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We Are Nature
In gratitude for all that Mother Nature gives us, we do everything in our power to give back; harnessing eco-friendly materials and methods, championing causes that safeguard the world’s precious wildlife, and putting people before profit.
Proudly certified as a B Corp and partnered with the World Land Trust, we envision seats in our board meetings for both the Earth and the next generation.
IT'S IN OUR NATURE.
We Are Nature
In gratitude for all that Mother Nature gives us, we do everything in our power to give back; harnessing eco-friendly materials and methods, championing causes that safeguard the world’s precious wildlife, and putting people before profit.
WE PLEDGE TO
Design our products to love and last
Make with respect for all
Support life sustaining resources
Nurture community action
IT’S IN OUR NATURE
About our House
Built upon the foundations of creativity with purpose, integrity in our actions and compassion for people and planet, we continue to build upon our House, creating unique and inspiring designs that will stand the test of time.
Our House
Built upon the foundations of creativity with purpose, integrity in our actions and compassion for people and planet, we continue to build upon our House, creating unique and inspiring designs that will stand the test of time.
Bringing Nature on Board
We have legally appointed Mother Nature & Future Generations to our board of directors.
This means a non-partisan person, independent of our business, will be their voice, ensuring that in every decision made across all departments, we fully consider the future of a liveable, thriving planet for all life on earth.
Our Eco Manifesto
With Mother Nature as our design muse we have a duty of care towards her which we take very seriously.
We pledge to
- Design our products to love and last
- Make with respect for all
- Support life sustaining resources
- Nurture community action
Now, and always.
Regeneration
House of Hackney is evolving from a B Corp sustainable brand to a regenerative one. It means going beyond simply ‘sustaining’ and instead, actively making things better and ensuring people and planet are considered at every touch point.
We Are Nature
In gratitude for all that Mother Nature gives us, we do everything in our power to give back; harnessing eco-friendly materials and methods, championing causes that safeguard the world’s precious wildlife, and putting people before profit.
WE PLEDGE TO
Design our products to love and last
Make with respect for all
Support life sustaining resources
Nurture community action
IT’S IN OUR NATURE
About our House
Built upon the foundations of creativity with purpose, integrity in our actions and compassion for people and planet, we continue to build upon our House, creating unique and inspiring designs that will stand the test of time.
Bringing Nature on Board
We have legally appointed Mother Nature & Future Generations to our board of directors.
This means a non-partisan person, independent of our business, will be their voice, ensuring that in every decision made across all departments, we fully consider the future of a liveable, thriving planet for all life on earth.
Our Eco Manifesto
With Mother Nature as our design muse we have a duty of care towards her which we take very seriously.
We pledge to
- Design our products to love and last
- Make with respect for all
- Support life sustaining resources
- Nurture community action
Now, and always.
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Why make Mother Nature & Future Generations Directors?
Since our launch in 2011, House of Hackney has been an early pioneer of sustainability and purposeful business. We now feel that being sustainable and merely ‘sustaining’ life is not enough and in early 2023 we started to shift our business towards being restorative and regenerative, meaning that we are working towards restoring the damage that has been done to our collective wellbeing and natural resources by extractive business practices.
We are witnessing a growing Nature Rights movement, where legal personhood has been given to the natural world and landmark cases have seen the attribution of legal rights to rivers and mountains. Realising the potential impact of bringing these Nature Rights into business and inspired by Faith in Nature - who were the world first in legally appointing Nature to their board of directors - we worked with Lawyers for Nature to follow in their footsteps towards a better tomorrow. -
How did you Appoint Mother Nature & Future Generations to the Board?
We worked with Lawyers for Nature, a cutting-edge collective who work with those seeking to defend the natural world and the legal representation of non-persons. They worked with us to add Mother Nature & Future Generations to our legal articles of incorporation and appoint a Mother Nature and Future Generations representative as a corporate director at Companies House. Co-founder of Lawyers for Nature, Brontie Ansell, who guided us in this pivotal move, is representing both voices. -
What does this Mean in Practice?
It means that at House of Hackney, Mother Nature and Future Generations have been given legal personhood on our board, as directors. This means a non-partisan person, independent of our business, will have a voice to ensure that in every decision made across all departments, we fully consider the future of a liveable, thriving planet for all life on earth.
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How do you Define Mother Nature & Future Generations?
In order to give Mother Nature and Future Generations legal personhood, they first needed to be defined. Working closely with Brontie, House of Hackney defines these two parties as:
Mother Nature
A personification of nature, all the animals, plants, ecosystems and other things in the world that are not made by humans, and all the events and processes that are not caused by humans. Nature includes humans themselves. Considering that we are Nature and our business would not exist without Nature, we see every decision made across all business functions as potentially impacting her and in turn, Future Generations.
Future Generations
Generations of humans, plants and animals on earth from today’s date. Learning from Indigenous People’s wisdom and the 7th Generation principle of considering the impact of decisions on future generations, we intend to use this board appointment to ensure that decisions we make today result in a liveable, thriving world for tomorrow. -
What decisions would Mother Nature & Future Generations make differently to a normal board member?
The new director will support us in making strategic and significant decisions that impact Nature and Future Generations with the freedom to consult a wide network of experts as and when required. The system of this is designed in a way to avoid bias both personally, professionally and financially, and to provide a truly ethical view of the business and all decisions made. Their voice is independent of our business interests therefore they can freely advocate for Nature and Future Generations. Should we choose not to take their advice, we are bound to give a reason publicly as to why we have deviated from it and the new director can publicly declare this. Their appointment will be reviewed after one year, when they may stay in the position or the role will rotate to someone else. -
How does it help Nature & Future Generations?
In the UK and US, the two main markets where we operate, over 99% of private sector businesses are small to medium enterprises (SME’s), including House of Hackney. We hope that by using this legal tool to fast track progress in our own business, we can share the blueprint for how we work with other businesses and speed up the restoration and regeneration of our collective wellbeing and environmental health. Collectively as SME’s, we have more power to shift business practice than we realise. By advocating for Nature from the core of our business, we hope to create a ripple of change across our industry and beyond. -
How will you Measure the Impact?
Right now, we are working on a measurement and evaluation framework to understand our own impact on Nature, outside of carbon emissions, which we measure every year. We will collect data on all aspects of our social and environmental impact to understand our contribution to industry-wide solutions and how this way of working can benefit Nature & Future Generations. Our framework will be shared in 2024.
Our positive impact will not be absolute or an overnight achievement. We will have a better idea of hard-time bound targets once our framework is complete. The way we do business will involve compromises along the way as we work in a late-stage capitalist economy. We believe in progress over perfection and doing the most we can with what is within our means to do.