Sustainable Living – Buzzword or Necessity?
Now that is a term you might have seen bandied about quite a lot these days. But surprisingly, sustainable living is not a new mantra at all! This used to be the way of life before the advent of the industrial revolution. No, let me rephrase that - before the advent of corporate greed and the need for profitability at any cost. For, to blame the industrial revolution for the ill-effects of our excesses that we have become accustomed to in our society today would be a great disservice.
So, what do we mean by sustainable living?
Well, in very simple terms, it is all about consuming the resources available to us responsibly so that we can make it last without disturbing the balance of nature. To borrow from another old cliché, we really do have just one of this planet with its limited resources which need to be used by all 7.2 billion of us.
To put it into context, lets pick (just) one of the most glaring problems of our times - that of plastic waste. Do you know how much plastic waste we produce annually in the UK alone? 275,000 tonnes! Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic a year! And why exactly is plastic waste a problem? Because not only does it takes nearly 500 years to decompose but also requires a lot of energy to produce.
But all of us recycle. That should be enough, right?
It would be enough if we recycled what we used in exactly the same quantities. That would not put any more pressure on our resources. But if we take up the case of plastic again, the use of plastics is going up by 4% annually.
On a recent trip to Bruges, I was met with this sculpture of a whale rising up from the canal. Made from 5 tonnes of plastic waste recovered from the ocean, it is meant to make an impact on the public & the millions of visitors to this city. But does the city address this problem? No. Water is still sold in millions of single use plastic bottles. Tourists devour frites and waffles using plastic plates and forks. Nowhere can you see any innovative solution to overcome the plastic waste problem that the whale sculpture so beautifully highlights.
And therein lies our basic quandary - we would readily create monuments to our issues but shirk away when it comes to implementing a solution.
Is there anything that can be done?
Yes, sustainable living to the rescue! I mentioned at the beginning that this is not a newfangled idea but something that the human race has known all along. However, with the temptation of an easy life driven by corporate profits, we have lost track of those ideas and techniques.
Sustainability, by its very definition, goes hand in hand with being eco-friendly. Sustainable production not only uses earth friendly techniques but also provides sustainable livelihoods to those who have preserved these techniques and are ready to pass them on to future generations.
That is why, we have partnered with initiatives that bring out the best in skills and products and also help our environment along the way. Be it handmade wooden toys coloured with non-toxic natural dyes, handmade greeting cards made from recycled paper, board games that instil environmental awareness, handwoven fabric homeware and accessories or eco-friendly heating - each of our product lines has been carefully chosen with the principle of sustainable living in mind.
Here's to a sustainable future for all of us!
This is the first time ever that we've done anything like this and truth be told, we were a bit apprehensive when signing up to this adventure. But then, this whole journey has been a new one for us bringing with it all sorts of new experiences.
The first few days have been very interesting weather-wise - it's cold outside, it has rained mostly and the wind doesn't help matters much at all, but it's still an exercise well worth doing. Why, you might ask? Because as we have always stated, 
Speaking of ethical business, we'd always been a bit uneasy selling only on Amazon. But as a startup with limited funds, we had no other choice but to bite the bullet and gain access to a market place of millions of customers. It did work to a certain extent and we'd like to thank each and every customer whom we could serve on Amazon. However, we made a decision early on in the year that rather than finding another platform, we're going to bring e-commerce to our very own website. The time frame? Summer of 2018! I love deadlines, don't you? Needless to say, it didn't happen and we finally launched our new website with our e-shop last week - 23rd November 2018. Nothing to do with the cult of Black Friday, before you ask. It was a date which we'd picked and decided to stick to it.
And it's not just Christmas cards they make; We have cards for all occasions - birthdays, anniversaries, new babies, new homes, graduations! So, we hope to continue making a difference in these brilliant artists' lives long after the turkeys have been eaten, the wrapping paper is put in the recycle bin and the decorations have been taken down.
and lacquered with vegetable based dyes, not only are these delightful toys safe for children to play with but also are worthy of carrying the eco-friendly badge with aplomb.
valiant warrior and visionary, ruled this part of India. He definitely had an eye for innovation. It was then that he invited artists from Persia to train the local artisans in the making of wooden toys.
