Conscious Choices

As I briefly touched upon in my first blog piece, I’ve started making a conscious effort to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly in both my personal and business life. Now I’m well aware I’ve still got a long way to go, but I felt it was important to start somewhere and feel that ‘better’ options is where I needed to begin, even if I couldn’t skip straight to ‘best’.

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I’d love to read in the comments if you have any suggestions for how I can continue to build in improvements, as well as any changes you have made in your own life and/ or business.

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I’ve separated the changes I’ve made out to personal life and business, because I feel they have their own challenges, but to make an overall difference, I will need to address shortfalls in both areas.

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Personal life

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• I take own water bottle everywhere and emergency snacks (also somewhat necessary for pregnancy, but saves me buying snacks packaged in single use plastics)
• Luckily from living in SA when the ban on supermarket bags came in I’m well and truly in the habit of taking my own bags (even though I found it pretty irritating that in QLD I would have to coach the supermarket staff to use them- initially they seemed to want to 1/3 fill the reusable bags then get back to filling plastic ones they felt more comfortable with)
• Once I am at the shops, I use Onya produce bags for fruit and veg rather than the plastic ones provided.
• I avoid straws all together (I just drink out of the glass or bottle).
• Around the house, I've switched to using a natural multipurpose cleaning product (I’m loving Koh).
• I use a natural deodorant that comes in a reusable and recyclable glass jar (Babs Bodycare for the win here).
• I’m hoping to have chooks again soon, which will cut down on scraps (although I don’t peel carrots, potatoes etc so don’t have a huge amount anyway).
• Now that I’m hunting for baby goodies, I’m pleasantly surprised at the more sustainable choices that exist. Please feel free to send through suggestions if you have had particularly good experiences with reusable baby products.
• I very rarely buy new clothes (probably why I love earrings so much to make an outfit). When I do, I often seek secondhand first. It has been a shock to the system needing to buy clothes to fit my new shape.

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For the business 

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Current measures

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• I very rarely waste any clay, instead mixing leftovers to make new colours, which is super handy for getting just the right colour for custom dogs for example.
• There is also minimal wastage of fabric, as the off-cuts from clutches and travel pouches are utilised in fabric statement earring styles.
• In packaging, the bubble wrap is being reused from previous purchases.
• At markets, if a customer requires a bag for purchases, I have switched to paper bags.

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New possibilities 

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Late last year I put a lot of work into a new venture called Ear For Good, however, due to my first trimester putting everything else on hold, it was the first thing I had sacrifice with my precious little energy.

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I’ve now decided to relaunch it as a branch of HH as this will be easier from me to manage, particularly once bubs arrives. It will also mean a greater number of payment options for people wanting to be involved.

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So what is Ear For Good??

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If you want to find out more or get involved, head on over to the Ear For Good page here.