I am passionate about protecting our environment, and with the climate-crisis we are currently facing I make every effort to be as ‘slow’ and as eco-friendly as possible. Below are some of the ways in which I try to make my business as ‘earth-friendly’ as I can.
Materials
Where possible, I source my fabrics locally and only use natural materials. These are mostly roll-ends, off-cuts, repurposed and second hand materials. This not only reduces the amount of new material being created, but means that each hand-made item is even more unique, as it’s unlikely that you will find such materials being used anywhere else!
The tee shirt blanks I use are particularly eco-friendly. Made in a factory that runs on 100% renewable energy, the jersey fabric is organic, fair wear, PETA approved vegan and climate neutral, meaning that each tee shirt has a 90% lower carbon footprint than a conventional tee shirt and is certified by the Soil Association, Fair Wear Foundation and the Carbon Trust. This is achieved through low-impact farming and efficiency in manufacturing and transportation.
Where printing is involved, I try to leave as little a mark on the environment by only using water-based inks which means that no plastics or acids are polluting our waterways.
I also reuse and repurpose scrap materials and end-pieces into small, one-off ‘skew-whiff’ items. Remnants of thread are even put to the side and used when hand-sewing labels into items. Anything left over from this is collected and sent to a specialist fabric recycling company at the end of the year to be repurposed into new fabric. Because of this I am almost completely zero-waste.
Packaging
I try to use as little packaging as possible when posting my designs. Each type of packaging has been specifically chosen because of its minimal size and eco-friendly properties: paper packing tape and wrapping made from recycled materials, recyclable mailer bags and boxes to name but a few. The presentation boxes used for my silk scarves, pocket squares and selected jewellery designs are FSC certified, ethically sourced and fully recyclable. In every case I use the minimum amount of packaging possible for the item being sent.
Postage and delivery
For the most part, I ship with Royal Mail who have reduced their carbon emissions by 31.9%, ahead of their target for 2020/21 and being named “industry leader” by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. This has been achieved by the introduction of electric vehicles, or using bio-CNG fuel in a growing number of their HGVs. All of the Royal Mail packages and parcels I send are small enough that they can be delivered by foot, reducing the need for delivery vehicles. However, living very rurally means that I do not have a Post Office within walking distance and to drive regularly to my nearest town to post would rack up a considerable amount of emissions. I am very lucky however to have a mobile Post Office that visits my village once a week – it is for this reason that I currently only post via Royal Mail on Wednesdays.
For any larger/heavier packages (mostly international) I use a courier service who collect from my address; once again I do not have to drive.
For more information on postage and delivery, please see the ‘shipping and returns‘ page.
