Shifting to a greener business with Deborah Panesar

In my very first podcast I have a great chat with the incredibly talented surface designer, Deborah Panesar. We talk about shifting to a greener business.

Here's the podcast if you want to listen to it directly, or you can visit my Anchor page and listen to all the episodes.

The Daniel Hughes Photography Podcast

The aim of this podcast is about helping small businesses by talking to some amazing business owners, across many industries, about the challenges and joys of running your own business. So bookmark my Daniel Hughes Photography Podcast page and grab yourself a cuppa! Otherwise, if you're more of a reader, below is a cut down transcript of the amazing chat!

How'd you even begin to think about shifting to a greener business?

"You just have to start with one small thing. And that's how I started with mine. I just decided one day; shiny cards are nice. I could put glitter on and I could foil them. But at the end of the day, that's no good. So I'm just going to start with printing all my cards on recycled paper. With all the product lines I'd used, you know, all the other cards that I had, I'ms not just going to chuck them away. That's obviously a whole other issue, isn't it?

"Right, okay, what's the next thing I can do? I can do the envelopes. Okay, most of my envelopes aren't eco friendly. Once they've run out, I'm going to order my next envelopes but they're going to be eco friendly. It was little building blocks one on top of the other on top the other. And yes, then I had to rephotograph some of my listings because the envelopes look different. But at the end of the day, I actually think the replacements I've got are more beautiful. I feel a lot more clean in my conscience when I'm posting this stuff out. I guess that's way to start is to just start with one thing first and go from there."

I've seen you shift to a green business. How's it been?

"I find it I find it really enjoyable because it's like my own personal challenge, isn't it? What's the next thing I'm going to change? And what's the next thing I'm going to, that I can look into, and it's really fun looking into these companies and how they make things green. One of the biggest things I really wanted to change was the cellophane around my bags."

"When we go into shops, into a supermarket, all thes cards don't have wrap around them in the shops, less and less now. So why do I have to do that? Well, it's sort of the done thing at craft markets. Everybody else is wrapping their cards and cellophane so you feel you should."

If you could only have one of the green changes that you've made to your business, which one would it be?

"It's got to be the cellophane, right? Yeah, it's got to be the cellophane because that's no good. Those little wrappers, they're all going into landfill. I'm just so pleased that my customers respect it. And they like having that choice. And they know that they have to pay extra if they want the cellophane sleeve on. So, it's giving them the option. And I feel like that's just having a massive impact."

If you fancy listening to the full podcast, you can check it out here.

Thanks so much to Deborah, check her amazing work out here at https://www.deborahpanesar.com