I am committed to doing everything I can to help minimize the carbon footprint and impact of Found by Dawn, and to ensuring my jewellery making and sales are as environmentally friendly as possible.
For my silver pieces, I use Ecosilver wherever possible, sourced from Cookson Gold*. Ecosilver is fully traceable and audited and produced from 100% scrap metal. If you are interested to learn more, visit their website page which explains more. On occasion more specific items like headpins and chain has to be sourced from other suppliers. In these cases there may be a small part of your piece of handmade jewellery which may not have been recycled, but please be assured that wherever there is a more sustainable option, I will choose it.
I use recycled and recyclable packaging from The Tiny Box Company (who are committed to sustainability and minimal waste - find out more here https://www.tinyboxcompany.co.uk/sustainability).
I encourage you to use the boxes your jewellery is in, as well as the postal box it arrives with you in, again wherever possible - or otherwise recycle it through your household recycling.
Any care card which may be provided with your purchase, is printed by Print.Work who use only 100% recycled and uncoated paper (find out more here: https://www.print.work/our-papers/).
Rather than having stickers created or printing more items, I use a stamp for my logo and branding, supplied by Paper Sessions who provide eco rubber stamps (visit their store on Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PaperSessions)
I create pieces in my tiny little studio shed on April Island, which is the island in the middle of the weir where our boat is moored. It's probably about as low carbon footprint as a working space can get.
It's lovely and inspiring to be surrounded by water, greenery and wildlife on all sides and I am inspired by the river and where I live every single day.
In April 2021, I switched website hosts to Green Geeks. They are US based, although my server is hosted in Europe) and have a "commitment to be the most eco-friendly green web hosting company in the World" which works for me (plus their upload times are pretty fast - always helpful!). You can find out more at greengeeks.com/going-green or by clicking the logo below.
Of course, improvements can always be made - and if you have any suggestions to help Found by Dawn have less impact on our beautiful world, please let me know your ideas by emailing dawn@foundbydawn.co.uk.
You can find out more about my motivations and passions in my About page. You can also discover more about my journey toward making the jewellery I've always dreamt of this blog: Beginnings.