Retail trio earn plastic-free stripes and start carbon neutral journey
From getting rid of plastic bags to selling naked cards, indie retailers are doing their bit on the eco-friendly front, and a trio of greeting card and gift stores are really earning their stripes.
Up in Stonehaven, both How Bizarre How Bizarre and My Beautiful Caravan have just become the Scottish coastal town’s fourth and fifth Plastic Free Champions, officially approved by UK charity Surfers Against Sewage for eliminating three single-use plastic items from the business.
Receiving her plaque and certificate from Plastic Free Stonehaven, a delighted Jennifer Davidson said: “My Beautiful Caravan is proud to be a Plastic Free Champion,” as she was honoured for offering only paper bags, naked and unwrapped greeting cards, reusing plastic packaging such as bubble wrap for purchases and to protect stock, and choosing to sell sustainable items with sustainable, reusable packaging.
At near neighbours How Bizarre How Bizarre, self-confessed hippy owners Adele Mackie and David Neill are phasing out the bags inherited from when they took over the shop nearly two years ago and introducing paper ones, reusing the packaging from supplied goods, and looking to promote the reduction of plastic usage in the town.
Any business can get involved by registering with Plastic Free Communities to find and link with a local group, record three ways in which you have cut out disposable plastics in the business and, when approved by Surfers Against Sewage, you will receive the award.
Meanwhile, in Sherwood, A Stone’s Throw owners Pete and Rob Sampson are celebrating the store’s 10th birthday by starting the journey towards becoming carbon neutral.
“Although our carbon emissions will be tiny compared to big businesses,” Rob said, “we don’t believe that means we should sit back and wait for somebody else to do something first – we’ll be honest, we have no idea what our current carbon footprint is, how to measure it, or what changes we might need to make to become carbon neutral! We don’t even know if it’ll actually be possible, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.
“What we do know is that, as a small business, we can’t afford to spend oodles of cash to make it happen, so we’ll be relying on free resources and cost-neutral strategies wherever possible.”
The couple have been doing a lot of research, discovering that many resources are financially out of reach due to the subscriptions required, but will be using the Carbon Neutral Nottingham website for the city’s aspirations to become the country’s first carbon neutral city by 2028, the Federation Of Small Businesses (FSB) has lots of information on carbon and climate impact reduction, some is free and some available to members, and there’s also the SME Climate Hub which is backed by the United Nations’ Race To Zero campaign and the UK government.
Promising to keep their social media followers updated on progress, Rob added: “Between these sources, we’re hoping we’re armed with everything we need to succeed in our carbon neutral journey!”
