Earth Day is (appropriately) quite close to Belle Terre's one year anniversary, so this is an exciting time for us. We frequently take an inventory of what we've done to ensure we are environmentally conscious and this is a great time to focus on that a bit more.
Personally we are trying to transition to a life that allows us to live closer to the earth, in a much smaller home, and to grow our own food. We are expanding our apiary, working on plans for our home, and we're developing our land to provide fruit and veggies for us.
From a business perspective, we started Belle Terre with the promise to ourselves that we would create a product that would be as eco-friendly as possible and we've held to that. Our packaging is minimal and typically recycled, we use recycled shipping envelopes whenever possible, and we research our suppliers in order to choose only sustainable ingredients.
We recently asked ourselves how our packaging could be more sustainable and the answer was basically not to have any. Sounds crazy? It might be slightly nuts, but others are doing it and we think it works. So, meet our new line of Naked Soap:
The bars are round (woohoo!) and are currently offered in three options:
- Simply Shea - our basic soap recipe with added shea butter
- Charcoal Shea - our basic soap with charcoal and shea butter
- Tea Tree - our basic soap recipe with tea tree oil
The Simply Shea & Charcoal Shea soaps have no added essential oils so they are perfect for sensitive skin. Tea Tree oil is known for its antibacterial properties. All three are just soap. Pure and Simple. These new options are available now on our Etsy site.
The giveaway: What are you doing personally or professionally to increase your commitment to the environment? One commenter will receive a free three pack of our new Naked Soap! The winner will be chosen Wednesday April 27th.
belleterre
April 24, 2011
When we move to the land, we’re considered not even buying a dryer (eek!). It makes me nervous (what do you do in the middle of winter?!?), but I think it’ll be a good choice.
belleterre
April 24, 2011
I’m a book freak too. My schedule is a bit too crazy for the library, but I’m a big fan of www.bookmooch.com. It know the shipping is not ideal, but I get to “borrow” someone’s book and then pass it along to the next person who would like to read it.
I love the idea of the picture frame! I wish I had seen your blog entry a couple weeks ago – I just purchased one of these from a fellow etsy seller :)
belleterre
April 24, 2011
I SO want to ban plastic cups at my day job. It makes me cringe every time I see one! (Of course, I’m the crazy person who digs through the trash to pull out the cans and bottles that people “forget” to recycle).
How did you convince people to give up the convenience of the cups?
belleterre
April 24, 2011
Stephanie – I love the paper idea! At my day job, we’ve been trying to donate paper that’s written only on one side to a local school…they use it for craft projects for the kids. :)
belleterre
April 24, 2011
We keep a worm bin in our garage (had them in the laundry room for a while!). Much fun….and easy to keep….and they provide fantastic fertilizer. Worm compost tea is a bit icky to make, but its worth it!