Organic products often go hand in hand with a healthy, chemical free lifestyle. But what leads us to choose organic products or even set up a business that makes them…?? We’ve got an amazing community of Vendors on Green Elephant and they are all passionate about what they do. This week, we talked to three of our Vendors whose stores have a particular focus on organic products. We talked to them about their lifestyle choices, their journey so far and why it’s important to them that their business offers organic products.
Claudia: Change to Green
Claudia is passionate about organic living. She believes leading a healthy and sustainable lifestyle starts and ends with organic. She became interested in organic products and started learning about organic principles 15-20 years ago which encouraged her to avoid chemicals and pesticides wherever she could. Claudia is from Germany and there, her family were able to live an organic lifestyle because ‘organic’ wasn’t unusual, the opposite in fact. There was plenty of choice and lots of competition making organic products an affordable option.
Since being in New Zealand, Claudia has noticed organic products are more expensive – especially groceries. If organic products are important to you but you struggle with the cost, Claudia encourages you to grow your own produce and make friends with a local farmer who treats his animals with respect. We highly recommend both of these practices too!!!
Claudia is always looking for ways to improve the lifestyle she provides for herself and her family; it’s become even more important to her since she had her two children. She likes to be well informed and keeps up with new research on all aspects of organic and healthy living. Her hunt for information eventually led her to take a closer look at tampons.
Like many people, she had assumed there was nothing wrong with conventional tampons, but her research soon changed her mind. She was horrified to discover that although it’s grown on only 2.5% of the world’s agricultural land, conventionally grown cotton crops are sprayed with a whopping 16% of the world’s insecticides. It was this that motivated her to do something, make a change… Change to Green. Change to Green use only certified organic and ethically sourced cotton in their products; their range is made in New Zealand and includes tampons (all sizes of course) and some cute carrying and storage solutions.
One of the main things Claudia wants to achieve with Change to Green is to make organic products affordable. She watches her finances carefully and is disappointed that the higher price tag on many organic products could be ‘the thing’ holding so many people back from leading a more healthy or organic lifestyle. Change to Green is Claudia’s passion, it’s not just her business and she hopes that by providing kiwi’s with an affordable option, more people will be able to enjoy the benefits of an organic lifestyle.
Rachel: Hello Melba
Rachel has a love of upcycling, recycling and repurposing. And a small yet very pronounced, hatred of waste (a girl after my own heart…). Her clothing brand Hello Melba took off as Rachel gave op shop finds a new life in the form of cute pieces for kids and babies.
Rachel soon wanted to expand and offer T-shirts but that didn’t really fit with her upcycling model. Being ethically aware and environmentally focussed, mass produced and fast fashion items were simply not an option. For Rachel, there is just too much at stake to be compromising on our clothing choices just to save a few bucks. So, to align with her values, the T-shirts she offers are all organic cotton, made under fair trade conditions.
Rachel believes that buying organic cotton is not only a great choice for you as a customer, but it has a positive impact on those that have worked with it, and more holistically, the planet. We couldn’t agree more.
Rachel’s journey to a healthier lifestyle began in her twenties. After being diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) when she was just a teenager, it was when she turned twenty that she started to question things and look for natural ways she could manage her symptoms. Her research revealed a possible link between her whacky hormone levels and the chemicals that were in her food and in everyday products she was using around the house. So she ditched the chemical cleaners, air fresheners and fly sprays. She made an effort to source more organic food and also looked at natural skin care options to help her with her uppity skin which comes as part of the PCOS package.
One of the new additions to the Hello Melba range of organic products is a fabulous organic rosehip oil; the result of Rachel’s research into natural, organic skincare options. She raves about it and has found it to be a brilliant daily moisturiser for her super dry skin. It’s also been very effective at reducing her acne scarring (yet another side effect of PCOS). She’s looking amazing don’t you think…??
Rachel’s approach is very like our own. She is on a journey of discovery; on her way to a healthier, more natural lifestyle. She accepts that she can’t be perfect all of the time but she’s making an effort and is conscious of the choices she makes. And these values are reflected in her business.
Oxana (and Steven): The Green Seed
Oxana is a passionate vegan so natural and organic products are a vital part of her lifestyle. In her family, she is in charge of the shopping and since she became vegan four years ago, she’s taken a great interest in food labelling.
Like so many of us, Oxana didn’t realise how little she knew, until she started to look and learn. She cringes when she looks back at what she used to buy ‘assuming’ it was good for her and her family. She’s realised that so much of the food we’re offered today contains ingredients we can’t even pronounce, let alone identify. So, she works hard to source organic products and food which she believes is better for her family, for the planet and for the animals.
But, like Claudia she has been pretty disappointed with the selection of affordable organic products available in New Zealand. Vegan, organic and healthy snacks were pretty scarce (and expensive) when Oxana first started looking, so a little seed was sewn. The Green Seed. This is Oxana and Steven’s business and from the beginning, they knew they wanted their snacks to be vegan and contain only high quality organic ingredients that had been ethically sourced. This was not up for debate and was a ‘given’ right from the start.
Respect for the earth and everything that lives on her is one of the founding principles of The Green Seed, and is not just something honoured in Oxana’s business, but also in her home and lifestyle. Through The Green Seed, Oxana hopes to actively contribute by offering products that are ethical, healthy (packing a superfoods punch), natural and free from animal ingredients.
There is a common theme here…do you see…??? We all carry on, thinking that we know what’s what and it’s not until we start to question the norm or do our homework that we realise things are not always what we had assumed them to be. It’s a bit like when you start to clean your house and it’s only after you begin to clean that you realise JUST how dirty it all is….!!!
We are in the same boat as you but have started to ask questions and get curious about what’s in our food, skincare and cleaning products. Our aim is to encourage you to start asking questions; start looking at labels; maybe do a little research and then perhaps make a few changes along the way. Our Green Elephant Blog is designed to highlight some of the issues and give you the information you need to consider your choices more fully. We want to help you on your own journey, wherever that takes you, by offering information, options and support.
With big thanks to Claudia, Rachel and Oxana for the images, and for taking the time to give us a little insider look into their lifestyles xx
