New month, new week, new post, new approach – new everything! After the “What is more eco?” and “Green Doodles” series, which we love and really tried to bring to you any amount of new information through them, today is a new and inciting beginning for us again!
In the few months since we started this blog we met a lot of interesting people, companies and projects all interested in being green. Unfortunately, maybe the “eco” trend has flown away or green is not the new black anymore, we don’t know the causes, but the fact is that it is tough to be a green activist in these days. People, either doesn’t care about what you do, or think that is not so important.
Therefore, we sat and think what we could do to help new and interesting green businesses to be heard, and so came the “Go Green All the Way!” idea. It is very simple: we give anybody who wants the opportunity to tell their story. The green one. We want to give everybody the chance to express their beliefs, methods, and means of being green and helping the environment in the best way they can. Maybe you learn from them. Maybe there is something new in the “green business field” that you didn’t know, or maybe you are just curious. Whatever of the three above, we are sure that something will get you interested!
We have first met Andrea through Twitter, when she mentioned that she monitors her website’s CO2 emissions with the help of our script. We thanked her politely and then searched her on Facebook to see her page. We liked it and told her a few words. This happened more than a month ago and since then, not a day has passed without a least saying “Hello!” She has become more that a customer to us, she is our friend. That is the reason why it went without saying that Acailawen Designs was the first green business to talk about.
After we talked to her a few times, it became obvious that Andrea Acailawen has been an environmental activist ever since before she was brought to life. Unlike many others that use green as a marketing method, she has embraced the green way of living in her own personal life, alongside with her husband, photographer and partner to Acailawen Designs, Christopher Wright.
Andrea first started in the jewelry fashion business in 2005, when she was doing prop pieces for photography, but it was much later, in January 2009 that she opened her own jewelry design pieces for customers, without leaving the people she has been working for all those years, though.
“Acailawen Designs offers its customers an elegant selection of couture jewelry and accessories in a growing series of collections that are hand-crafted with a commitment to environmentally responsible design practices” says Andrea, but what exactly makes her work environmentally friendly?
She works in an industry that is traditionally known to be dirty in the eco way. Sources materials that she works with, as well as manufacturing processes have a lot of issues surrounding them, so, in order to minimize the impact of her company over the environment, she has experienced and learned to do things in a much safer way.
Firstly, she makes sure that the materials used in crafting the jewelry is coming from a responsible source. Also, as a designer, she took the No Dirty Gold pledge and she refuses to use gold that comes from dirty mining practices. In addition to that , and maybe the most important thing, all of the silver and more that half of the copper, bronze and brass that she uses in her art are reclaimed from recycled materials.
The process in which she obtains the materials she uses is unique to those that work with metals. The metals are reclaimed from recycled materials. It’s a meaningful distinction in the jewelry community, because it defines how the material is collected. There’s more to it than recycling an old object into a new one. The process involves a mixture of metal extraction and reuse of unused scraps – making it unique.
Metals can also be reclaimed from leftover scraps that are saved from other jewelry and metal projects. She collects up all of the leftover scrap metals from each project she does, including wire, sheet scraps and even metal shavings. When she has collected enough of it, she melts it down and turns it into ingots that can then be pressed back out into new wire or sheet. She also obtains leftover scrap metals from others who would normally just discard them.
Last, but not least, organic and biodegradable alternatives to toxic chemicals are used, whenever it is possible.
These are a few of the practices that she does in the studio to reduce her company’s CO2 emissions, but surely not all of them.
Since she is so dedicated to helping other artists and artisans, as well as anyone activating in the green field of business, she also gives everyone an advice that is clearly to be heard: “First, assess the type of business that you run and determine its strengths and weaknesses, from an environmental standpoint. Then, look for ways to build upon your company’s strengths, while reducing its weaknesses. Writing a green business plan to grow your eco-friendly business is incredibly helpful.”
At the end of our discussion we asked her what was her opinion about Greenweb, and especially about monitoring your website’s CO2 emissions. “It’s too important and easy not to.”
