11 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Climate Changemakers: ‘I had a fire in my belly' – the woman driving change in the toy industry
Sharon Keilthy founded one of Ireland's leading eco-friendly toy stores, and now advises major global toymakers on how to reduce their products' environmental impact
In 2018, Sharon Keilthy wanted to purchase a birthday gift for her daughter's fourth birthday. 'I walked into a nice family-run store,' she recalls. 'I wanted to buy a toy I could feel good about – one that wasn't wrapped in plastic or shipped all the way from China. But I walked out empty handed. I couldn't find a single thing on the shelves that matched what I had hoped for.'
So she founded one of Ireland's leading eco-friendly toy stores, and ran it for six years. She gradually started speaking, organising and consulting on sustainability for the children's toy industry and now advises major global toymakers on how to reduce the environmental impact of their toys. She speaks at, and co-organises, bio!TOY, a bi-annual conference about sustainable plastics for toymakers and plastics producers. At the world's biggest toy fair, Spielwarenmesse, she has spoken on the main stage, judged the Toy Award, and co-curated the Toys Go Green exhibition over the past three years. In 2024, she decided to devote herself full-time to consulting with the leading Irish independent sustainability consultancy, Sustainability Works.
