KIND Collection X The Kind Store
Driven by the desire for a natural and sustainable future, The Kind Store provide customers with eco-friendly alternatives to everyday essentials such as toiletries and kitchen products, along with hundreds of gifts. The Kind Store was born 2 and half years ago, and is a centralised platform for vegan and sustainable goods.
This week we had a chance to chat to the lovely founder, Tash, and talk through all things eco, festive and green. We absolutely adore Tash, and are big fans of all the work that The Kind Store is doing - so without further ado, here is a peek into our conversation.
1. Tell us a little about The Kind Store and how you got to this point?
The Kind Store started as a passion project as I really struggled to find vegan and cruelty-free products, having been veggie and then vegan for the past 3 or so years. The last straw was when I ordered some natural and organic skincare from a clean beauty store online which arrived in mountains of plastic protection as they hadn’t considered the packaging. I don’t have any retail, website or marketing experience so I just did my own research and went about setting up a draft website. I had already spent so much time personally researching and testing products that I contacted those brands with my proposal in order to get our first products to open the store. I then set up an Instagram account and that is how we found our first customers. Since then, it has organically grown and we’ve reinvested our profits to stock more and more products to over 100 brands and thousands of products today.
02. What is something you wish more people knew about sustainable production and ethical practice and what advice do you have to help consumers avoid green washing?
I think it’s important for consumers to remember that it isn’t just the end product and packaging that needs to be sustainable. Of course, this is a big focus as this is what arrives through your door but there are so many more considerations such as fair pay, ingredient sourcing, transport from overseas etc. A lot of green-washing is quite easy to spot, for example a brand that suddenly releases a ‘sustainable collection’ yet everything else is not. That one collection may be made from organic cotton yet were their workers paid fairly and which country was the cotton sourced from (for example, there have been reports of forced labour on cotton farms in Turkmenistan). It is very easy for brands to write a paragraph about sustainability but if they cannot share statistics, specifics, principles, their business plan etc., I’d question it. If you’re not sure, email them and ask!
Another quick-one is plastic. We promote our store as a plastic-free store and very much encourage our consumers to use less plastic, whether it’s packaging, single-use items or generally at home… yet a complete boycott of plastic is not necessarily the best for the environment. Plastic packaging is less intensive on resources to create the raw material and much lighter than other packaging materials. Sometimes I think we can focus too much on the waste produced (which I am guilty of too), instead of the carbon emissions related to the life-cycle of the product/packaging. I would love to see labels on products including the carbon footprint so as consumers we can make informed decisions.
03. In your opinion which day to day products are the worst offenders and can you suggest an alternative?
If you are wanting to make sustainable switches at home, I would tackle single use items first as it’s such a waste of resource to only use something once. Switching to reusable food wraps, silicone food bags and lids instead of cling film is my favourite alternative in the kitchen, particularly as cling film cannot be typically recycled. Reusable period products are another favourite of mine. The average woman uses 11,000 disposable period products in the lifetime, many made from plastic and coated in unfriendly people and planet toxins. I now use reusable period pants, a menstrual cup and cloth pads and they are so much more comfortable too! Finally, in the bathroom, razors! Razors are usually sent to landfill as they are made from a myriad of materials. I’ve definitely grabbed a pack of cheap razors at the airport in the past, used them a few times and thrown them in the bin. I’ve switched to a safety razor, which looks a bit daunting but actually much easier to use than you think. It’s a lifetime investment as you simply just change the blade which can be recycled after use.
04. Other than The Kind Store, which sustainable brands are your all time favourites?
I actually like to shop around to share my spending across stores so I’m always changing, and then rediscovering brands again! I love People Tree clothing for their essential items such as leggings, socks and tees. They have always been sustainable and really transparent on who makes their clothes. A very small indie clothing brand is Nude Ethics, a one-woman brand creating beautiful illustrated and embroidery tees and jumpers. My friends bought me a Grun bag for my birthday as I was lusting after one for so long. They make bags from upcycled tarpaulin. A few others are Yogi Bare yoga mats, Ethletic for shoes and Finisterre for outdoor gear. I’m also very excited to work or a ring remodelling with Kind Collection as I have an old one passed down with a missing diamond so I’m told we can use all the materials to make a new one.
05. What are your hopes for The Kind Store in the future?
We are slowly working on becoming the go-to place for vegan and sustainable alternatives… and ethical gifting too. We have recently launched The Kind Box where you can build your own custom gift box with the choice of hundreds of vegan and eco gifts and we’ll send it straight to the recipients’ door for you with a hand-written note in side. This year, gifting online and sending it direct has become so much more popular as we haven’t been able to see everyone in person so I feel really positive that we have created a sustainable option with carefully sourced gifts from small UK makers and obviously adhering to all of our other principles too.
06. What are your top 3 tips to shop sustainably this Christmas?
Buy less
Buy better
Shop small 😊
…And if you don’t know what to buy, buy nothing at all.