In this exclusive CanadianSME Small Business Magazine interview, Jack Shaw, Co-founder of Laykhaus, explains how thoughtful design and a commitment to marine conservation can transform even everyday rituals into meaningful environmental action. By blending his experience in digital strategy, luxury branding, and non-profit leadership, Jack has built Laykhaus into a purpose-led company—fostering emotional connections to Canada’s iconic landscapes while proving that sustainability and storytelling can be seamlessly woven into beautiful, intentional products for the home.
Jack Shaw is the co-founder of Laykhaus, a British Columbia–based candle brand that blends creativity, sustainability, and storytelling to inspire connection to nature and place. As an accomplished executive in digital strategy, communications, and brand leadership, Jack has built and led high-performing teams that deliver innovative, purpose-driven solutions.
Laykhaus transforms an everyday product—candles—into a force for conservation. What inspired you to choose candles as the medium for environmental impact, and how do they capture the spirit of place?
The Laykhaus brand’s origin is rooted in a deep personal shift in moving our lives from England to Canada and finding a profound connection to nature during long lakeside walks. This catalyzed a vision that connects our love for creativity and conservation. We chose candles because they are a fundamental anchor for the home environment. This everyday object, infused with intentional design, is the perfect vehicle for our mission. We approach Laykhaus less like a traditional candle company and more like a creative, intentional fashion house for the home.
The candle captures the “spirit of place” by becoming a bespoke, emotional souvenir. Our process is to transform a unique location’s serene, natural feeling into a bottled memory, allowing customers to relive a specific experience. This attention to detail and clean design, inspired by my time with luxury brands like Chanel, ensures the product enhances the brand of our partners rather than just filling a shelf.
Laykhaus has partnered with iconic Canadian destinations to create bespoke candles that reflect local landscapes. How do these collaborations drive meaningful conservation, and what makes a partnership truly successful for both your brand and your destination partners?
These collaborations are successful because they are fundamentally built on aligned missions and a desire to deliver an audience a truly unique experience. What drives conservation is Laykhaus’s commitment to directing 5% of all sales to marine eco-programs. This bold promise is the clearest possible way we communicate our purpose and we work with high-profile partners like Butchart Gardens and Capilano Suspension Bridge Park who share these values.
A truly successful collaboration must be mutually elevating. The destination partners enable our expertise in intentional design and storytelling to help drive experiences for their communities. For Laykhaus, our profile has raised in new markets through our partnerships such as Tourism Nanaimo, where we developed custom products that reinforced their identity as an innovative destination hub. This consistent collaboration builds long-term trust and reputation for both parties.
The 5% Promise is a unique commitment to protecting marine ecosystems. Can you share more about how Laykhaus selects conservation initiatives and measures the real-world impact of these contributions?
The 5% Promise is our non-negotiable heading, ensuring every partnership and decision starts from a foundation of impact. We initially faced outside business skepticism about committing sales, not profits, but it proved to be the clearest communication of our commitment to ocean health.
We select initiatives by prioritizing direct impact and shared purpose. A pivotal example is joining forces with SeaLegacy to form The Good Ocean. This collaboration allowed Laykhaus to team up with 10 other global businesses to address how retailers can move towards a blue economy.
The impact is measured through the ability to affect large-scale change. By participating in The Good Ocean, Laykhaus helped shape a new community and directly helped provide impact grants for experts leading on-the-ground projects. This experience confirmed that for a small business, aligning with a clear purpose is the fastest route to gain credibility and scale impact.
Finally, what advice would you offer other small businesses looking to weave sustainability and storytelling authentically into their brand, and is there a personal story or lesson that best sums up your journey so far?
Sustainability must be a foundation and a journey, not purely a procurement checklist. Define your North Star and commit to a purpose that is non-negotiable. For Laykhaus, that clarity led to the decision that 5% of sales would go to marine conservation.
To weave this mission authentically into your brand, you need to connect the professional to the personal and then take action. The moment that crystallized our mission was in 2021 during a conversation with world-renowned environmental storytellers Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen. Cristina said there is no story more important than the health of our oceans. Sitting on that call, I understood the true importance of what we were doing. As parents, we want our kids and future generations to feel the same profound connection to nature that we fell in love with during our Pacific Northwest lakeside walks. That passion is our authentic story.
