Sustainability, Green&Blue and Earth Day 2021

Earth Day is a global mission to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Started in 1970, it is marked every year on April 22nd and the message is becoming ever more urgent - this is it people, there is no second chance to get this right and to make a difference. Read more about Earth Day here.

At Green&Blue we flit between hopeful and optimistic to fearful and terrified. But we know that if we can remain in the hopeful, optimistic camp, fuelled and driven by the fear, we can have the greatest impact. 

We wanted to mark this Earth day by sharing an honest summary with you of what we're really proud of and what we're looking to improve, to learn and to get better at. We're a small team but we're committed to doing better wherever and whenever we can, to always be learning and questioning. 

We recognise that we are creating products and that we live in a world where the constant pressure to buy and to own is putting enormous stress on our earths finite resources. However the products that we make are designed to give something back, to make space for nature and to do this for the long term. We make our range entirely in the UK and we use recycled materials and low impact processes wherever we can to reduce the impact of production. But ultimately, we do still produce.

Our habitat products are made from concrete and we know and recognise that concrete is a major contributor to the climate crisis. We work to negate this impact by using 75% recycled material from the Cornish china clay industry in our mix, we use the best quality cement to make this possible and we are monitoring improvements and alternatives in this field. At the moment, concrete is a trusted material by the construction industry, it has longevity and we know that wildlife has nested within it for many years, so there are many reasons why we currently make this our material choice.

As a business we are a certified B Corporation which is a measure of our commitment to both people and planet. We are committed to the art of 'Better Business', and actively use this as a measure when we make decisions. We pay our team the real living wage, give volunteer days, we donate at least 1% of our turnover to good causes (we are currently looking at 1% for the planet certification to reflect this), we love to get involved in projects that support our local community, we are powered by 100% green energy and we are always looking at ways to reduce our impact and do even better (business banking - we're coming for you!!)

We have to get products from A to B and it upsets us that there is so much waste and energy used in this process, but there is no way around this. We work with DPD for the majority of our dispatch and they are working hard to reduce their associated emissions on their deliveries. We have also recently added a packaging free option at checkout which means you can choose to have as little 'waste' packaging as possible and we will continue to monitor how this goes. We have also invested in our 'Shred' project which enables us to take cardboard destined for recycling from our local community and to use this within our dispatch, enabling us to remove virgin grade packaging (inner) materials from our dispatch process entirely. But in order to ensure orders arrive safe and sound we have to use a certain level of packaging and boxes - so waste is always going to be an issue here. 

So there you have it, not perfect but we're really trying. And this needs to be the new face of business, the new normal, the new way we all make decisions. Earth Day 2021 feels like it comes at a real 'line in the sand' moment, will we choose to try and race back 'to normal' or will we realise that normal was not all it cracked up to be and we have an opportunity to change, to protect our Earth for our generation, because it is that urgent, and for future generations.

If you've got any feedback on any of the above, we'd love to hear from you. Good or bad, we can't do this on our own so do let us know how you feel about what we're doing, and how you feel about Earth Day 2021 and the future. Leave us a comment below or drop us an email to info@greenandblue.co.uk.

Believe you can, we can, DO IT!

Happy Earth Day,

Green&Blue x