For the purposes of this blog post (and keeping it as short and sweet as possible) I’m keen to highlight just one positive step I witnessed recently that gets us closer to a more sustainable fashion industry: the garment take-back scheme at global fashion giant H&M.
At its simplest, the scheme sees a clothing bin in every store that customers can drop their unwanted garments in for recycling and reuse. Best described in this short (and pretty cool) clip.

H&M, originally from Sweden, claim to be “the first fashion company to launch a global garment collection initiative”. They have some incredible goals to ‘close the loop’ in the fashion industry.

So, given that H&M aren’t (yet) in New Zealand I took the opportunity while traveling in Japan recently to check out one of their Tokyo stores. There I found a collection bin, pamphlets and signage encouraging people to take part in the scheme.

H&M are making considerable leaps and bounds in this space, like committing to 100% sustainably sourced cotton and zero toxic chemicals used in the making of their clothes by 2020.

I’m sure much of what you pick up off the rack in H&M presently could be termed ‘unsustainable’ and perhaps not 100% ethical either. This assumption seemed to be confirmed when I found one garment in the store (albeit it a smaller, one level store) that had a tag proudly displayed saying “The Conscious Choice.” Garments labelled in this way denote items from their ‘Conscious Collections’. They want to be transparent for the conscious consumer. Something I wholly endorse as someone that tries to buy sustainably and struggles to identify it whilst in any store!
While 99% of the garments in store didn’t carry this label it’s worth acknowledging the system changes H&M are putting in place behind the scenes that quite simply take time and money.

H&M are by no means the only retailer undertaking this kind of scheme. I also noticed Japanese brands Muji and Uniqlo were advertising similar strategies in store.

I’m yet to find a New Zealand retailer that offers a similar scheme (if you know of one I’d love to hear about it) – but then again we do have clothing bins scattered amongst the suburbs in most towns and cities nationwide. Most clothing bins, unless otherwise stated are managed by SaveMart. SaveMart collect and sort, price and sell the material that gets donated. They aim to sell items that hit the racks within four weeks. The items that don’t get sold are then shipped to Papua New Guinea to be given freely to communities in need (which is a whole other blog post). The clothing that isn’t high enough quality to go on the racks gets made into rags, blankets or insulation – generally overseas.

SaveMart does support charities such as the Child Cancer Foundation. By 2016 they expect to have contributed $3.2 million dollars towards the Child Cancer Foundation through our clothing bin donations.  That’s pretty impressive!

Of course clothing bins aren’t our only options to part with our clothing (should we really need to). There are plenty of great Op Shops, Secondhand or Vintage clothing stores that are doing their bit for sustainable fashion. There are plenty of great local organisations that will repair, mend, take-in or alter your garments if need be.

If you’re interested in further insights into sustainable fashion check out my dedicated Sustainable Fashion Facebook Page and click like to receive semi-regular updates.

What’s Plastic Free July all about?

Plastic Free July is nearly over and here’s my nearly “plastic free” update. My colleagues and I at the Sustainable Business Network decided to try and walk the talk this month, by participating in Plastic Free July.  On the work front that is quite easy. It’s really at home where the plastic heart is for me. Rules of the game in this house were simple – avoid all plastic purchases for the month but keep any wrappers from previous purchasing decisions.  It’s a little cheesy in a “hug a seal” kind of way, but my motivation for taking part is purely ocean focused.  I cringe at the thought of turtles trapped in plastic in the ocean and the knowledge that fish cannot swim backwards, so once inside our plastic pollution, they’re stuck.

How are we tracking?

So far we have bought a block of cheese (which is wrapped in plastic), had a few beer bottle lids (cheeky things, they have a plastic lining!) and my disposable contact lens cases.  The rest of the items that feature in our “Dilemma Box”* are hangovers from former, less thought through purchases, or gifts from people that we inherited, including our house mate’s loot. In our household we decided to include all plastic, not just the recommended single use, in order to better understand our consumer impact.

*A dilemma box is a nice way of collating those little plasticy items and reflecting on them.

Top dilemma items

1. Plastic wrapping for a pack of EarthCare toilet paper, that’s a tricky one!
2. Plastic around cheese – we love cheese!
3. A plastic sleeve that arrived around a card someone sent us. 
4. A restaurant served us miso soup in takeaway cups, even though we were dining in. Damn we wish it was in bowls…  So the lids made it into the dilemma box
5. Beer bottle lids have plastic inside, after discovering this we switched to wine. (Not to mix up Dry July with Plastic Free July and complicate life further)
6. I’m allergic to hard contact lenses, so I use disposables and those nasty little things add up my plastic impact

Key learnings

There is always a trade-off: 

A dilemma item for us was milk bottles. We avoid Tetra Pak because this isn’t recycled in New Zealand, so plastic bottles from milk are a common item in our fridge. This month we joined a friend on her milk run. She is part of a milk collective that orders weekly and gets farm gate raw organic milk from Drury, South Auckland, in their reuseable jars. Trade off: For us this meant driving a good 15 minutes from our house to collect milk once a week.  We usually don’t drive during the week so it seemed a little silly that we were suddenly driving for milk! Regardless, Plastic Free July gave us the chance to try raw, local, organic milk and avoid added permeate (watery by-product of milk processing. Some dairy companies add it into milk to dilute or substitute the protein levels throughout the year).

Sometimes plastic is useful: In healthcare products in particular, it keeps things nice and sealed.

Buying in bulk helps to avoid plastic – Photo: Emily Dowding-Smith

We need to be more organised: Glass jars for storing bulk items, buying ingredients to make your own food, like muesli, bread and tortillas, requires a bit of planning ahead.

Non-plastic items are often more expensive: Glass is heavier and more expensive. Even items like soap can be more expensive when wrapped in paper. This is a generalisation but the best example is cheese – we tried to alter our cheese eating habits by purchasing cheese from our local farmers market. But that ends up being $5 per 100 grams for local, organic cheese that I was hoping to be wrapped in paper. It was sold to us in aluminium foil! Oh dear…

There are plenty of plastic free treats available once you start looking – check out these Dr FeelGood ice pops made in NZ – Regram from @DoctorFeelGoodIcePops

You find fun new alternatives to plasticy items, it just might take longer: We made our own tasty granola, discovered cardboard wrapped ice blocks for a treat. And we have also been making our own tortillas from masa flour to avoid buying packaged ones. Fresh is best, super tasty and healthy.

Some things you can easily do without: In our case, yoghurt was an easy thing to forgo this month and we haven’t really missed it.  We haven’t had corn chips either and that is probably better for us!

Can you counter-plastic?

Plastic sack found at the beach, an attempt to clean up to offset my plastic dilemma

I tried to offset some of the items in my dilemma box by picking this massive lump of plastic out of Cox’s Bay at low tide. Saving the fish from entrapment and cleaning up the harbour makes me feel a little better about my dilemma box even if it’s not quite the same… but you get my drift.

It’s a wrap!

In summary, plastic is everywhere and is damn hard to completely avoid.
It’s in all my electronic devices and items around me. Even if I can’t see it the plastic poltergeist floats in behind my food and health items from the production, manufacturing, distribution through to the shop. Even if I’m not wearing or using plastic directly it would have been involved in some part of my item’s lifetime.

But among all this, as a consumer, you do have the power to cut out the final layer by making conscious decisions.

The boxes that the crates of my bulk binned food arrived in New Zealand in would have been wrapped in plastic, but at least I’m not having plastic at point of sale or risking the wrapper blowing away.  This makes me feel a little better, especially as it’s those items that end up in our rivers and oceans.
The biggest thing Plastic Free July has given us is a discussion point and a way to alter some of our behaviours and check in on our habits, because everyone can improve, no matter how plastic-free their lives are.

Emily Dowding-Smith is the Transformation Leader for Restorative Food at the Sustainable Business Network. When she’s not trying to restore our food system and catalyse riparian planting on the Million Metres Streams project, she is a keen diver, bike tourer and ocean conserver recently snorkelling in the Arctic to raise awareness about sea ice melt and the impacts of climate change.

Some clever entrepreneurs David Katz and Shaun Frankson have started The Plastic Bank.

The Plastic Bank focuses on developing nations with high levels of plastic pollution in their waterways and oceans. Locals are rewarded by collecting plastic that is lining their beaches and waterways which provides them with an income/supplementary income. The collected plastic is then turned into viable products, and can be done so within the community with their own opensource recyclebot – a 3D printer that can be used to produce items needed within that community. Or it can be sent to a nearby Plastic Bank affiliated centre to be utilised in many different ways. Companies can then purchase this commodity and make their own products out of it and can promote their use of Social Plastic® to consumers that value non-virgin materials.
Lush (North America) were the first company to trial the use of Social Plastic® for their Charity Pot products.
Katz and Frankson hope that consumers start to request Social Plastic® in the goods that they buy, creating more demand and an ethical and sustainable option where plastic is required.

Check out the three minute clip for an overview.

ethically sourced plastic that helped improve someone elses life and kept plastic from coming into the ocean

– Shaun Frankson

Pretty clever system really: cleanup waterways; create jobs where they’re needed most; create plastic products from non-virgin plastic supplies. #winning

You can follow The Plastic Bank on Facebook and other social media platfoms, here.
They also encourage supporters to sign their digital petition to show demand for Social Plastic® and create awareness of the conscious consumer movement.

And for further food for thought…

Image sourced from: https://www.facebook.com/PlasticBank

The idea of ‘good food’ is of course relative to the person, the situation and perhaps whether you’re suffering from the ‘Sunday-morning-flu’. These days ‘good food’ can mean more than just who in town has the best hollandaise on their eggs benedict.

Good food can be much broader and depending on what you value it can encompass such things as ethically sourced ingredients; free-range and organic options; food that is prepared in a sustainable environment, where waste is minimised and managed smartly; perhaps has sustainably caught seafood on the menu; and ideally uses fantastic in-season, local ingredients.

Up until recently it has been incredibly difficult to judge which businesses do well at this stuff. Enter the good folk at Conscious Consumers NZ. These guys and gals have come up with an accreditation scheme to help consumers make more sustainable and ethical choices in the hospitality sector. One of the best things about this system is that it is incredibly easy to use and is *free* for consumers to use. Businesses that sign up and pay the annual fee are are awarded any mix of up to 12 ‘badges’ in areas they can prove they perform in. Ultimately the scheme functions via a *free* app where you can check out who locally (limited cities in NZ currently as they build the brand) is operating within 12 areas of sustainability. These badges fit neatly within three categories,  Smart waste, ethical products and community. This way you can identify the values that you most closely align with, be it organic, eco-packaging or sustainable seafood.

Local	Generosity
BYO containers	Recycling	Eco-packaging	Composting	Eco-cleaners
Free range	Fair trade	Sustainable Seafood	Vegetarian/Vegan	Organic

Businesses are reviewed annually to ensure they still fit the criteria of the badges they hold. Businesses pay an annual fee to be profiled on the Conscious Consumer website as part of the package. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of the accreditation process you can check this out.

Fancy a deal?

On the app you can set your preferences of cities and favourite businesses. From time to time businesses offer rewards or deals to customers that use the app.

Sometimes you’ll see a sign in a shop, usually at the counter with a QR code on it advertising either their business and/or their current deal. 

Bravo

This is a great, if not basic, way to identify businesses that share the same values as you and support them with your custom. The app is free and I recommend you give it a whirl. It’s not hugely scientific, but it is evidence based. Personally I think this is a great start in the right direction and primarily exists with the well-meaning consumer (that’s you) in mind.

Feel good factor

It’s great to see that these like-minded businesses can measure their positive impacts.

Check out these stats (correct at time of publishing, otherwise see up-to-date stats here)

Each year our businesses spend $1,002,000 on organic food and beverages.

Each year our businesses spend $9,538,100 on local food and beverages.

Each year our businesses save 1,311,300 containers potentially going to landfill.

Each year our businesses help 21,200 animals avoid factory-style farming.

Why not download the app now? It’s available on both apple and android platforms from here

These days I try and do a little research on my significant purchases so that I can make good choices. So, when it came time to replace my tyres pre-summer road trip I started to delve into the world of tyres, something I can’t say I had much interest in prior.

One of the first things I look for pre-purchase is which certifications, if any, a product has. I’m slowly learning which certifications are reputable and which are pure and simple greenwashing. Keep an eye out on the blog for future posts for how to spot greenwashing.

It actually didn’t take long to find a product that was readily available, not insanely expensive, and carried two certifications that I trust. This product was a carboNZero certified and carries the EECA (NZ’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) energywise tick. Two great trustworthy certifications. The certification process is a whole other (future) blog post, so if you’re interested in the meantime I recommend checking out the last two links. There’s lots of great info there.

The product I chose was a Bridgestone Ecopia tyre, and here’s a summary of why:

• CarboNZero certification.
  The Ecopia product is the first tyre to achieve carboNZero certification. The certification measures, manages and mitigates the product’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, covering everything from the parts that make up the tyre and production of the tyre, through to freighting it to stores. If you’re interested in exactly what this certification covers for this particular product this is a really interesting read – carboNZero Summary of Certification.

• Fuel efficiency.
  It may be overstating things, but the greater the fuel efficiency the less greenhouse gas emissions produced per trip.
  Here’s what Bridgestone have to say on the matter:

Ecopia tyres have much lower rolling resistance. Put simply, rolling resistance refers to the amount of force required to power a tyre forward. Reducing this resistance means that less fuel is consumed whilst creating this movement. In fact, independent tests show fuel saving of up to 5.7% compared to a conventional tyre. Watch the video demonstration here.
In turn, this reduces the vehicle’s production of the harmful carbon dioxide emissions that pollute our air and contribute to global warming.

• Some pretty fancy innovation, again, from Bridgestone:

Creating a low rolling-resistance tyre is a molecular science. In a conventional tyre’s compound, carbon molecules inside the tyre clump together, causing friction and generating heat, leading to energy loss. An Ecopia tread compound features state of the art reinforcement technology which keeps the carbon molecules dispersed, minimising energy loss and friction.

Conventional tread compound        Ecopia tread compound

 Carbon molecule                         Ecopia molecule

• Price. Let’s just say it was in reach, all things in balance.
  I’d love to say this is the cheapest tyre on the market. It isn’t. I struck a really good deal where I felt comfortable parting with my hard earned cash given all contributing factors. Admittedly choosing a more expensive option, even if it is more sustainable, is a fairly rare move for me. But this decision came easy for this Scottish-blooded lass. Mainly because domestic transport greenhouse gas emissions are second only to agriculture in this country. So anything I can do to reduce my transport emissions is significant in lessening my impact on climate change. With a long term view it is conceivable (yet unproved) that I could use less fuel, saving me a little money between filling the tank, which would offset the initial financial outlay made.

And, so far, so good! I’ve already clocked over 1200klm on the open road with them, thanks to the annual summer road trip down the length of the South Island. Keep an eye on the blog for a future post on how I’ve offset my emissions from this trip.

And, if you’re not convinced that Ecopia is for you then I recommend the very useful tool ECCA provides for free that helps find the right fuel efficient tyre for your particular car make and model. It’s super easy to use, you just pop your car registration number in and it does all the work for you. You can find it here.

Image by Brian J. Matis | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0