As an eco-friendly business we aim is to be as sustainable as possible.
What is Sustainability?
The Brundtland Report (1987), also called “Our Common Future”, defines sustainability as:
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
Since this report sustainability targets for Governments and Businesses have been made, but it has not been enough, and we find ourselves amid a Climate Emergency. In 2015 the United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Agenda includes 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDG’s) which are a blueprint for stimulating action in the areas of: people; planet; prosperity; peace and partnership.
As a small business we found that the SDG’s is a good starting point for understanding sustainability.
We recognise that we have an impact on the environment and can take steps to improve our planet and peoples working conditions.
What we are doing to be an eco-friendly business
Premises
Since moving to Scotland, our living circumstances means that, unfortunately we don’t have a choice in where our electricity and gas is purchased from. However, we do have a few solar panels which helps us reduce our carbon emissions a little bit.
Website
We used WordPress to build our website. Chosen because it is open source which means a community of developers contribute to making it. Research showed other website builders have shareholders and we were uncertain of how ethical the shareholders were. For example, did they also invest in the oil and gas industry.
WooCommerce is our chosen ecommerce platform because it is open source. Automattic Inc owns WooCommerce which is not ideal but with limited ethical choices this was the best one we could find.
Our website is hosted by ecohosting who provide carbon neutral web hosting and are based in the UK.
Products
We carefully select our suppliers to ensure they have sustainability at the heart of their business. To reduce transport emissions, we source most of our products locally.
All our skincare and make-up products are made with natural ingredients that won’t harm you or the environment. Other products are selected for their eco-friendly credentials. This could be because they are Fairtrade and/or because they are made with organic materials.
Read more about our products and suppliers in our blog “How we choose our eco-friendly products”.
Packaging
To pack your orders we reuse packaging from suppliers or use jiffy bags made from recycled paper. We also use paper tape and print our labels on recycled paper. Our aim is to reduce the amount of packaging waste as much as possible.
One Tree Planted
To further reduce our impact on the environment we have decided to give back and for every order made, we plant a tree. Find out more about this on our page “One Tree Planted”.
Future sustainability plans
Office equipment
We are content reusing the office equipment we already have. Our desks, chairs and monitor are second hand and we seem to have amassed loads of keyboards over the years! As we grow, and when we need new equipment, we will be purchasing eco-friendly products. Such as equipment with an Energy Rating of A.
Carbon Offsetting
We drive to markets and produce carbon in other ways, for example, by posting parcels. Because of this we are investigating the best way to offset our carbon emissions.