The Competition Between Sustainability and Profitability in Byron Bay, NSW Businesses

Byron Bay, NSW is a unique community made up of surfers, hippies, and tourists where both the natural environment and the businesses downtown are central to the area. To be a successful business among these varying lifestyles requires thought into both creating profit and acting sustainably. This paper aims to understand how the culture of the Byron Bay community influences the balance between sustainability and profitability in local businesses. To achieve this goal, I conducted six interviews of businesses that are local to Byron Bay. Businesses in the organics, clothing, beer, and handmade industries were interviewed regarding their sustainability practices, tensions with profit, and relationship with the community. Each businesses Instagram account was analyzed, categorizing each post into sustainability and profitability based off a framework of keywords found in posts that relate to each category. All data was analyzed from themes throughout interview responses and data gathered from Instagram. It was found that businesses in Byron Bay practice sustainability regardless of how much they speak about it publicly. The culture surrounds the environment, leading to sustainable practices to be an expectation. Interview responses revealed how marketing sustainability can be overwhelming and lead to distrust from consumers. On Instagram, businesses focus on profitability without feeling pressure to publicize all their sustainability habits. The culture in Byron Bay creates a lifestyle surrounding sustainability, which is reflected in the practices of local businesses.