Elisa Harley

Currently in her final year of high school in Pōneke Wellington, 17-year-old Elisa Harley is already pursuing her passion for business and kaitiakitanga. Her venture Enivo Pots supplies a range of biodegradable plant pots made from NZ Primary Industry Waste.

Elisa has found herself in meetings with commercial lawyers, patent attorneys, scientists, commercialisation strategists, procurement experts and more on her search for the solution to the 350,000,000 plastic plant pots used each year in Aotearoa New Zealand. Enivo Pots recently placed 3rd in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) and has raised $40,000 out of the $200,000 she needs for prototyping. She has also won the YES MBIE, MPI, and Todd awards.

Elisa has been on an amazing journey best described as ‘one thing led to another’ — from selling succulents and kākābeak/ngutukākā at local fairs to pondering the fate of surplus plastic pots. Amidst this, the most humbling aspect has been the generosity of experts sharing their time with a young entrepreneur.