Sustainable Changes

Whether you’ve recently discovered twool or have been following our progress for a while you’ll already know that we provide a range of sustainable products for everyday use in the home and garden. We use British wool sourced from farms who practice regenerative farming. This means that when you buy a twool product you can be certain that the story of the wool from sheep to spool to shelf is one of traceability, accountability and clarity. Sheep eat, shear, repeat. Sheep graze on land farmed with soil structure and a balanced ecosystem in mind.

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Sustainability and reaction to the climate emergency isn’t something new at twool HQ. This is something that is at the heart of what we do. Over 12 years ago we recognised the environmental crisis and made it our ethos to make change and create products with sustainability at their heart. From the beginning, twool has created a range of products that are usable without damaging the environment. Fit for purpose and plastic-free, twool products and packaging have a low carbon footprint and no air miles. We’ve also never stopped making sustainable changes.

What are we doing to make sustainable changes?

Being truly sustainable is an active action. Always innovating and looking at new ways to do better we’ve launched twool Naked. Same great twine, natural colour wool so no dye and a shorter manufacturing process including saving one-third water. We’ve also launched our twool Cosy Nest boxes for birds and hedgehogs; made from upcycled natural wool fibres that were previously a waste product during twool manufacturing. Encouraging wildlife into your garden helps achieve a more balanced ecosystem supporting your wider local environment as these garden visitors make a great natural pest control.

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Sustainable changes at Chelsea

Not the only ones to be focusing on sustainability and the environment, we were delighted to see that the RHS changed Product of the Year to Sustainable Product of the Year. This also comes at the time when the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show has moved to Autumn as a one-off in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. We were shortlisted as finalists for this award and we’re so very grateful to the RHS for believing in us at twool and supporting us in all we do.

While we haven’t been able to attend Chelsea this year we are so thankful to the RHS for including twool in their Sustainable Product of the Year stand where, if you are attending this year, you can see twool Naked. Every product in the shortlist is sustainable, whether it’s made from ocean plastics, offering a composting solution or just a kit to make your gardening tools last longer.

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Sustainability doesn’t end with the more obvious environmental credentials though. Our ethos includes social value and provenance. We pay the right price to keep twool manufactured in the UK. By supporting this labour market we are helping skilled workers keep their industry going. The climate emergency we are facing isn’t just about avoidance, it’s about taking action to reverse the damage we’ve already caused. Part of this is about becoming more self-sufficient as a country. One way of doing this is not to have to rely on cheap manufacturing elsewhere. Products can’t be stuck on a container ship in the ocean if they never had to leave the UK in the first place. Our commitment to you is to offer a transparent end to end story from sheep to spool.

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What can you do?

While it is fantastic to see RHS Chelsea Flower Show do more for sustainability and the environment there are also plenty of things that we, as ordinary gardeners can do too. Aside from buying twool and supporting small businesses, of course, there are sustainable changes we can all make. Being environmentally responsible as a gardener can include:

• Making your own compost! No matter how small, this is a fabulous way of being a bit more self sufficient in the garden
• Upcycling and reusing what is already there! From loo roll inners as seed pots or to tying your beans in with last years red twool giftwrap
• Committing to buying peat free. Did you know that Dobbies garden centres are now completely peat free?
• Using locally sourced hazel for your bean and pea growing. You can read more about Bean Poles here!
• Leaving a little area for wild growing, don’t be too tidy!  Bees and butterflies love nettles. Leave leaf litter for hedgehogs and wildlife in corners of the garden and under hedges.

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Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive but any small changes you make will have an impact. How are you trying to be more sustainable in your garden?