Sustainable September, Small Steps Big Change & Reflection on Laundry Ladder

Sustainable September, Small Steps Big Change & Reflection on Laundry Ladder

Sustainable September is the month to raise awareness of sustainability issues.  This September it raised awareness in me.  BT and Small Business Britain teamed up and provided a 6 week course called BT Sustainability for Small Business!  Contributors to the course were  Ciaran Armstrong of Sustainable Pathways & Adam Bastock of Small99.  This course was an opportunity for Small Business’s to learn about Sustainability.   Having only a little bit of knowledge on this subject I embarked on the course.  What an education!

Now I realise how little I knew! It was music to my ears to learn from Ciaran that small steps can bring big change.  If we can all take small steps and together we will bring about big change to save our planet.  The small changes to reduce our impact on the planet can also bring other benefits to our health, our business and our community as well as helping the planet. I also liked Adam’s message of the reuse rather than recycle and learning about the circular economy. 

Washing and drying laundry is a regular task that cannot be avoided.  We at Julu are not alone in spreading the message for air drying clothes to reduce the use of tumble driers, this reduces electricity consumption and air drying also lengthens the life of clothes with air drying there is less damage to the fabric.  From the course I have learnt the importance of not Green Washing and I believe the qualities we see in our laundry are genuine.

Some of the sustainable qualities of  The Laundry Ladder:

  • Drying rack for indoor air drying – lengthens life of clothes
  • Large round rods gentle on the fabrics avoids narrow crease marks, reducing ironing - lengthens life of clothes
  • Made in wood not plastic, responsibility sourced wood - recycle at end of its long life.
  • With an extra set of brackets use outside on Sunny Days – benefit from free solar and wind energy to dry your washing.
  • one rack for indoor and outdoor use – reduces the number of dry racks.

 

I have also reflected on one of the business models that I have followed with supplying other independent retailers, we supply our independent retailers on a dropship basis.  The products take one journey directly to the end user / customer.   Reducing the carbon foot print, and allowing more retailers to offer our product to their customers avoiding multiple stock locations. Using this model the other way, we have teamed up with The Sheila Maid Company and offer their Ceiling Airer to our customers but hold no stock, when one of our customers order a Sheila Maid it is dispatched directly to the customer from Sheila Maid and they also sell our Laundry Ladder to their customers in this dropship method, with us delivering on their behalf directly to their customer.  The benefit for customers, they can visit one website to find both of these quality products, reducing their searching time. 

What more can I do it reduce Julu Ltd’s impact?   Here are some steps I intend to follow these are not in any set order.

Step - Spread the Word -

               On Instagram I have recently started to follow Nancy Birtwhistle, she is an advocate for green living and her book Clean and Green has 101 hints and tips for a more eco-Friendly Home. These Hints and tips to reduce harmful chemicals used to clean our homes and washing our clothes.  I have started to share and promote some of her cleaning tips.  I have more to share so keep following!

               I will continue producing blogs and posts regarding clothes washing tips and other eco-friendly helpful hints.

Step – Reduce plastic packaging

               We only have one small plastic bag in our product this is for the screws and fixings I am looking to source a paper envelope alternative, if anyone reading this knows of another alternative I would welcome you sharing the details.

Step – Help the Community

               Find a charity I can support locally to give back

Step – Reduce or Reuse Card Board Packaging

               Our cardboard packaging for the product is also the packaging it is dispatched in so this has already been started, but I think there may be room for more change. Here are Two ideas.

One – Simple, we will source recycled cardboard.

Two – I want to see if I can find a national gardening organization that use no dig technique.  Our large flat card board boxes are very useful for the no dig system.  My neighbour at who grows and sells  Flowers From the Farm, Kats Cut Flowers uses the old packaging from retuned items that I need to re-box.  So I will set about looking into ways to promote and action for customers that would like to find uses for our packaging in their local area. I think I need to find a way to set up a network listed on my website where customers could take there boxes to be reused in someone’s no dig garden.  Watch this space to find out if I am successful.

 

Another key message I have taken from this course is that we can keep learning and keep revising and rethinking our methods in our daily lives making changes that bring about benefits for all.

 


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