Achieving sustainability...

I’ve just returned from a break with friends to Centre Parks and want to share with you my boosted enthusiasm for corporate sustainability. It’s an important topic for Celtic Sheepskin and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a subject that society talks a great deal about. Some may argue that we talk too much on “green living” yet others campaign eagerly to keep it on everyone’s minds. So for those of you who sympathise with the latter or are simply interested to hear more on Celtic Sheepskin’s beliefs, I’d love you to read on…

It’s a firm belief of mine that a company should approach a sustainable method of “being green” rather than promoting the idea that the company is green. Very few companies can honestly say they act wholly for the benefit of a better environment, as so often decisions have to be made about the viability and ultimate profitability of taking a green approach to each situation. The underlying point is that it needs to be sustainable; It does no good for a company to act solely in the interests of the environment if they cannot sustain enough funds to stay in business.

According to the “Free Dictionary by Fair Fax”, the dictionary definition of “sustainable” is: -

sustainable
adj
1. (Economics) capable of being sustained
2. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Environmental Science) (of economic development, energy sources, etc.) capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage sustainable development
3. (Economics) (of economic growth) non-inflationary

The company Centre Parks come across as being green since day one and therefore I expect it was a natural development to become categorised as a “sustainable company” with an aim announced on their website; “to be one of the leading sustainable ‘Large Scale Tourism Destinations’ in the UK”.

As a visitor to the park it was very exciting to see a deer skip across the footpath early Sunday morning and then bounce off over the fence. Such visual aids like these with the backdrop of enormous trees and expanse of wild beauty, really get into the hearts and minds of visitors and almost subtly encourage them to recycle their waste, travel by bicycle and learn about taking care of nature. This tactile method is clearly not an approach that a retail catalogue company like ours could ever hope to achieve. So instead at Celtic Sheepskin we set about our “corporate responsibility” in other ways, and try on a smaller scale to encourage customer participation.

Just as Centre Parks have nature displays across their park, we too show off the natural beauty of Cornwall in our catalogue and across our website. We only shoot our model shots in Cornwall so as a customer looking at these breath-taking landscapes, we hope you’re inspired to take on the “easy way of life” that the catalogue aims to achieve. You could say that “being green” is sustainable for Centre Parks because in part they aim for their customers to return to them in the future encouraged that they’re doing a good thing for the environment by choosing that particular holiday destination. At Celtic Sheepskin we strive to achieve a similar balance by advocating the benefits of clothing-for-life that’s been cared for at every stage of its production. It isn’t just an item of clothing like Centre Parks isn’t just a holiday break. Of course, if you want it to just be something you throw on in the morning or Centre Parks to be just a reason to relax, then it can be.

As a company we strive to achieve sustainability by encouraging our customers to care as we do, but it’s not essential that everyone feels the same. As an individual I strongly believe that you should have the choice to decide what your ethical beliefs are and how you want to act upon those. Only you can take responsibility for your own actions, and as a company we believe the same thing. That said, everything in life has a bigger impact when a great number of people offer their support. At Celtic Sheepskin we source natural fabrics for our clothing and make our garments as close to home as possible, we also try to offer services such as re-sole and repair for our sheepskin boots and ensure a high standard of quality throughout the range so that our pieces last a long time. We do not believe that throw-away fashion is good for the environment and hope that such efforts put into making our range will ensure our customer do not choose to discard their clothes a year later. Our aim is tied up by our marketed natural Cornish brand with a slogan “where the living is easy”. We strive to achieve sustainability and we strive to keep a harmony between our products, customers and above all our environment.

I aim to return to Centre Parks in the future and in the mean time I will continue with my home-recycling system despite my partner’s complaints that the extra waste storage takes up too much space. Similarly, Celtic Sheepskin will continue to work towards helping the environment in areas that are sustainable for the business, and we hope that you too will be inspired by our efforts and support us and the environment in a way that fits in with your lives.