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.
Stephanie Fortunato
April 20, 2011
Personally, I’ve started buying more and more handmade and eco-friendly products. It started as a result of me developing bad eczema and having to start to use products that were good for sensitive skin. However, it turned into my love of products that were pure and simple, like you say. I have also started to try to learn how to garden so I can use my own herbs for cooking. I’ve been doing it for a year now and feel very successful :-) Professionally, I started a recycling program at my office. It’s nothing complex, but we make sure that all the paper gets put into bins and at the end of the week, we take the bins to the local church. They use the paper for projects and will then take the excess to a recycling center. These are small steps, but I’m working my way to bigger ones. I just love your products since I’ve started using them not too long ago! Thank you for your commitment to the earth!