The Greening of Gavin

TGoG Podcast 093 – Greening Our Business

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Greening our business is now second nature for us.  When Kim and I started our Little Green Workshops business, we wanted it to be as green as we possibly could.  We strive to make sure that our personal values shine through when we teach our classes and that all of our ingredients and equipment are as sustainably sourced as possible.  From local milk for the cheese making, to as much locally sourced oils for soap making, and eco-soya wax for candle making.  We reuse things as much as possible and recycle everything that is possible.

During this episode you will hear Kim and I talk about how we started our business and what we teach.  We get a bit off track at the start, but get to the greening part at around the [12:40] mark.  If you just want to specifically listen to greening our business then fast forward to that time mark.

Greening our business - soy candle making workshop

We have carried that through to our on-line business and all our new products where possible.  Additionally, around the office we make sure that we source post-consumer 100% recycled paper, refill our own toner and ink cartridges for printing our booklets and invoices, and of course we use 100% renewable energy here at home.

An as for packaging our products we use recycled cardboard boxes and brown paper for most of our shipping.  We even shred our old tax documents and any other paper we can get our hands on for filler for shipping.  Nothing goes to waste around here.  Boxes that we receive stock in gets reused for our own shipping or cut into soap mould lids or given away to friends.  If we can’t find a use for it, we then recycle into curbside recycling.

We hope you enjoy the show and learn a little bit more about how we try to keep our business as green as possible.

Massive Weekend and a Big Launch

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I cannot begin to describe how tired I am.  No, I tell a fib.  All I have to do is look at Kim, and see that she is equally knackered, then I feel better!

Let me tell you about our massive weekend.

We started off on Saturday prepping for a Soy Candle Making workshop, packing the kit for the class into my little hybrid car.

By 11.30am we were at Hillside Community Centre setting up for the workshop.  We had a class of 10 students, the biggest we have ever taught.  Normally we only teach a maximum of eight students, but there was a mixup with the bookings, so we said what the heck, and gave it our best shot.

Kim was fantastic and took it all in her stride.  She is an amazing teacher and just oozes enthusiasm and authority when it come to parting her soy candle making knowledge.  Every single person leaves the course with as much skill as is possible to learn within a 2½ hour session.  At 3.3opm everyone left with beautiful and fragrant soy candles and a smile on their face.

This was our final workshop for the year.  Now we get to focus on other things, like food gardening, preserving harvest, and just generally relaxing around the pool for a little, until we begin work on our Soy Candle Making line of products.  Small business is hard work, but very, very rewarding, especially if it is congruent with one’s values.

After pack up, it was back home to unload, do the laundry from the course, and relax a little over a light antipasto dinner of salami, olives, sun-dried tomato, couple of pieces of cheese with a slab of turkish bread.  Delicious, and all local fare.

We then worked well into the evening putting the finishing touches on some products for the Little Green Workshops shop before the big launch on Sunday.

Sunday morning was not the time to slow down.  I constructed three shelving units for our new shed that should last for many years.  Then I put together a small trolley for Kim to cart kits from the shed to her office without having to lift stuff.  While I was building the shelves, Kim was photographing the final few kits ready for the shop.  By the time I finished it was 34°C.  Unseasonal for this time of year, but what do you expect.

I then worked all afternoon on our online shop, making sure everything was read for publishing.  With the final nod of approval, we hit publish.

What did we launch, I hear you ask?

Well, we launched our entire range of Soap Making Kits, equipment, and supplies for the home soap maker!  No mean feat, and certainly each product line has been a learning curve.  As the entire line was created by ourselves, we had to do everything from scratch.  We even asked our daughter Megan to test our basic kit and instructions, which helped us refine everything and add in a few more steps in the booklet.  We have even had our first soap making kit sale to a nice gent in Western Australia.

Deluxe Soap Kit

Our Deluxe Soap Making Kit

Before we launched, we had to develop the kits, buy the ingredients, look for local solutions, ensure all the packaging was able to be reused or recycled, and, ultimately, to ensure that these are the best soap making kits on the Australian market.

Time will tell for that last part and we can only do our best and improve as we build our simple/sustainable living business.

If you are interested, you can check out our Soap making range at www.littlegreenworkshops.com.au/shop.  We have also been curing some pretty exciting bars of soap as well as we are looking to begin selling soap from our shop in the new year.  The NICNAS chemical manufacturing licence fee has dropped to only $138 so we are going to take advantage of this, and start selling some of the soap we make as demos during our workshops.  You can only give away so much to friends and family!

Rose Petal Botanical and Shredded Loofah Exfoliant Soap

Rose Petal Botanical and Shredded Loofah Exfoliating Soap

Then, and I don’t know how we did it in 36°C heat, but we cooked roast chicken dinner, with all the trimmings as it was our son Adam’s last night with us before he flew back to Cologne, Germany.  Organic free-range chicken of course, with home-grown spuds, garlic, rosemary, and steamed vegetables.

Finally, with our last ounce of strength, Adam and I recorded a podcast episode that I have titled “Greening around the world with Adam”.  I should have it post-processed and published on Wednesday evening for you all to listen to.  We had a great time recording it, and I learnt a lot about his travels and each culture’s attitude towards sustainability and environmental awareness.  Or at least the people who Adam mixed with during his travels.  Watch out for the podcast episode on Wednesday evening.

So that was it.  A lot of work, a massive weekend, and a big launch.  On to the Soy Candle Making kits and our work is nearly complete for the year!

How was your weekend?  Did you work your butt off, or relax around your gardens?

Warning: Not all Soy Wax is Equal

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There are a lot of things not to like about Soy Wax.  Much of it is produced from GMO Soybeans, some of it is produced on land cleared of rain forest, and some of it has added paraffin which increases its toxicity.  Most of it is not the environmentally product that most claim it to be.

When Kim first suggested to me that she wanted to add soy candle making to our list of Little Green Workshops, these issues were foremost on my mind.  I did look at beeswax, but found it to be quite expensive.  As we live in a financially depressed demographic, we thought it best to keep the price way down, so we looked for alternatives that would be in line with our values.

All things being equal we found that there are some manufacturers that do produce an environmentally friendly product that satisfied our concerns.  

So, as we have a soy candle making workshop this weekend, which is fully booked, it was timely that I received this email today.  Len asks some important questions about wax derived from soybeans.  Take it away Len!

Hi Gavin, 

I was thinking about your Soybean candles the other day and wondering why Soybean and not Beeswax. Found your first blog on the subject and received the answer – cost.
From memory a bee uses 10 KG of honey to make one KG of wax. which explains why it’s so expensive. So therefore if honey is selling for $7 to $10/KG then wax should be $70 to $100/KG which it isn’t so in fact beeswax is a bargain. Possibly that isn’t a convincing argument but it adds some perspective. 

Anyway, the reason for thinking about it was in the back of my mind there was an idea that Soybean growing had some impact on the Amazon deforestation and also if Soy wax came from Roundup ready Soybeans. 

Have you looked at any of these issues? 

Regards
Len

Cheers Len for your email.  Yes we had the same concerns when we first looked for a supplier of the soy wax. We looked for non-gmo, non rainforest destructive, and contained no added paraffin. 

We found a soy wax that met all of these conditions that was made in the US. The product is EcoSoya®.  I was wary of greenwash at first, but upon investigation I found that the company that makes it, Nature’s Gift International, does indeed care about the environment enough to make a better soy wax.

The company declares this about their soy wax;

All EcoSoya® soy waxes:

  • Are made in the USA with DOMESTICALLY grown crops.
  • Are 100% vegetable, made with Pure Soybean oil, GUARANTEED!
  • Are all NATURAL and biodegradable.
  • Are manufactured meeting FDA standards.
  • Are Kosher Certified.
  • Are NOT tested on animals.
  • Are FREE of palm wax.
  • Are FREE of petroleum, paraffin or beeswax products.
  • Are FREE of pesticides and herbicides.
  • Are FREE of toxic materials.
  • Are FREE of Genetically Modified Material.

Here is the source: http://www.ngiwax.com/aboutecosoya/purityofecosoya.html

Yes, I still have concerns about the manufacturing process, and what process it takes to make soy wax.
Yes, it is hydrogenated vegetable oil, and it must go through a lot of processing to turn it into wax.
Yes, the carbon emissions from food miles are high to ship it to Australia, however I can find no local manufacturer.

It is not perfect and  it is what it is.  It ticks as many boxes as it can, and I am comfortable using it in our classes.  With bee populations on the decline, which in itself is very sad and needs a better solution, I believe that EcoSoya is a viable alternative.  You may disagree, but that is fine.  We live in a free country (at least we did when I last looked).

By the way, this is not a sponsored post.  I just wanted to raise the issue, as I knew that not all soy waxes are the same.

Do you know where your soya wax comes from?