A Love Story

Yet another compelling reason to recycle your plastics. You don’t want unrequited love in your hands along with everything else now do you?

Downsize me/The Wardrobe diet. Step Three: Shoes

Onto shoes. I am no Imelda Marcos when it comes to shoes. I have struggled buying ethically made shoes in the past, and so apart from a few pairs, the rest of these guys were bought second hand.

And I dont know – buying shoes second-hand just ain’t as enticing somehow. Hence my modest collection of 34 pairs of shoes. Not counting running/tramping shoes. No way I am using my quota up on those!

But apparently, that is far, far too many shoes. In the world of wardrobe minimalism, 8 pairs is all a lady needs,

I tried to hack my collection down to 8 pairs, but it was too, too mean. I got pretty close though.  I am very proud of getting my hoof options down to 12 pairs. Oh me, Oh my.

1. Full length black leather riding boots – vintage
2. Terra Plana black leather mid-calf boot – bought from Starfish
3. Trackers Cowboy ankle boot – vintage
4. Character Black Dance shoe – bought in London/vintage
5. Nude colour heeled shoe – bought in London
6. Stone coloured strapped heel – vintage
7. Wooden wedge –  bought from Overland actually – made in Italy
8. Hogl shoe – bought in the marvellous Wairarapa at a particularly pleasing price
9-12 Various beachy flats

I hope I wont come to regret this fit of spartan.

I might just condense Steps 4-6 for your reading pleasure into a handy chart. There are only so many before and after shots you want to see I am sure. 

Whats the carbon footprint of a load of laundry?

I just stumbled across this article  on the Guardian about the carbon cost of our laundry practices. Laundry, laundry, bore, bore – I know. But its important people!

Essentially there is one message – those dryers are menaces! After reading it, I thought I should probably bookmark it and blog about it in the winter, when people’s tumble dryers are used in full force. Then I thought, actually, its probably best to bring this to the fore now – when sometimes the dryer might seem easier but the weather is warm and windy outside. Get it on the line people! The planet thanks you for it, each and every time.

We ditched our dryer about five years ago. We just went through winter with  a baby in reusuable nappies which I thought would be tricky, but not so. Admittedly, I had to become good, good pals with the laundry horse, but it was all good. I gave him a name, and we were away.

Go vote!

The Big Shwop isn’t going to get party political on you, don’t worry. Just go vote, that is all. There is such power in each and every tick and this video seemed to fit well with the importance of using your voice.

 

The Story of Broke

Annie Leonard, the American proponent of sustainability behind the Story of Stuff, the Story of Cosmestics and a bunch of other stories is back again with the timely Story of Broke.

“The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.”

All the details, questions and annotated script for the story are on the website here.

The Labour behind the label

I have been awaiting something like this. An easily digestable account of the lengths that common high street labels are going to make sure that the people making their clothes are on a living wage. Or the shorts – most of them unfortunately aren’t  going to any lengths at all.

Labour behind the Label marked leading UK chains on a scale of 0-5, depending on how much they were doing to implement a living wage  for their garment workers.

So what is a living wage? A living wage means the earnings from a standard working week without overtime are sufficient to meet the basic needs of a worker and her family (4 people). It is distinct from the minimum wage because for most garment workers, the minimum wage is well below a living wage  -  most are working full-time and still not having enough for the very basic needs of life. And yet, the clothes they make go on to be sold with huge profit for the parent company.

Its a detailed report, and worth a look if you are familiar with UK brands and are interested in the garment industry. Its a bit of a beast to summarise because some of the grades go up in 0.5 increments. But I thought I could at least list some of the losers and winners. Its a bit sad though that no UK chain got a score higher than a 3.5 on a scale of 5.

Grade 1: Companies that refer to the living wage, but which use this interchangeably with minimum wages, or which argue that minimum wages constitute a living wage.
Levis
Debenhams
FCUK
H & M
GAP
River Island

 

Grade 3.5: These companies can offer concrete examples of steps to develop and implement a living wage methodology in the supplier base, with clear plans to move beyond pilot projects.

Zara
Marks and Spencers
Monsoon/Accessorize
NEXT

Complete  information at Labour behind the Label.

 The full list of chains can be found here.

You can send a pre-written letter to pressure GAP and H & M to address the wages of their workers here.

You can download the full report here

How many slaves work for you?

The Slavery Footprint shines a light on the human cost of  your level of consumerism. You take a quick survey, and it calculates from your style of living how many people in your supply chain are enslaved. The survey’s not perfect – there’s no room to recognise what might have been second-hand or fair trade, but by golly it is interesting. And it does make you think. Take a few minutes this Monday morning and find out the answer to,

Ain’t no Planet B

So beautiful to see the place we are standing from this vantage point. Sometimes a bit of perspective is good.  I loved spotting the lightning storms too.

These shoes were re-made for walking

Why throw something away when you can fix it and get many more years use from something you love? Its better for the environment, a way of actively consuming less and a way to keep your most loved items rocking just that little bit longer. There are many locals shops who repair shoes, clothes and jewellery about the city. It makes so much more sense to spend your dollar repairing something that is quality rather than going out and buying something much cheaper brand new that’ll last half the distance.

The Uncollection from Unconsumption

Unconsumption is a blog that seeks to be ‘ Your daily source of inspiration for creative reuse and mindful consumption.’ Great! And one part of this is through Uncollection, a concept that turns the branding of consumerism completely upside down.

Whats the idea? Take that thing you are reusing, recycling, upcycling, making or crafting and ‘brand’ it with the Unconsume brand, Mr Cart.