The Flower Lady, Herne Hill
William Morris – master of interlacing tendrils and blooms – is my dream date. This visionary man’s ectoplasm is currently swirling about our ankles in the Blue Patch office, driving our team onwards – his values a near perfect match to our own.
William’s tea cup, William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow
With William cheering us on from the floor boards, we decided it was high time we shared four reasons why we’ve created our ‘ethical meets British made’ directory. Firstly, like Morris, we’re dedicated to promoting highly skilled and creative people whose products and services are not only made in Britain but sustainable too. Gathering up these businesses and helping them to attract shoppers will have a positive knock on effect – it’ll increase money spent in local communities, bringing jobs and opportunities for everybody.
Ecotricity
Secondly we’re reducing carbon because our member’s products haven’t travelled around the globe. Of course sustainability is a learning curve and we’ll encourage everyone, with the help of renewable energy providers like Ecotricity, to ditch the fossil fuel. We’ll actively support resourceful partnerships via our member’s forums, growing the circular economy.
Home Cooking SE24
Thirdly we’re building a new principled economy. Our annual income and expenses will be made public and our taxes will be paid in the UK. The company will be funded by membership fees, enabling us to ‘crowd fund’ dynamic promotional campaigns, helping our businesses to expand their customer base – and this will benefit everyone.
Daughters of the Blue Patch Revolution, Natty Peeps, MULTEMER, Robin Dean’s Bird Box
Finally 100% of our company profit will go to the Blue Patch Foundation. Our members will suggest outcomes and vote to redistribute the money: 50 % to renewable energy generation (dividends fuel the Foundation) and 50% to people who want to do good things, like set up stimulating projects for our elderly, rescuing water voles, restoring an ancient woodland, starting a new community farming business, inventing a zero carbon house (we’ve met someone who’s done just that and we’ll be covering her story) and employing apprentices (a Blue Patch webinar is on the horizon with Apprenticemakers)
In a nutshell Blue Patch will:
- unite Britain’s independent, sustainable businesses with new customers
- help job creation and apprenticeships
- reduce the carbon footprint of goods
- support the circular economy via our hub
- pay tax in the UK
- use 100% of our profits to invest in renewable energy and support wonderful community based projects across Britain
We really hope you like the sound of all this because the more people that shop on Blue Patch the more we can achieve as a nation – it’s a joint effort! Let’s hope William Morris would approve.
Our Blue Patch launch is on Sunday September 28th, a day of fun and fabulousness from 10am – 4pm at the Herne Hill Farmers Market in conjunction with the dynamic Herne Hill Forum. Our next blog will give the list of events and timings. We’d love to see you there at #ProjectBluePatch!
