Since the day our House was built, a sense of compassion for people and planet has served as the foundation of everything we do, which is why we’re evolving from being a B Corp sustainable business to a regenerative one.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead, US Anthropologist
Radical Times Call for Radical Action
Instead of productivity alone we need to look at all aspects of our company through a lens of planetary and personal health, exploring how we can use Nature’s systems to improve the holistic design of our communities.
We defined the pillars of change that we need to look to make a positive impact with:
1. Our internal community (our team, culture and practises)
2. Our factory communities (our supply base, culture and practises)
3. Our local communities in our brand neighbourhoods of London, New York and Cornwall
4. Our business communities
5. Our governance and financing
We started with setting the overarching aims around our mission to help drive out ideas and actions.
Our internal community
We want to foster a culture where everyone has purpose and comes to work every day feeling that they are participating in something for the greater good .There is nothing in Nature that serves just one purpose and we want to call on the creativity and intelligence of each of our team members to join the journey.
We want to help our team forge stronger relationships to Nature so that each person is conscious of her in all decision-making; to nurture them to become positive advocates for Nature within their circles of influence, creating an ever -growing continuum of advocates and activists. A deeper connection to Nature makes for happier, healthier people.
Our factory communities
How do we extend the aims of our team to our extended family - our factories - where we in turn work with them to grow their connection to Nature and raise their awareness of considering people and planet in all of their decision-making.
How do we work together to find materials and processes that work with Nature's cycles? How do we help support regeneration in our factories’ local communities? How do we fully trace back the source of our key materials, especially cotton and review its journey? Which materials do we need to find alternatives to? How do we look at each product we are launching through a lens of it having a purpose and benefit?
Our business communities
As business leaders we have the opportunity to be part of the solution rather than the problem. We have a duty to optimise our systems as a whole rather than maximising short term economic gains for a few and the economic, social and ecological detriment of many.
We want to come together in collaboration instead of competition to share our wisdom and experience, ideas and solutions to co-create new models of regenerative business and nurture the movement. We want to hold to account exploitative financial models and welcome new ones that are in service to others. We want to learn how we can use our profit for better purposes and have a fair split between people, planet and shareholders’ interests. How do we make companies about relationships again? How do we bring a head-heart-hands-approach to business?
Our organisation
How do we consider Nature in all decision making?
Beyond profit and high growth, how do we create and establish new metrics of what a successful business looks like with a focus on the holistic health of our companies through collective action and input? Finance gives life to business, but from our experience many of the current forms are too short term and extractive, benefitting only the few.
Within this deep inquiry there will be small impactful pivots and long game actions; we will see the outcomes of some, while others will benefit future generations.
Our local communities
How do we actively engage to make a truly positive long standing impact on our local communities? In a homogenised globalised world we are excited at the prospect of a local future. In the words of Satish Kumar,
“We need to think globally – one humanity, one earth family, one world future. But we need to act locally- we need to value the diversity of local community, local employment , local manufacturing, local arts…”
We have forgotten our sense of place. How do we nurture the life of our communities, leaving them better than how we found them?