bemoreeco

5 minutes with Elaine Dutton, Director of Pure Design 

Tell us about your business? 

Pure Design is an online eco gallery that promotes and sells the work of talented UK designers. We seek out new designer eco accessories, brining work out of the gallery or artists studio and to your door. 

 

What makes the company a great place to work? 

At the moment we are very new and so I am the company! But I do work very closely with the artists and designers we represent, and meeting them and hearing about their work is truly inspiring. 

 

Who do you most admire in the green industry? 

I suppose my ultimate shining star is Anita Roddick.  She achieved so much, and challenged preconceived conceptions about how a business could be successful and green and ethical. On a more day to day basis, I would have to say it is the artists, designers and other green entrepreneurs I meet – there is a great sense of being part of something that can make a real difference. It’s really motivating.

What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

The moment when I tell a new customer or colleague about a product or artist and they say ‘that’s amazing’. It’s great sharing my enthusiasm for what these talented artists and designers are doing with others. I suppose it’s a little bit of a missionary exercise, converting people to the ‘green’ side…

 

If you could change one thing in the green retail industry what would it be?  

For it to be mainstream and not niche – I think eventually we will get there, but one step at a time.

 

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry today? 

Make use of all the fantastic networks and business support organizations out there. Business Link, Striding Out, London Rebuilding, KX Creative – there’s loads and they are all there to help you. 


Second thing is you must listen to advice – it’s easy to be headstrong and follow your dream but sometimes you need someone to bounce ideas off and have a reality check from.

 

What is your vision for an ‘eco Britain’? 

Wonderfully designed interiors and everyone wearing beautiful eco fashion! And happy people. 

 

What is your number one Eco Christmas Idea? 

Snuggle up with your family by a log burning stove and under an organic throw (!), toast chestnuts, and turn the central heating down by a degree. 

 

What is the most important piece of information you have ever been told? 

Success in business is 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration. 

 

If you were prime minister for the day, what one thing would you do? 

I’d probably end up donating vast sums to aids orphan charities in Africa. Although my business is an eco one and I do my best to be green – I think my heart would rule my head and this is a cause I feel very strongly about.  

 

Please could you also tell me your top gifts for Xmas? 

• Nina 18ct Gold (ethically and ecologically mined – will be on site next week), £1,364.00.

• 
Karin Helena Turner Designs Eco Gift Wrap, £8.50 for 5 sheets
Bamboo
• Baby Bodysuit & PJ Gift Set, £65 (free shipping)
• 
Firehose Washbag, £50
 Firehose Card Holder, £30 
Firehose Tote, £180
• Diskette Bracelet, £45

• The Howgill 100% Wool Throw, £150

• Treat! Esther B , Vintage lace and silk evening bag, £525

On Tuesday 21st October Zac Goldsmith was the key note speaker at the inaugural green business forum ecoConnect at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The feedback we have been received was that it was a very successfull event. So what is ecoConnect. ecoConnect is a facilitator and promoter of innovative green technology, providing a forum for discussion and commercialisation opportunities. They are creating the UK’s most progressive support community to enable faster adoption of green technology by mainstream business.

 

As we develop a greater awareness and understanding of our impact on the environment there is an increasingly urgent need to find ways of limiting and repairing the damage. At ecoConnect they believe that the same ingenuity and ambition largely responsible for environmental problems can be harnessed to provide long-term solutions.

 

Any organisation with an interest in green technology can participate in ecoConnect – whether you are developing new ideas, interested in using it or want to invest.  They bring together technology firms, investors, inventors, academics, policy-makers, consultancies, corporates with green and/or CSR agendas and professional services firms.

 

ecoConnect unites the UK’s green technology community and provides unique opportunities to expand your network and connect with green technology solutions.

 

 

For more information <click here>

 

Kate Carter, author of the Guardian’s brilliant new Ethical Wardrobe series, has this week written a thoughtful piece about where to buy ethical women’s suits for work.

As asked by a reader, it’s difficult to find ethical clothing that meets career aspirations. The higher up the fashion chain, the smaller the pond of ethical clothing designers. In Kate’s answer she highlights many of the great options available, as well as advice on the materials and where to get tailored. Here are some of the highlights:

Amana are one such company who might provide a first stop on your search. They source fabrics with minimal environmental impact, using organic cottons and even peace silk (as mentioned in last week’s column). Their garments are all made on a fair trade basis by women artisans in a village in the Middle Atlas mountains. More to the point for your search, they also produce suits. Next season’s design is available for pre-order already at the ethical fashion site Fashion-conscience.com.

Arguable the most ethical option, however, is not to go shopping at all but to recycle - you don’t have to buy something new to get a new outfit. Junky Styling, based in London’s Brick Lane, perform minor miracles with cast-off clothing. They completely recut charity shop rejects into edgy new outfits – and helpfully for you, they also run a “wardrobe surgery”. You just take one of your old suits (or any other item of clothing) and they submit it to a uniquely ethical form of cosmetic surgery, creating something new from your old threads.

If you’ve got your sets on the higher rungs of the career ladder, or if you just want a smart suit and a clear conscience, then Kate’s article is definately worth 5 minutes of your time.

The summer of 2005 was a strange summer. For no reason other than to show support of various charities, millions of brits began wearing coloured wristbands. It was the biggest fashion trend of the year. We seemed to be on the verge of something important, some deep psychological change towards charity and fashion.

There was only one problem. The wristbands looked awful.

Now many brilliant companies are using recycled materials to create fashionable jewelry. Today you can make your eco-statement, and look great.Here are a few pointed out by Great Green Goods over the past week or two:

Seven Products from Amazing Created from Recycled Trash: If you want your jewelry to tell a story, then how about the magazine bracelet? This bracelet is handcrafted in Sao Paulo by the homeless as part of a drug rehabilitation program.

Or if you’re really looking to make your statement, then how about Recycled Floppy Disk Bracelets. This wont be for everyone, but it’s certain to get your eco-convictions noticed. The images will explain all.

A good UK entry is the Beaucoco Recycled Plastic Pleat Jewelry. Here Beaucoco modify recycled plastic bags to create an intricate style.

Finally, this one is my personal favourite. Great Green Goods points out jewelry from recycled car parts. Between £25 - £100, you can wear some of these brilliant items made by Hi-Octane. They’re pricey, but they look amazing. Just look at some of these pictures:

A wedding day should be your perfect day. You want to look beautiful and feel great. In this era of heightened ethical awareness this has become a problem. How great can you feel wearing a wearing dress made by a 3rd world labourer? Or a wedding dress which required thousands of silk worms to be boiled alive?

This is a problem that Kate Carter has tackled in today’s Guardian. Kate explains the usual ethical dilemma with wedding dresses and suggests some great, ethically-made, alternatives.

“Many ethical fashion companies use hemp silk a blend of the two materials which produces a lovely weighted fabric. And this brings me to my top pick for an ethical bridesmaid dress (which would actually be a great wedding dress too) – Ciel’s hemp silk Jasmine dress. It’s even on sale, which puts the £175 price tag in your budget. It also has the advantage of being a classic, incredibly flattering cut that you will be able to wear again and again. Also in the Ciel sale, the mint green Grecian-style halter dress (£125) is another top pick.

If you prefer something in a more striking colour, The Natural Store has a great fushcia pink dress by Ethika, a fair trade co-operative in Pakistan, for £137.99.”

You can read the full article on the Guardian website.

This is a must read. Lucy Siegle, quite possibly the UK’s top environmental journalist, and all-round eco-advocate, has explained why you need to green during the credit crunch. Lucy tackles the notion that being green is too expensive. Instead, Lucy points out several easy ways that most households can save money.

“Take food waste, for example - the issue on everyone’s lips, including Gordon Brown’s, but languishing in everyone’s bin bags. Were we to bin the expensive habit of chucking away a third of what we buy rather than the actual produce, then we could stop dispatching 4.1m tonnes of edible food to landfill, stop the inherent greenhouse gas emissions and save the cold, hard currency.

[...] Nigel Berman (nigelsecostore.com) suggests a startup kit consisting of energy-saving light bulbs, a Radiator Boosterâ„¢, Ecoballsâ„¢ (instead of washing powder - although, it must be said, these are made from polluting PVC), an Ecobuttonâ„¢ (it shuts down a desktop computer) and a standby kit (it turns all remote-controlled appliances off standby). The startup kit can easily slash £367 off the average household bill.“

The article is a great read, and I strongly urge you to spend twenty minutes investigating if you can implement a few of the great ideas.

Should you still be shopping at Primark? That’s the question reverberating around women-kind this week following a child-labour scandal. The truth is, Primark were not directly involved in employing these child-labour, rather three of their suppliers sub-contracted work which eventually filtered down to individuals employing children in the slums of India.

This story isn’t entirely new. Almost a month ago Channel 4 pulled their “The Devil Wears Primark” exposé at the last moment. The best report of the Primark scandal is Dan McDougall’s astonishing piece in yesterday’s Observer.

See the BBC Panorama preview below for a great overview of the story.

Perhaps the biggest ethical dilemma here is that we all know child labour is wrong. The problem is that for many families the money their children earn from this labour is what pays for food. However, this certainly isn’t a redeemable argument Primark can adopt. Child labour IS wrong and they have a social responsiblity to thoroughly examine their supply chains right down to people making their clothes, and even where they get their material from.

Yesterday the Observer announced the results of the Observer Ethical Awards. The awards, in their 3rd year, have been open to the public vote for six months. Combined with the opinions of the judges the results are as follows:

Ethical Fashion: Finisterre

Ecover Award for Ethical Kids: Balfour Junior High School

Politician: Ken Livingstone

Conservation Project: Coast (Community of Arran Seabed Trust)

Campaigner: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Jupiter Big Idea Award: Ewgeco, Tanya Ewing

Grassroots Campaigner: Anna Heywood

Online Retailer: Natural Collection

Ethical Business: Divine Chocolate

Local Retailer: Warren Evans

DIY Project: Russell Smith

The Observer have also uploaded video profiles of the winners, and you can find out more about each winner (and runner-up) here.

And of course be sure to read HippyShopper’s analysis of the event.