#sustainable small businesses

[expobazzar]

Sustainability Trends- Why eCommerce Business Need to Switch

Discover why eCommerce businesses need to embrace sustainability trends for long-term success. Explore the environmental, social, and economic benefits of adopting sustainable practices and learn how they can enhance customer loyalty and brand reputation. Stay ahead of the competition by making the switch to a more eco-friendly and socially responsible business model.

[childoflamb]

new frilly lacy things in the shop ♡

[bisquitt]

i feel like i’m going insane, sustainability does not equal minimalism. neither does buying a bunch of overpriced shit that claims it’s “ethically sourced”. you know what’s sustainable? fixing shit around your house. thrifting. patching clothes and handing them down. a community garden. potluck dinner parties. farmer’s markets. a barter system among friends and neighbors. kindness. love among community members. capitalism is not sustainable, both in the environmental sense and the longevity sense.

like. buying from small businesses is a good place to start. as is larger businesses being as close to carbon neutral as possible. but materialism is what’s driving us as a planet into an early grave

[cozypunkprints]

dandelion patch

shop

[studiomythka-blog]

New Godzilla pins now up in my shop. A bit larger than the previous ones without the wood showing around the outside. More in keeping with all my other designs. There is 1 second left though for a reduced price.🦖

[mayakern]

let’s talk about our solid color, plus size friendly, biodegradable and compostable miniskirts!

[canisalbus]

Is it ok if we print some of your artworks? Not to sell them or profit by them in any way, just for decorative reasons.

Also, I know you don't have a shop where we can buy any prints/stickers/anything (if you did I wouldn't even consider printing them by myself) but have you ever thought of actually making one? Maybe, if not your own shop, sign up(?) on inprnt or something?

Sure! If you just want to print out my art so you can stick it on your wall or something, go ahead. (As long as it's just personal non-commercial use and you're not claiming ownership over the artwork or the characters).

I used to have a Society6 shop but I closed it last year, mostly due to changes in their terms of service. They were cutting into artists' already meager profits, and the last time I heard of it, they were planning to add a subscription fee on top of that. It just started to feel a little bit exploitative. (I also had read some reports that the quality of some of their products had gone downhill over the years but I can't attest to that).

I already have an Inprnt account waiting in the wings, but I haven't gotten around to adding any prints to it yet. (Are there any specific pieces you'd potentially be interested in? I know people ask about the 'You cannot eat money' one pretty frequently.)

[miss-tea-eyed]

how do i get more people interested in composting?

i work very part-time for a small composting service in my area in NH. we provide buckets for people to place compostable things in, pick those buckets up, and bring them to a local composting facility. we offer this to individual people as well as businesses.

for individuals, there are a few different monthly rates based on the level of service someone chooses. for businesses though, we work to create individual quotes based off each business's specific needs. from what i can tell, our struggle to get more businesses to work with us is not about our price. instead, there just seems to be a genuine lack of interest when it comes to composting and reducing landfill waste. i have been tasked with trying to brainstorm ways to drum up interest around composting, but i admit that i am struggling. how can i help a business owner (especially a restaurant) start to consider composting as an important thing to do?

[mrsmiroir]

im all about making money but when i see goth influencers with massive pr packages with insane amounts of makeup and clothes and accessories, more than one person could possibly need or even use, i just feel kind of? like what’s the point? what could you possibly need twenty palettes of the same dark shades of eyeshadow for? at what point does it stop being about the community and the subculture and start being about having stuff more stuff and all the stuff?

[crittirclothing]

Baseball caps have been a fun addition to my collection lately! These are up on the site as we speak

[envirogoth]

today I just finished up a hat my friend asked me to make for her sister. she asked how much, I said $5. I learned how to crochet because another friend gifted me a loom and some black yarn for my birthday one year. I only knew how to make one thing- hats. I didn't even make them correctly. it was supposed to bunch up in the middle to be a beanie. well I messed something up on the last step and it became a square. putting it on made cat ears. my friends thought it was cute, so I decided to make some for Christmas gifts!

the crocheting took a couple of hours, but it was fun, though frustrating, and I was just excited to make my friends a cute hat they enjoyed. I didn't think they would be so coveted that more people would ask for them *and pay*!

so when my friend asked me how much the hat would be I told her 5 dollars. after all, isn't that how much hats cost? when you go to Walmart, isn't a hat about $5?

My hats aren't amazing quality. the loom is large, so the loops are big, I still only know how to crochet one thing (two if you count the fact that now I know how to make a non-cat beanie..) and I can't tie my loose ends in a pretty way. but they are made from a soft yarn that keeps your head warm, and they are ADORABLE.

then I factor in the work I put in. once when I was really in the mood for crocheting I took a quick 4 hours, give or take, while binging TV shows.

the materials were cheap, about $9 for a skein that can make like 3 hats

so I'm putting in $3 per hat and selling them for $5.. making my time, over 4 hours, worth.. 50 cents an hour..

i asked for 10 since they're friends of friends, and maybe I'll ask for 15 next time.

I am not going to charge $40 for my hats. frankly nobody would buy them. but in what world should i be selling myself so short that I sell them for 5?

in what world should a hat cost $5. I don't even have shipping costs, and I don't have employees to pay. sure, I also don't have machines, or cheaper materials...

but there is someone out there, putting effort into that shein hat you got made out of plastic for $5, who is getting paid cents an hour. do they deserve that?

[shopwitchvamp]

Ok one more post about natural fiber clothes 'cause I just get so many (sometimes quite nice, sometimes not very nice) requests for such things lately:

So I may release some test items through Witch Vamp at some point soonish whenever I have anything good enough to at least put into a sample sale, but I want to start warning everyone now that ultimately natural fiber clothing might end up under a totally separate "sister brand" and not stay a part of Witch Vamp itself.

I think the price point, audience, average customer, and selling points will be different enough (even if there's plenty of crossover at first) that I strongly suspect natural fiber clothing items would do better with their own branding. Recently this hunch of mine was backed up by a business mentor I've just started meeting with, who immediately said "you might want to think about starting another brand for that" when I mentioned that figuring out natural fiber options for clothing is one of the big goals I want to tackle next.

It would still just be me & my bf running both shops, so that means we need to be sure we can handle Witch Vamp with time, money, energy, and braincells to spare before moving forward with a second brand. Just another factor to keep in mind, but I hope you'll all look forward to my new brand venture if & when it does happen!!

[c-reaturesque]

Dear UK followers, I am doing a week long pop up shop in Totnes, south Devon 29th July - 3rd august, if you are in the area I hope to see you there 🫀

[jouxvel]

Made out of dead stock materials by JOUXVEL for Frankie Collective, May 2024.

Designed by Jewel Miller.

Made sustainably in Vancouver by Jewel Miller.

[vampirekittystore]

The collection is finally back! Everything (except the kandi) is made of eco-friendly materials! So you can shop till you drop 100% guilt free!

[reasonsforhope]

A new fiberglass recycling technology is helping to develop a circular wind turbine economy while creating jobs and revitalizing a historic site.

Carbon Rivers, a company that produces advanced material and energy technologies, has commercialized a process to recover clean, mechanically intact glass fiber from decommissioned wind turbine blades. Glass fibers are a key part of the composite—a material made up of multiple constituents such as polymers and fibers—used to create wind turbine blades. Typically, turbine blades are 50% glass or carbon fiber composite by weight. However, Carbon Rivers upcycles all components of the blade, including the steel.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office, the Carbon Rivers project team... successfully scaled up a recovery process that has the capability to divert thousands of tons of waste that would otherwise be destined for landfills. To date, Carbon Rivers has upcycled a few thousand metric tons and is building capacity in their new facility to take in over 50,000 metric tons annually.

“This is an extraordinary leap for upcycling materials from wind turbines and closing the loop on a circular renewable energy economy,” [project member Eva] Li said. “This research will have an enormous global impact on the sustainability of wind energy.”

A sustainable, circular economy for the wind energy industry means that materials that previously ended up in post-consumer waste streams can go directly into next-generation turbine blade manufacturing.

Coming Soon: The United States’ First Wind Turbine Blade Recycling Center

Carbon Rivers is now in the process of separating part of its business into a stand-alone entity called Windfall Inc. which will develop the first full-scale U.S.-based glass fiber recycling facility... outside Knoxville, Tennessee.

The original technology demonstration of this circulate process was made possible through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Small Business Technology Transfer program, which provides grants to small businesses.

“The emergence of a sustainable fiberglass industry will provide a circular economy supply chain for the renewable energy sector and produce hundreds of new jobs focused on domestic materials production to support our energy infrastructure and decrease the United States’ dependence on foreign imports for fiberglass products,” Benson said.

The planned facility is expected to process approximately 200 metric tons, or 5,000–7,000 fiberglass wind turbine blades each year, depending on blade size and generation. The recovered fiberglass can then be directed into new composites production.

“With Carbon Rivers’ novel process, today’s decommissioned blades can become tomorrow’s wind turbine blades and electric vehicles,” Benson said.”

-via the Department of Energy R&D Newsletter, Fall 2022