Ethical
Sustainability:
Essence No1 is committed to sustainably sourcing all products and materials.
What we are doing now and what goes in the products:
Our Eco-friendly, ethical, vegan Soy Wax: Our soy wax is something we are very proud of. We have ethically sourced our soy from GMO free suppliers. A full supply chain audit has been carried out to confirm that only ethical suppliers have been selected, and do not contribute to these areas where soy has caused a massive hit on deforestation. But that doesn't mean we wanted to stop there! We have been working with one tree planted to locate these areas, and the Amazon is one area where soy causes this, which is why we wanted to give back directly and help!
Our Jars: Our sleek, stylish jars aren't just stunning, they're also made from recycled materials and can of course then be recycled! Amazing right?! We also encourage you to epicycle the jars and reuse them around your home for your own use!
Labels: Our labels are printed on recyclable material, using water based, earth safe ink, making them vegan! A lot of labels contain cows coating, which isn't needed at all, so a lot of time was spent finding the perfect company and labels to go with who are ethical too!
Dust safety covers: The dust safety covers are printed on recycled materials! Cool right?!
Wicks: The eco wicks are vegan and cruelty free!
Wick Stickers: Yes, you heard that right. Even our wick stickers are vegan and cruelty free.
Fragrances: The luxury fragrances are vegan and cruelty free (and smell AMAZING)
Candle boxes: Our candle boxes are vegan, cruelty free, made of recyclable materials AND can be recycled!
Tape: All tape is eco-friendly and vegan
Paper bubble wrap: Eco-friendly and cruelty free, made from recycled materials and can be recycled.
Glassine Wax bags: Made from sustainably sourced paper, biodegradable and 100% recyclable.PH neutral and acid free, great protection for wax melts, stamps, bookmarks or small gifts
Recycled Tissue paper: PH neutral, acid free, made from recycled materials and is vegan!
Ribbons: Our ribbon is produced using waste clear PET plastic bottles, this process eliminates the creation of virgin yarn, meaning no oil is extracted from the ground, plus the plastic bottles have a useful second life rather than being put in landfill or the ocean. Using solar power in the manufacturing process, the amount of CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is also reduced during this recycling process.
The process: Bottles are collected, sorted and separated to allow bottles to be washed. The bottles are then ground into flakes and washed again. The flakes are heated to create molten plastic in a liquid form and extruded at high pressure into yarn. The recycled ribbon has a satin finish, and is not distinguishable from ribbon produced from virgin fibres.
What makes our ribbon so eco-friendly:
The ribbon is produced using 100% post-consumer waste plastic in the form of PET plastic bottles.
No oil is extracted from the ground to create virgin yarn to weave the ribbon.
20% of the energy used in the production process is solar powered.
90% of the water used is recycled in the manufacturing process.
Stamp Ink: Vegan and made with water based ink
Did I mention all of our suppliers are based here in the UK?
What we are doing/ working on:
BUY ONE GET ONE TREE
With every purchase a tree is planted in the Amazon where we are helping with the reforestation of areas that have had a massive hit from deforestation from soy.
The story of our jars -
When researching the different jars to use, I really wanted to find jars that were nice to look at, but that were also eco-friendly. My first query to suppliers were 'are the jars vegan and cruelty free?', to which I got a mix of responses. I then asked 'are they eco-friendly?' and NONE of them came back and said they can class them as eco-friendly, as they have had to in some way start from scratch and make new vegan jars to follow the demand of the vegan candle trend. I asked a bit more about this and some were kind enough to explain the process to me and explained that they actually had to set up another factory to manufacture these jars in, which is why they can't say they are eco-friendly.
So after this, I went back to a supplier who were eco-friendly, and used recycled materials to make the jars (?!?!), but couldn't class all of the jars as vegan simply because the paint used. This was a tough decision for me, as it was either going with the vegan jars to follow the trend, but not staying true to being an eco-friendly brand, or taking a risk and doing all I can to make a difference. Fast forward a stressful week of anxiety and indecisiveness and I decided to stay true to the brand I wanted to create, and I'm not determined to grow the business to a point where I can reach out to the suppliers with a strong voice and platform and help them change the paint to vegan paint.