For many years we had a choice between buying what you really want or being a conscientious shopper and going for Fairtrade, eco-friendly products regardless of whether they actually looked good or worked. But times have changed and now, there’s a host of small companies proving you don’t have to sacrifice aesthetics to maintain your ethics. Among them are the Oxfordshire-based Hen and Hammock who sell a range of products to brighten up your garden, and believe that by choosing what we buy and sell, we all have the power to shape the future. ‘We believe that what we buy has a major impact on the environment. It is our duty as consumers to buy products which make a better world,’ says Hem and Hammock co-founder, Andrew Jones. And he’s right.
But excellent ethics aren’t the only thing the company has going for it. 10 per cent of profits are donated to non-profit organisations, including the Bumblebee Conservation Trust last year. Hen and Hammock also offsets all of its carbon emissions with Climate Care and sources its stock from suppliers who take environmental ethics as seriously as they do. Typical is garden furniture manufacturer, Arbor Vetum who use reclaimed timber. Recycling teak from early 20th century structures, Arbor Vetum became the first company in the world to be awarded the FSC Recycled label and the first in Europe to receive the Rediscovered Wood Certification by SmartWood.
To find out more, go to: www.henandhammock.co.uk
READ MORE... | |
GREEN LIVING Help save Britain’s birds From buying a nest box to keeping Mr Bigglesworth under control; there are plenty of ways in which you can help the UK’s bird population |
|
GREEN LIVING Soil Stained Survivors: how gardening is helping those caught up in the Balkan wars For over a decade, a pioneering project in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been transforming war torn lives through the power of plants. But now their money has run out. Helen Babbs meets the gardeners facing up to an insecure future |
|
GREEN LIVING Top 10…gardening blogs From planting tips to making your own 'seed bombs', Tom Antebi has the lowdown on the web’s best organic gardening blogs |
|
EVENT Pesticides and Pollinators: A future without bees PAN UK’s Annual Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture looks at the role of pesticides in the decline of bees |
|
HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE How to be an urban beekeeper You don't need a smallholding and a meadow to be a budding apiarist - a few sensible precautions will let you fight honeybee decline with a hive in your own backyard |