Sustainability

We strongly believe the best way to operate a business is to be as sustainable environmentally and financially as possible.  Below is a list of ways we operate to ensure we can be as sustainable as possible.  In 2019 we won the Glastonbury Festival Sustainable Trader award in recognition for our efforts.

• In March 2023 we obtained status as Carbon Literate with the UK Government after attending a course through their Carbon Literacy scheme.
• We encourage our tailors so ship stock to us without single use plastic.  Instead the shipping boxes are lined in a plastic sheet which we recycle at festivals as rain covers for our clothing rails.  Where bags are needed for stock we ensure our producers use acetate (wood pulp derived cellulose plastic) which can biodegrade even in seawater.  When we need bags for packing stock we use bags which conform to BSI PAS 9017:2020 for biodegradability of polyfins.  
• We ship orders out either in recycled cardboard boxes (obtained from a local shoe factory) or in recyclable plastic mail bags.
• We offset the carbon emissions from the air freight by planting fruit trees on our own 4.5 acre homestead in Somerset.
• We have always used solar power for all our stall power requirements.  This includes lighting (out front, in stall and out back in crew areas), charging crew phones and card machines, fridge and shower.  Our solar lighting rig is on the roof of our van and includes two recycled solar panels from Germany which are a combined 360 watts.  At the 2019 Glastonbury festival this was enough to run our stall and two others which had power issues.
• We have never used plastic carrier bags.  Instead our shopping bags are made from a combination of recycled paper and cotton and hand screen printed by a family in India for us on a fair trade basis.  They are reusable and biodegradable.
• We always pay for our stock in advance of receiving it.  We never buy on credit.  For the small family businesses who make most of our clothing this often means paying 50% when we place an order so that they can afford to buy the materials.  We are making sure our suppliers can operate in a fair and sustainable manner. 
• We have physically inspected the factories and manufacturing places where our stock is made to ensure the workers are paid a fair wage and have a healthy working environment.
• Any cardboard waste from our business is recycled in our 0.5 acre cottage garden (built in lockdown in 2020 partly from reclaimed building waste).  We use the cardboard in our compost as brown waste and in our raised beds to aerate the soil which is especially good for potato crops.
• We have recycled the old tyres from our business van to create raised beds for growing tomatoes and potatoes.  
• We are always happy to share ideas and knowledge on how to operate sustainably with others and to learn ourselves in order to improve and evolve in an ethical way.