Sustainability
At Nature's Inspiration I am extremely passionate about protecting our environment and being as sustainable as I possibly can be. I believe in ethically sourced materials and providing great quality products and service whilst not damaging the environment. All packaging used is carefully chosen and my business cards are printed on wildflower seed paper - a gift of nature from me to you! I hand deliver locally within a radius of 5 miles.
From a young age I was very much a lover of the great outdoors and nature. From learning about and hand pressing flowers and growing sunflowers and wildflowers in the family garden to hand feeding Peacocks and caring for wildlife including being passionate about saving endangered animals being a young member of the WWF and embarking upon annual sponsored walks at my local hill to raise money to help save Pandas.
I hand press and forage as locally as possible whilst following the countryside code and foraging sustainably not impacting on the environment. I've actually got some incredible Darwin's Barberry close to my house which flower pretty much all year and enable me to keep up stock of orange small flowers perfect for resin jewellery making. I absolutely love watching these change through the seasons and producing the most spectacular leaves in autumn - colours of the rainbow.
I also only work with vegan non-toxic resin produced by a local company here in Cheltenham, Resin 8, who are 100% carbon neutral offsetting through EcoCart and have a fantastic ethos which is inline with mine. They use compostable packing peanuts which I reuse in large orders, biodegradable bags and the plastic resin bottles are HDPE plastic which can be recycled locally and I do so.
So what packaging do I use? I use biodegradable posting bags when the weather is a little unpredictable and FSC approved already recycled from responsible sources kraft cardboard large letter boxes, paper tape, tissue paper, shredded brown packing paper (recycled from my B Corporation health and wellbeing company) and branded stickers which are made from 100% recycled materials and are 100% recyclable.
I can also provide a gift wrap service where I send directly to the recipient with a note. I tend to use jute bags or burlap for this.
As I mentioned my business cards are printed on wildflower seed paper which is a gift of nature from me to you. I have recently rebranded and now print these at home. My wildflower seed paper supplier are incredibly eco conscious and plant a tree on my behalf with every purchase. I can watch my forest grow at ecologi.com
What do I do with any left over resin? I collect drips and extra's in a pot then create something special. I endeavour to measure to what I need to avoid waste and stop the resin entering the water system by using biodegradable baby wipes to clean and disposing of these in an appropriate way. I protect my hands when working with resin by wearing biodegradable nitrile gloves which I reuse as much as possible. I am still yet to find reusable ones which are small enough to fit my hands and allow me to work in detail.
By shopping with a small business you are helping to protect the environment, purchase something unique and making a small business owner and artist extremely grateful.
Thank you for shopping small with Nature's Inspiration and spreading the joy of nature.
Emma x
