Waste – a messy issue Blue Patch‘s monthly drop-In workshops ‘Sharing and Solving Challenges Together’ provide sustainability workshops for small business. Members of Blue Patch’s Sustainable Business Community are always keen to further reduce their environmental impact. The workshops are funded by The Naturesave Trust as part of their Making Business Greener Campaign. The aim […]
Can advertising and marketing campaigns focused on sustainable and ethical business be used to promote sustainability and the vision of a thriving planet? Ads are an excellent way to target specific niches. Used effectively, they can spread awareness of an issue, raise brand visibility or sell a product or a service. According to Statista, the […]
Living through a global pandemic, it seems almost impossible not to feel fully consumed by Covid-19. But after watching the 2020 Ashden Awards, the idea of this pandemic functioning as an isolated issue to be tackled, set apart from the urgency of the climate crisis, seems a potentially dangerous oversimplification. The Ashden Awards are dedicated […]
Welcome to Earth Day 2020 4:00 am Looking through my window to the garden, I barely make out where buildings stop and sky starts. No birds yet, just the clock ticking. At the onset of the lockdown I felt erased, detached from purpose. Now I feel the opposite, that time has been reclaimed and life […]
This year’s not really turning out how I expected – and that’s putting it quite mildly. 2019 was a big year for me. I celebrated a big milestone birthday with a blowout party and some lifetime travel adventures. I sailed boats and rode horses. I learnt new skills and gained new qualifications. I decimated my […]
I have a long-standing love affair with Lush. Can you blame me? Entering a Lush location is like stepping into a world of colourful, quirkily-named skincare products that look and smell good enough to eat. Plus the brand is well known for being at the forefront of sustainability in regards to packaging, animal testing, sourcing ethically […]
What colour is spring to you? Some will dive straight into summer with those bright oranges and blazing blues. Others will choose pastels. I prefer my springs to be muted versions of bright favourites. A slow awakening rather than jumping headfirst into the heat of things. Might tell you a lot about me as a […]
I admit it. I have been guilty……of climate nihilism. I’ve found myself turning down the volume on the news or sometimes looking the other way. It was all too unbearable, out of my hands and I was less than optimistic about the state of the world. That is, until I went to CAT. Sorry to […]
A few days ago American Express announced a complete revamp of its classic Green Card. Following a long list of the benefits of owning an Amex Green card comes the revelation that the card is designed using reclaimed ocean plastic collected from beaches by Parlay for the Oceans. Coca Cola too has been in the […]
We are delighted to announce that we will be exhibiting thirteen of our most exceptional sustainable brands at London Design Fair this year. The event will take place from the 19th to the 22nd of September 2019 at the Old Truman Brewery in Shoreditch London as part of the iconic London Design Festival. Click to […]
Best foot forward: you can now enter the 2019 Blue Patch Sustainable Business Awards. With our influential and expert panel you’ve opportunity to get your products and services in front of the right people. It’s all about participating. Very best of luck everybody! Katrina Burroughs, Journalist, Sunday Times Home. Katrina Burroughs has written the interiors column […]
The 24th of April marked the 6th anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, and the subsequent push towards greater transparency and sustainability in the fashion industry. This week, marked as Fashion Revolution Week encourages consumers to take action by asking brands #whomademyclothes? Blue Patch works with brands who make and manufacture in the UK, […]
Blue Patch’s ‘travelling’ Sustainable Department Store popped up at the Whitworth, Manchester University’s award winning museum. Blue Patch were lucky to coincided with Whitworth Director Alistair Hudson’s radically refreshing vision for the ‘Useful Museum’ (listen to Alistair here). The Useful Museum got off to a flying start with the Reno residency, led by Linda Brogan. Everyone […]
It’s spring! Or so we hope… I’ve been transitioning in between clothing types this week, moving away from my warm wool coat to lighter garb. It’s delightful to not be weighted down by 20 layers of fabric. Spring is synonymous with the shedding of layers (unless we’re talking about trees), and part of that includes […]
We’ve written a guest blog for the RSA on problems facing the high street and a new ethical shopping oriented solution. “When on the high street, it feels as though poor quality products are sold everywhere for high prices. Online shopping seems like a better deal since we’ve been trained to think of purchasing online as […]
I’ve been away in sunny India for about 6 months (yes, a bit longer than expected), and I completely missed the British summer. Traded it in for the original Indian summer followed by monsoon which made for hot hot hot weather with torrential rain. The weather here is conflicted. Some days it’s autumn with those longer sleeves, […]
The first house we visited was a beautiful 1916 4-bedroom Edwardian terrace house overlooking Ruskin Park in South London. We wanted to discover how architect Natalie Black had retrofitted the property…let’s take a look inside. Natalie and Ben, who own the house, are retrofitting to improve comfort and energy efficiency, with a focus on using […]
Like so many of you, the concept of a circular economy really appeals to me. To invest in a product, then be able to pass it on or see it re-moulded into something entirely different when the time comes just seems entirely sensible. And for most gardeners, I suspect it is second nature. Gardeners are […]
This week, the eyes of the ethical and sustainable world have been fixed on Fashion Revolution Week, a campaign and a movement created in order to promote greater transparency within the fashion industry. It brings awareness about the appalling conditions that fast fashion is made in, the poor compensation that is paid to workers and […]
Feb 26th to March 11th is Fairtrade Fortnight, a campaign geared towards increasing awareness about the provenance of Fairtrade items (primarily food) and the plight of millions of people who do not receive fair compensation for food grown. During this two week period, there are several ways you can gain awareness about Fairtrade. 1. Read […]
Did anyone get engaged recently? Whether you are frantically planning your wedding, or simply keeping an eye out for ideas, here are a few ways in which you can incorporate some of your family history into your wedding dress. Intrigued? Read on. We live in an age of mass production, surrounded by a throw-away society. […]
This Valentine’s we’ve decided that with the help of our Friends of Blue Patch we’ll be sharing an abundance of love for the planet by investing in renewable energy! This is super exciting for us because it’s a big part of our mission and vision. You see, Blue Patch is a social enterprise, funded by our member’s […]
Got the itch to redecorate? Take a look at Zoe Murphy’s interior predictions for 2018 to keep on top of trends for the home. Whilst the fast moving world of fashion can sweep away what went before, in interiors we tend to build on existing trends. Partly this is practical. Who wants to repaint their walls […]
Since it’s the new year, some of you may be searching for jobs with an emphasis on sustainability or the environment or even renewables. At ALLEN & YORK we specialise in niche technical recruitment, which means that we work with companies across the world to source the best talent for very specific roles.We recruit across a wide range of […]
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