Fiona Thomas, founder of lifeslittlerecipes.co.uk, explains why she feels the new range of personalisable E-cards are a small sustainable step in the right direction:
Do we own this planet?
I like the word ‘Custodian.’
It may sound a bit formal, but it perfectly sums up the way I think about our place and time on this beautiful planet. We are custodians. Nothing more.
What do I mean?
As the years go by, I’m increasingly aware that we, the current residents of this planet, don’t own it. We’re simply taking part in a giant relay race through time.
Are we good custodians?
Have you ever seen one of those relay races where the runner drops the baton? They can be painful to watch – my heart goes out to them. Sometimes the poor athlete is so caught up in the moment that they lose the precious thing they’re carrying. They get to the end of their leg and have nothing to give to the person who’s supposed to continue after them.
I worry that we, all of us, are a bit like one of those runners. We’re supposed to pass the planet on to those who follow, but, right now, there’s a real chance that we might destroy our precious cargo. So, I like the word ‘custodian’. It’s a good reminder of the temporary, but vital, nature of the duty we’ve all been given. We need to remember it’s a real privilege to have this responsibility. We, all of us, have the opportunity to change things for the better. Let’s not waste it, please!
How is Life’s Little Recipes sustainable?
We often think about this duty to our planet when making decisions at Life’s Little Recipes. We’re in a constant process of adjusting and adapting our range of gifts to ensure they have as low an environmental impact as possible. As we plan ahead, our focus is always upon building new products around sustainable materials and techniques. A good example is our decision to launch a range of E-cards.
Let me explain our thinking.
- We know how much joy being the recipient of a card can bring. We’re hugely aware that receiving a card can have a dramatic effect on an individual’s sense of wellbeing.
- We understand how affirming it is to learn that someone took the time to think about you and reach out with a card. We strongly believe that these moments of thoughtful connection are what life’s all about.
- We wanted to explore how we could deliver this profoundly emotional connection, reaching out to friends and loved ones all over the world, in the most sustainable way possible.
- We also wanted to be sure that a card which didn’t damage the earth didn’t cost the earth either. So, making sure the product was inexpensive was a high priority.
Becoming Carbon Negative
As a way of always exploring new opportunities and finding innovative ways to become more sustainable, Life’s Little Recipes have signed up to a scheme set up by Ecologi. By signing up to Ecologi and paying monthly, we are ‘giving back to our planet more than we take’. This scheme allows us to fund trees to be planted around the world which will create more oxygen and offset our emissions. The forests being planted are diverse and offer a better eco-system for our animals, insects and future.
Take a look at how our forest is doing, here.
Why did we opt for a range of E-cards?
With all of the above criteria at the front of our minds, we were amazed when we discovered what can be achieved with cutting edge E-card technology. Why?
The amazing magically immersive experience that E-cards deliver. Go and take a look, they really are wonderful. We challenge you not to smile!
Secondly, the technology behind these E-cards can be totally sustainable. Put simply, they fulfil many of the criteria we, as custodians of the planet, felt was so vital. E-cards really don’t have to cost the earth (financially). They’re a very affordable alternative to traditional greetings cards.
For us, the E-card is an exciting choice
So, when we saw what E-cards could do, it seemed the obvious choice to make. Our genuine hope is that more and more of our power supply will be generated using renewable energy sources, making our E-cards more and more sustainable. We know that great things are being done in the recycling sector at the moment and many traditional cards are being made of recycled material. We truly applaud this. For us, for now, we feel the E-card route is the most sustainable and exciting way forward.
So, as custodians of the planet, was this a good decision?
We hope so.
We’re not pious enough to say we’ve got all of the answers. Far from it. We fully understand that there’s a carbon footprint involved with the electricity used in sending an E-card. We can’t guarantee that the electricity used is being generated in a sustainable way. But it might be. More and more of our power is being created from renewable sources. Some will say that the jury’s still out on which is the better route to follow, E-cards or recycled paper traditional greetings cards. We understand that.
In the end, driven by the best of intentions, we went with what we felt to be the right solution for the planet.
E-cards and the future of our planet
It’s our belief that E-cards are more sustainable than traditional greetings cards. It was important to us, here at Life’s Little Recipes, to explain to you how we came to our position.
No matter what type of card we send or receive on birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries and the like, let’s all try to do our bit to be as sustainable as possible. So, when the time comes to hand over that baton to the next set of custodians, our children and grandchildren, there’s still a race left to be run.
Fiona
Fiona Thomas, founder of Life’s Little Recipes and creator of Unimole.
