11th March 2020

Eco Entrepreneurs

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Antoinette Jackson

Jackson’s childhood was spent caring for the orchards, vegetable beds, and animals that sustained her family’s life in rural Australia. These experiences moulded her into the person she is today – a keen naturalist, food-lover, and feminist who appreciates and respects nature, hard work, and what it means to provide food and resources to communities.

A scholarship she received from the Tokyo Municipal Government at the age of 17 marked the beginning of her professional journey. She has worked in various fields, from tour guide and teacher to Japanese interpreter and nutritionist. Jackson finally settled in the mountains of Northern Thailand with her husband and two children, where SuperBee came to life.

A family-owned social enterprise producing natural, reusable beeswax wraps and other reusable single-use plastic replacements for around the home, SuperBee supports plastic-free living through sustainable, ethically-made goods. The lightbulb moment sparked when Jackson had a discussion about traditional food storage methods, and decided that we should learn from the past in our fight against plastic. She perfected the beeswax mix recipe in her family kitchen and started up the company in 2016. Since then, her company has enabled her to fulfil her dream of becoming more integrated into the Thai community, providing jobs to as many locals as possible, and empowering the women of the rural area.

The production process of SuperBee items is ethical and sustainable – cotton is GOTS certified, the beeswax comes from local farms and is harvested from excess wax (so that no bees are disturbed), and the packaging is entirely plastic-free. The company promotes women’s empowerment by creating safe, flexible, family-friendly employment opportunities in a rural area. They also support their employees in living a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and pay 20 percent above the living wage suggested by the Fair Trade Association.

superbee.me

Ines Karu-Salo

A visionary serial entrepreneur, public figure, and sustainability advocate from Estonia, Karu-Salo has as always been driven by the will to make a real difference. After 12 years of working for Mothercare Baltics – an international franchise business that she once co-founded and sold in 2017 – she quit fast fashion and followed her dream of a better world where fashion is fairly made and has an almost non-existent environmental impact.

While she’s currently focused on growing a sustainable clothing and 3D-printed fine jewellery brand, KiRiVOO, in London, Karu-Salo is also writing a personal sustainability blog on Medium and consistently partners for improvement and sustainability to drive change towards a better fashion industry.

KiRiVOO has become known as a premium slow fashion boutique brand for modern, thoughtful, and strong women, dedicated to manufacturing clothing and accessories the right way: with consideration to the environmental and social impact. Sustainability has been at its heart since the launch of its first collection in 2016. The company is on a mission to make sustainable fashion more accessible through building an international buying and renting destination, as well as supporting global movements towards an eco-conscious, fully transparent, circular fashion industry.

KiRiVOO creates timeless and distinctive garments from certified eco-friendly fabrics. Garments are handmade on-demand by professional seamstresses, and the KiRiVOO ethical silver jewellery collection is responsibly manufactured using precious metal 3D-printing technology.

KiRiVOO has worked hard to build trustworthy relations with all partners and hopes to inspire the fashion industry to become fully transparent. Their ‘Caring Practices’ campaign seeks to recognize the talents behind KiRiVOO production and helps consumers understand better all of the efforts that go into making every product.

KIRIVOO.com

Sanyukta Shrestha

‘The environment and the future of our planet is very important, and I want people to be aware that luxury and sustainability aren’t two separate industries,’ Shrestha says. The multi-award winning eco designer has pioneered the concept of sustainable luxury since the launch of her eco-friendly Bridal Collection in 2011, when sustainable bridalwear was a rare word for mass media and average consumers.

Titled one of the the UK’s leading sustainable bridal designers, Shrestha has one of her designs preserved in Bath’s Fashion Museum as a sustainable piece of art. The luxury of her eco fabrics – ranging from milk fibres to up-cycled newspapers – exquisite designs and Nepalese craftsmanship have fuelled a positive change in the bridal world, making her Boutique a one-of-a-kind destination that brings sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility under the same roof.

Shrestha’s innovation has inspired women across the globe and attracted cult brides to her Fulham Boutique from all over the world, inspiring them to cultivate a sustainable lifestyle and making it London’s ‘Wedding Boutique of the Year 2020’. Her dedication for an ethical workforce and taking care of the environment made her stand out, representing a sustainable choice for brides through a business that leads by example. Shrestha’s zero waste philosophy has a strong influence for upcycling and recreating an eclectic mix of innovation and timeless design while staying true to her ethics and eco-friendly approach. Her work has been featured in leading international bridal magazines and media platforms. A London college of fashion Graduate, Shrestha’s creations have been worn by several celebrities including Victoria’s Secret supermodel Candice Swanepoel, American girl band Fifth Harmony, and Soprano’s Natalie Coyle.

sanyuktashrestha.com

Jayn Sterland

Managing Director for Weleda UK, joined the company in 2008 and was appointed managing director in 2016, having transformed Weleda into a truly customer-focused business. Jayn was recently voted no.1 in the natural beauty industry’s Top 25 ‘Who’s Who In Natural Beauty’ for the fourth year running.

For more than a decade Jayn has ploughed her energy into Weleda, helping to drive the beauty industry towards social and environmental responsibility and more sustainable business practices – a mission she continues as a public speaker and columnist. With a passion for what she calls ‘conscious beauty’, Jayn promotes a healthy holistic lifestyle, encouraging the idea that authentic beauty comes from within.

Weleda has a range of over 140 certified natural and organic cosmetics and is considered the original pioneering green beauty brand. Every single one of Weleda’s natural and organic cosmetics is NATRUE-certified, guaranteeing the highest standards of naturalness, sustainable production processes and environmentally-friendly practices, and products made without mineral oils, silicones, synthetic ingredients, GMOs, artificial additives or animal testing.

Weleda cosmetics now also bear a new ‘Sourcing with Respect’ logo, as one of only two beauty brands worldwide to have obtained the Union for Ethical Bio Trade certification. The UEBT is a non-profit organisation that provides a globally recognised standard for the sustainable sourcing of raw materials. In order for Weleda to be certified, over 1,200 supply chains were checked to verify that biodiversity is conserved, ingredients are sourced sustainably, and that all partners along the supply chain are treated equitably and paid fairly. Weleda has over 50 long-term organic fair trade farming partnerships around the world.

Weleda is in many ways a business of inspirational women, co-founded by a pioneering physician, Dr Ita Wegman, and named after the ancient Celtic healer priestess, Weleda. The business employs approximately 69% women globally, and 57% of managers within the business are female. The company is represented in over 50 countries around the world, providing a cultural diversity that is both inspiring and powerful, a rich melting pot of multi-culturalism, with opportunities to learn, share and grow together.

weleda.co.uk