As our business develops we are continually striving to make it as “green” as possible. We are striving towards being as near to zero waste as possible.
Packaging
We continually review our packaging to make sure it is compliant with all the necessary requirements. We make all our product boxes ourselves from card which uses FSC wood pulp sourced from manufacturers whom have made environmental contributions.
The packaging is recyclable and could probably be compostable at home.
To meet the hygiene regulations and ensure some products remain stable (e.g. bath products) we do have to use products that we would like to eliminate e.g. cellophane wrap. Whilst there are “greener” alternatives we have yet to find one which remains stable with soaps and does not degrade slowly.
When we ship items we endeavour to reduce as much packaging as possible but still have to ensure that products arrive with you in as good a condition as possible.
Materials
We endeavour to use as many natural materials as possible and ensure that no animals were used to test the products. However, we are reliant on the information provided by our suppliers and the accreditations they have.
Our wood offcuts get used to make smaller products until they reach a point where they can not safely be used. Then they go into a wood burner to generate heat.
Printed paper gets used to make patterns, templates and guides and the off cuts and waste paper gets shredded to be used as packing or composted to grow our botanicals which go into our products.
We even recycle our sawdust into products and when combined with our waste wax from candlem aking make environmentally sound fire starters.
By choice we do not use materials such a Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) as we aren’t convinced that it is safe in the home and certainly not that safe for us to work with.
Whilst we use a lot of recycled materials in our workshop glass jars, bottles and other containers. Hygiene and food preparations restrict us from using these for products. Therefore, all our products are manufactured and placed in new containers and receptacles.
Where we use our own botanicals (herbs, flowers etc.) we ensure that they are grown as organic as possible without man made pesticides.
Travel
One of our biggest challenges to change is our travel footprint. We attend many events during the year and ravel several hundred miles to an event in a country showground. Sadly the availability of electricity is limited and the ability to charge electric vehicles even more so. At the time of writing there isn’t a commercial vehicle of the size, range and cost to make the transition to electric a viable option. However, we do limit the use of the larger vehicles and use smaller lower carbon footprint vehicles where possible.
Power
One new development for 2021 is that our event power source is now all low voltage battery based. For many years event organisers have prohibited the use of personal power generators (petrol and diesel). The only source of electricity was to use mains power provided by the event organisers at a significant premium. We now have low voltage lights powered by rechargeable batteries. These also let us run our till system, mobile phones etc. We can even charge these from our solar panel!