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A freshly-eco dress: Carbon Balanced, recycled and recyclable!
How Denmaur’s Revive 100 recycled and Carbon Balanced paper, printed by Seacourt, was used to make Karen’s 2018 Awards Ceremony dress… an item of truly sustainable, haute couture.
This year the GGA set out to stage the most sustainable awards ceremony we could – to ‘be the change’ that we want to see in the world. As part of that aim, we set the dress code for the evening as ‘freshly-eco’. This meant asking our guests to dress up in their finest ‘fair-fashion’. Outfits of sustainable cotton, upcycled or handed down; but always something with a conscience.
Why highlight fair fashion at the GGA?
The fact is that the fashion industry as a whole has some way to go… As it is today, fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries. Almost every stage in the life cycle of clothing has negative implications for our planet.
On top of pollution, supply chain transparency remains a huge issue, which hides from view practices such as child-labour, indentured servitude, unsafe working conditions, and extremely long hours.
The sustainable fashion movement is, however, making great progress. For example, look at the good work being done by the C&A Foundation, and collaborative movements like Fashion Revolution. Or check into the V&A’s “Fashioned from Nature” exhibition, to explore innovation in fashion in the context of the relationship between fashion and nature.
With our ‘freshly-eco’ dress code the GGA simply wanted to highlight ‘fashion issues’, and the good work that is being done to make improvements in the industry. Encouraging our guests to get creative, and also do their bit to make the GGA ceremony even more of a sustainability showcase.
Karen says: “The 2018 Global Good Awards ceremony was designed to highlight the many ways that we can work towards more sustainable production… Across our menu, our venue, and indeed our dress code – we wanted to look at a range of sustainability issues and showcase best practice. The dress code is a fun way of looking into a serious and complex set of problems.”
Karen’s magnificent ‘PAPER’ dress
But when you’ve laid down the freshly-eco dress code challenge, you’ve got to make sure you live up to it, too…
After some deliberation over what to wear, Karen decided to go with a material the GGA can vouch for: Denmaur’s Revive 100 paper.
When your event is all about bringing sustainability to the fore, it makes sense to use a material that is 100% recycled, is Carbon Balanced through the World Land Trust, and is fully recyclable once finished with. (Although we’re hoping it will be proudly displayed on a mannequin somewhere to highlight the importance of sustainability!)
To top it all off, the dress was printed by Seacourt, the UK’s first carbon positive printer and triple Queen’s award winner for sustainability – making this one seriously sustainable dress.
Granted, with a paper dress you may run the risk of a wardrobe malfunction, but when you’re at the cutting edge of fashion you take chances. Only time will tell if Karen has set a new trend: to have your outfit Carbon Balanced to match your awards ceremony.
The triple bottom line
Finally, not only does Karen’s dress avoid the negative social and ecological impacts that come with some of your off-the-peg fashion, this dress even ticks the financial box. Nailing the triple bottom line, with style!
Thanks to the kindness of our headline sponsor Revive, our sponsor Seacourt, and ‘paper-dress-maker’ extraordinaire, Jane… This dress was a freebie for the GGA! Which means we owe all involved a huge and well-earned THANK YOU!
(If you’d like to find out more about the people and brands driving sustainable living, visit our friends at pebble magazine)
A word about our sponsors: Denmaur Independent Papers
As of May 1st, Denmaur Independent Papers Ltd has been restructured as: Denmaur Paper, devoted to paper sales in the commercial print sector; and Denmaur Media, for publishers and end user customers (you can read the press release, here).
Revive Paper
Revive is available through both divisions of Denmaur, with the larger volume magazine grades through Denmaur Media.
The Revive range consists of 9 papers available in 4 finishes and a grammage range from 54-350gsm. The range includes 100%, 75% and 50% recycled papers.
Exclusively, Revive is offered pre-Carbon Balanced, via partnership with the World Land Trust, who count among their patrons Sir David Attenborough, David Gower and Chris Packham. Uniquely, the Carbon Balanced element is provided by Denmaur free of charge.
By offsetting the carbon emissions of Revive paper, the end user benefits from enhancing their CSR profile, which as the recent COP conferences have shown us will be a key environmental driver for the next 50 years.
All non-recycled paper sold through the Denmaur group is forest management certified (i.e. FSC or PEFC).
Delipac
Denmaur is the exclusive UK distributor of Delipac. Delipac offers a fully sustainable innovative packaging board designed for food & drink, providing multi barriers against moisture, grease, liquid, but without laminated polymers. This means that Delipac packaging is:
- 100% recyclable in any paper waste stream
- 100% naturally biodegradable (En 13432)
- 100% naturally compostable (En 13432)
Delipac is stocked by the Denmaur paper division for sale to food packaging converters.
Denmaur is ISO 14001 certified and a Carbon Balanced company.
Denmaur employ a full-time sustainability team who provide environmental statements and carbon footprint assessments on all the products they sell.
Interesting in entering the Global Good Awards in 2019?
It’s not too early to register your interest in entering for 2019. Entries open on 1st December but if you’re registered with us, we can update you on categories, criteria and dates.
Anyone wishing to be part of the Global Good revolution and this unique awards programme can contact Founder, Karen Sutton: karen@GlobalGoodAwards.co.uk
