Greetings everyone!
One of my favourite quotes from a rather average TV series is "One raindrop raises the sea". When it come to thinking about sustainability and my business, I was very eager to do my part to not raise the sea of waste that continues building on our planet.
I had taken simple steps at home on a personal level - started a compost bin, separate and return soft plastics (Red Cycle), return pill packaging (Priceline), returning ink cartridges (Officeworks), transitioning to loose leaf tea (less microplastics than tea bags), changing our light-bulbs to more energy efficient bulbs, donating unused items to charity rather than throwing them away where possible...
So what could I do regarding my business?
The thoughts were many, but with only having just started my business, I found some things were a bit out of reach now.
So I thought I would declare my intentions, a "sustainability statement" if you will, about Thymble Thyme. This statement covers two things:
- What I am doing now to be sustainable
- What I hope to do in the future to improve being sustainable
First category is how to best use our materials as economically and efficiently as possible. This means:
- Cutting the material to make as many products as possible from said fabric. It can also mean sewing scrap pieces together to make larger pieces.
- Using a spool of thread to the very end. This is highly satisfying actually!
- Sourcing what materials I can from second hand stores, or from business who no longer require them, and giving them a second life.
- Having one product which is only made from pre-loved material. This is our Saved-From-Waste Scrunchies.
- Choosing to make products which are not single-use.
- Working in sunlight during the day to use less electricity when safe to do so (bring on summer/autumn/spring!)
- Recycling/reusing as much packaging from equipment I buy for the business.
- Unplugging and storing small appliances such as my iron and Cricut Heat Press.
Second category is what I aim to do as a business in the future. Our current goals are:
- Investing and using ethically sourced packaging for our products (boxes, mail bags, branding etc).
- Investing and using seed planter notes for our shipped items.
- Annual TerraCycle Zero Waste box for all fabric scraps I cannot reuse.
- Become a business partner with OneTreePlanted
Because every action counts.
Laughter and Sunshine!