“For me, a product is only truly beautiful when it’s been created with respect for nature and humankind”.

Eco-friendly and sustainable?

‘Sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ are the buzzwords of our age. But as I've discovered in recent years, if you were to calculate the true ecological footprint of all the green claims out there, very little would pass the .

As I've always said, if you really want to be eco-friendly, you should go and live in a hut in the wilderness and herd sheep, not design products.

 Two sides

The issue is that I love the design profession; I love worthwhile products that bring a smile to people's faces; I want to add something.

So, I get manufactured. And from in a very considered and conscious way. Something I feel very strongly is that we mustn't pollute or exhaust the earth's resources; after all, we are but guests on this planet...

And no, my choices aren't 100% green and I don't want to pretend that they are. But I can be transparent about the choices I make.

Transparency

And that's why you may be interested in the following:

1. My printers (and also my packagers – a great family business) are a bike ride away from my home. And when I can, I cycle over the heath, through the woods and across the fields to visit them.
2. Most of the products in my collection are made from Biotop paper – my all-time favourite! This paper is FSC certified, bears the EU Ecolabel, and is made without optical brighteners. So when you're done with my product, simply drop it in the recycling bin!
3. My sulphate cardboard packaging is FSC certified and compostable; alongside your old newspapers to give it a second life.
4. I really wanted to avoid getting any supplies from China (too far away; heavily polluting industry) so I tried to source (for FIELD flowers, and other things) from Europe. But much to my surprise, I learned that all European thread ultimately comes from China. So now, I import it myself (without a ) from China, in large quantities all at the same time and transported by ship.
5. My tea towels are manufactured and certified GOTS organic, but they are not allowed to bear the GOTS label. How come? Read about it HERE.
6. Wool: in the Netherlands alone, more than a million kilograms of wool are every year. So, not only is wool beautiful and versatile, but it is also a waste product! My first design in wool, the IRINI angel, is made by a small mother-and-daughter-run business in Kathmandu, Nepal. And it goes without saying, the wool is ‘mulesing free’, which means that no gruesome practices (animal suffering, mutilation) are used when harvesting the wool.