Green gifting this season

If you read our blog on COP 26 then you’ll know that we are on a mission to create greener office spaces (and no, we don’t just mean more plants!) and to bring our Tribe along with us too!

The festive season is fast approaching and it’s Small Business Saturday on 4 December so we wanted to provide you with some gifting inspo, from some fantastic independent brands. To feature, the gifting had to be sourced from Kent and have eco-credentials and, in addition, we can vouch for each and every brand. 

We hope that this helps with your seasonal shopping and makes you aware of local brands who are doing their bit (really, quite a lot) to help the planet whilst making fantastic products!  So, grab some mulled wine, sneak a mince pie and enjoy the read!

Office Tribe

Say whaaat?  We know what you’re thinking but we love this time of year and so just had to get involved!  Some hotdesking with us is the perfect gift for so many people!  The parents of young children trying to get their start-up off the ground, your favourite co-worker who you’re missing from pre-covid times or maybe just gift yourself — self-love is the order of the day after the last couple of years!

Peace, quiet and productive coworking in stylish, environmentally-friendly surroundings, with the odd break for ‘office banter’.  Add a little sparkle to January with some office company!  

£75 for 5 days of hotdesking, available to buy in December only.  Days to be taken prior to 1 March 2022.  Contact Hattie for more details on hattie@officetribe.co.uk

HERD

Tonbridge based Nancy Powell has created a fantastic brand of tote bags called Herd which are great for the beach, for lugging clobber around or, perhaps, transporting many gifts at this time of year! 

They were designed with all this in mind, and more, and Nancy has championed stylish, bright design with sustainability at its core.  Each bag is made from recycled water bottles and every bag purchase funds 1kg of ocean clean-up with your very own link to follow progress.

The brand has developed to include pouches made from off-cuts and their limited-edition reusable coffee cup, made from recycled products too, has just dropped too!

On this occasion, we definitely recommend following the herd!  Brighten up your commute with one of these versatile bags.

 Greensand Ridge Distillery

Sevenoaks born Will Edge returned to Kent and transformed a beautiful, old coach house into a gin distillery.  Situated in Shipbourne, the former coach house enjoys spectacular views over the area’s picturesque Greensand Ridge and Will is keen to protect that view and the planet for generations to come. 

But first, the gin: it’s quite frankly delicious and uses seven botanicals which can be found locally.  It’s great neat or on the rocks without a mixer, but if you do fancy a mixer, consider soda water rather than tonic so that you can really taste it – it’s worth it!  As well as gin, the distillery also makes other spirits such as brandies and rums using local farmers’ fruit that were not to supermarket standard and would otherwise have been discarded - apple brandy, plum brandy and blackcurrant ghost are very moreish.

Greensand Ridge is the first carbon-neutral distillery in the UK which it achieves through a number of means including using an electric still rather than a gas steamed boiler, and its own natural pond cooling system, built by Will himself!  They have won several awards for their sustainability to date but they are always looking for new ways to protect the planet.

 You can book a gin tasting at the distillery and buy their spirits online (they do fantastic boxes of mini bottles which would make a great stocking filler) or in The Cove, just next to Fine Grind. 

Elvis & Kresse

Based in Sittingbourne, Elvis & Kresse are perhaps most well-known for their work with fire hoses.  It might sound bizarre but since 2005, they have taken every discarded fire hose from the London Fire Brigade and transformed them into a range of luxury bags (one of which is featuring in the V&A bag exhibition), homeware and accessories.  The hoses would have otherwise gone to landfill but it doesn’t end there – 50% of profits from their fire hose range go to The Fire Fighter’s Charity.

 Alongside fire hoses, they also work with the likes of parachute silk, tea sacks and leather off-cuts from famous, high-end brands and they are always on the lookout for more products that they can save from landfill.  Kresse recently spoke at COP 26 on the importance of collaboration to reach climate change goals and on the importance of green fashion. 

Just to give you the seasonal ‘feels’, they say, ‘The future of luxury is sustainable, ethical, reclaimed, open, generous and kind. 

Haines Collection

The Haines Collection is based here in Tunbridge Wells and aims to help the interiors’ industry be more environmentally friendly.  The company takes fabric off-cuts and turns them into home furnishings as well as selling leftover designer wallpaper rolls and the all-important (at this time of year) gifts! 

Think beautiful eye-masks, padded clothes hangers, bags and other considerately crafted pieces all made from fabric that was destined for the rubbish bin — which they make too (but as you’d expect, they’re rather pretty)!

We hope that this has inspired your seasonal shopping — but please do bear in mind that shopping ‘green’ isn’t just for Christmas and small businesses, just like OfficeTribe, are working hard all year!  Wherever you do your shopping, put a smile on business owners’ faces: shop green, small and independent – it really does make a difference.