The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 51: Oct/Nov 2020 | Page 14

GOING GREEN

BIDE

Amelia lives near Marlborough with her wife Rachel and their four young children . The family live very ecofriendly lives , in fact almost as off grid as they can including using solar power and air heating . They grow as much of their own food as possible and have a plastic free home . They have not bought any new clothes for five years as they have a mantra of reducing their consumption and not having things ‘ made for us ’.
Amelia said , “ For many years during the week I ’ ve been a media and entertainment professional working in the film industry and at weekends being an eco-freak hippy ! During lockdown and while home-schooling I realised I needed to bring these two worlds together and I ’ ve created an eco-lifestyle brand called BIDE , something I ’ ve always wanted to do . The first product is the BIDE Box which contains a month ’ s worth of vegan and plastic free cleaning essentials .
“ We have to do something individually to reduce our impact on the planet and we have to make it very easy for people to make different choices .”
The contents of the Bide Box are provided by people working from home and Amelia has targeted areas of the UK where people have been the hardest hit by Covid-19 , starting in Manchester .
She said , “ I live in Wiltshire however I saw this as an opportunity to start to revive cottage industries and find ‘ makers ’ at home in different parts of the UK who may want to supplement
their income . I send them recipes , instructions and raw materials , they make up the products send them back and I package the boxes up at home .”
For more info : www . bideplanet . com

What can we really do as individual business owners ?

Finally some tips from green marketing expert Pamela Barbato , creator of online digital green resource hub Action Net Zero Bristol CIC .
She said , “ All business owners now need to understand and start to plan how to decarbonise their business operations , both directly through diesel and petrol vehicles , and indirectly through managing their supply chain , in line with net zero targets .
“ In 2019 Parliament passed legislation requiring the government to reduce the UK ’ s net green house emissions by 100 per cent relative to 1990 by 2050 , this will make the UK a net zero emitter . This is in accordance with the United Nations 2015 Paris agreement where there was a collective commitment from 97 parties to reduce GHG emissions and ensure that we
keep temperature rises well below 2 degrees Celsius .
“ Historically business has made , used and thrown away . This is a linear production which results in high green house gas emissions , through use of coal and oil energy , diesel and petrol transportation , high beef production , cows emitting methane and so on .
“ All these processes are being rethought to ensure that we are creating a circular economy , one that does not waste and deplete the world ’ s natural resources .”
Pamela says the first step is to know what part of your business is the worst area for greenhouse gases . For example do you run a fleet of vehicles ? Do you have a high energy manufacturing process ? Do you use waste lots of food ? Do you use lots of plastic ? Then work on ways to make changes to these .
“ Start with simple things like making sure the tea bags you buy don ’ t have plastic in them , using a recycling collection service to recycle everything you can . That
For more info : www . actionnetzero . org
alone often saves you and your business money in the process . Could you or your landlord switch to a 100 per cent renewable energy supplier ? Ask your suppliers to tell
you what they are doing , so you learn from them and them from you . It ’ s a journey that we now must all take .”

Does your marketing need a little extra oomph ?

CREATE REFRESHING COMMUNICATIONS WITH ADDED JUICE juicy-designs . com
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