Why Green is the New Black!

Sitting down to write this, and after deleting 100’s of consumer driven emails, it occurred to me as a society, we’re addicted to shopping because it can be therapeutic and rewarding. One of the psychological reasons why people over-consume is because they get a burst of dopamine, a feel-good hormone that comes with spending indulgence, more than we need and especially those on sale. However, in the midst of the craziness, I want to raise why, we as a business don’t jump on the bandwagon of Black Friday. We have built our business to focus on smaller production of quality natural products that have a lower environmental footprint.  With this as a driver, we know all too well the environmental impact of impulse purchases and the consequence of an influx of discarded items that each year make their way to the landfill. So this year, we want to make a conscious effort, particularly this weekend to embrace sustainability and leave the black and do green instead!

There are many ways to make your weekend greener:

• Spending time in the garden, weeding, raking, pruning
• Enjoying time with the family or connect with someone
• Blocking out time for yourself (downloading a good book is 1 step towards green!)
• Take a walk and breathe in the fresh air

My green sanctuary has always been my garden, even if I’m only pottering and planning it is the very best stress reliever. The last few years I have built my wellness garden a luxury green space that was needed as the nursery has been just so very busy and demanding that the stress levels have been at an all time high and I needed a sanctuary to escape the demands on my time and a place that gave me peace of mind.

And with the influx of marketing around Black Friday / Cyber Monday it also got me thinking of all the things that we have to be grateful for but also how to make the consumer hype and the weekend more green and the need to take care of ourselves and spend time with family as nobody is going to take care of our welfare, physically or mentally wellbeing, other than ourselves. So my challenge to all of you is, before diving into the Black Friday weekend through to cyber Monday madness, to find your green sanctuary this weekend.  Make environmentally conscious choices and raise awareness about the importance of sustainable consumerism and embrace the circular economy.  To take more time out to find your green balance and the reasons that you love this time of the year. To all those who have found green throughout this time, pass that on.

I’m happy that I’ve been able to find my green through all this crazy and hopefully keep this momentum over the coming weeks I’ll find that pep in my step again but for now I’m going to try being kinder to myself, spend time with my family and in my garden, with so much to look forward to. Happy Green weekend  X