return their paint,” Karen says. “The other important thing we’ve done is collaborate with the state governments because we needed to get consistent, harmonised regulation in place across Australia so that all trade painters and consumers could use this scheme.”