Wednesday, April 28th 2010 | Short URL
Ethical jewellery label Fifi Bijoux runs their website on Green Hosting…
Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work.
Vivien Johnston, Director and founder of Fifi Bijoux. I set up the brit brand in 2006 to offer consumers jewellery made exclusively from ethically sourced materials; fairly traded gold, platinum and silver mined without mercury or cyanide. The jewellery is crafted in London by master goldsmiths. Our diamonds and gems also come from ethical sources, small scale co-operative mines where possible and carefully selected mining and cutting projects which practice exemplary social and environmental responsibility standards.
How is your business different from that of others in your industry? How do you stand out from the crowd?
Fifi Bijoux is a design label, we show at London and Paris Fashion Weeks and have been readily accepted by the fashion press. It’s a luxury product; with the unique new luxury of known provenance of all our materials. Our customers are a mixture of hip ethical shoppers and fashion-forward trend setters.
How would you say your work is ethically and / or environmentally responsible?
We take great care to partner with mining programmes which demonstrate a strict code of conduct for social standards, including no child labour, fair advancement for all workers, living wages to employees or co-operative projects which invest back into the communities where possible. Environmental standards are tough and they have to be. Standard mining practices rank 2nd in the world for environmental damage and the consequences to water sources, fish, flora and fauna, as well as local communities who depend on these for their food sources can be devastating.
Fifi Bijoux was founded on the principle of maximising the positive impacts for the local communities.
What motivates you to do business this way?
I experienced the lack of transparency in the typical jewellery business model and saw that the value chain was heavily weighted after export of rough or unrefined goods, meaning a raw deal for the producers. The extreme problems in the jewellery industry have been well documented; a lack of traceability in the supply chain ultimately allows for conflict situations and for corruption to flourish. The film Blood Diamond shows the civil war which was funded by diamonds in the 1990’s; but similar atrocities occurred as recently as Nov 2009 in Zimbabwe when Mugabe’s troops murdered miners in the diamond fields. The DRC and Cote d’Ivoire remain volatile.
At worst, diamonds and precious minerals remain an easily smuggled hard currency. At best, mining companies who do actually fulfil high standards of CSR remain invisible and often lumped together with the worst offenders because of the lack of traceability. I think consumers should be able to make informed choices, especially on something as precious and sentimental as an engagement ring for example.
How do you communicate your positive work with clients and potential clients and how do they respond?
The press have been kind and have shown great interest in Fifi Bijoux and my business model. I meet with private clients and work on design briefs with them, I also design ready to wear collections which are sold on-line and through our stockists. Currently, we have around 30 stockists across the UK and also export to France, New York and Australia.
Do you see your work as part of a movement of ethical business?
Yes, most certainly. I see forward thinking business and sustainability being critical to the global economy.
Above image: Little Acorns – 10% profits to Child Sponsorship Project, Entebbe, Uganda
Share your top 3 tips on how other businesses can work more responsibly.
Know your supply chain. Use your purchasing power to make ethical choices. Accept that ‘being ethical’ is about making a journey; you have to start somewhere and don’t be discouraged if certain things elude you to begin with. Companies like Make Hay didn’t exist 10 years ago; but now boast a very lively client list and provide a green choice for business.
How do you see the future of your business and what are you most excited about?
We launched our own on-line boutique last year and it’s going from strength to strength. Export is also growing, so we hope that Fifi Bijoux will develop its international reputation in the next few years as well as the UK has received our designs.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your work?
We have just launched a silver collection and a collection of 18ct gold engagement and wedding rings.
Visit the Fifi Bijoux website at www.fifibijoux.com
Monday, April 12th 2010 | Short URL
In the first of our interview features we are very happy to introduce one of our lovely Green Hosting clients, Bloom Psychology. Find out what motivates them to help people discover their ideal career and how they stand out from others in their field.
So please give them a very warm welcome…
Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work.
We are Rob and Amelia, co-founders of Bloom Psychology. We’re psychologists who help people make and deal with change. We realise this may sound a bit vague, but for example we do a lot of work with people wanting to identify their best career.
Both of us made a career change ourselves (I was a management consultant and Amelia a TV Producer) so this has real meaning for us.
We also help leaders who want to improve their performance at work, Mums who want to return to work, people who want to improve their health and wellbeing, and teams that wish to work more productively together.
We think that the barriers to change are usually in the mind, so we use psychology to help people understand what’s going on and act more consciously towards what they really value.
How is your business different to that of others in your industry? How do you stand out from the crowd?
This may sound like a cliché, but our values really do set us apart.
Psychologists are all about evidence, and having proof for what you say. So being evidence based is a key value, because otherwise it’s difficult to make an informed decision. Another key value is to be remarkable, that is, we want to do work with people in a way which is inspiring and energising. We want to ‘bring psychology to life’.
We always work in the direction of someone’s strengths – ensuring that the change we make is authentic.
Finally, we gave up our jobs to do something that makes a difference. I remember too many jobs as a consultant which simply did not need doing. The client was being sold something they didn’t need. We don’t want to be like that, it has to be about more than profit.
All this doesn’t mean that we’re perfect, but it does mean that we try to do the right thing through what we do, not just what we say.
How would you say your work is ethically and / or environmentally responsible?
For the ethical stance, see above. We want to look back on this adventure and know that we stood for something beyond just success in the market. For example, we do cut price work for people on low incomes, pro bono work for good causes, and we also help businesses work out how they can change employee and consumer behaviour towards environmental issues.
But for the environment – other than using Make Hay and using public transport we think we could do a lot more! Any ideas from your readers?
What motivates you to do business this way?
Because if we can’t look back on our work, knowing we really did our best to take a stand for what we believe in….then really what’s the point? We see a lack of real leadership in this country with too many people looking after only their own interests. We want to stand for something more and set an example.
Ironically, we think that doing this will bring us more meaning and fulfilment and we reckon we’ll be more successful because people can see we mean it.
How do you communicate your positive work with clients and potential clients and how do they respond?
We’ve just completed an e-brochure of our services for organisations and we also have a great newsletter, Bloom Vine.
We also have a Blog, where we try to give as many career change exercises and resources away for free. We also feature an inspiring series of people who’ve changed careers on our Blog. If any of your clients would like to be featured please get in touch!
Follow us on Twitter, here. And finally we have a rather nice website, hosted by Make Hay!
Do you see your work as part of a movement of ethical business?
Yes. Organisations have the power to change the world. But it will take small businesses and their consumers to lead the way, it will take us to show them how it can be done. It’s all about being authentic to a set of values beyond mere profit. If this sounds wishy washy to anyone, there’s strong evidence that organisations that operate in this way also outperform those that don’t. Quite simply, people want to trust the people they work with.
Share your top 3 tips on how other businesses can work more responsibly.
Clearly, we all have a responsibility to think about the resources we consume. Making this the default setting in your life (think ‘Nudge’) by making good habits easier is key.
But we have only 1 proper tip. Most people make decisions automatically, almost on auto pilot. But this means we tend to make choices based on short term comparisons – how’s he or she doing, am I missing out?
Our tip is to identify the things that are really important to you in terms of values. Then to live more consciously in pursuit of these. Money is not a value, it’s the values that it buys you (think about security, freedom, status) that really matter to people.
How do you see the future of your business and what are you most excited about?
Right now, we’re trying to bring the cost of our career services down by introducing a brilliant online career decision making tool called CareerStorm Navigator (see pic).
In terms of our work for organisations we’re looking forward to delivering more of the services which we are good at – employee engagement, change management and coaching. Our recent clients include Directgov, the School of Life, The Arts Council and working out in the desert for the Abu Dhabi Civil Service (see pic)!
In terms of our own development, we are pioneering the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in our work. This is a new, evidence-based way of helping people deal with change and stress which is incredibly effective in helping people identify and make progress towards the things they value most.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your work?
We don’t love it all the time. Seriously, running your own business isn’t about becoming happier, which many people think it is. Since starting, we’ve been more stressed, more tired, more anxious and every day we face new challenges and frustrations.
But the difference is we know that we’re doing something that matters. We’ll have no regrets…and there’s no happier thought than that.
Visit Bloom Psychology at www.bloompsychology.co.uk
Wednesday, April 7th 2010 | Short URL
Our latest newsletter ‘An Interview with an Ethical You‘ is out now and we’re looking for your views on a new client interview idea.
Make Hay has always been about working to raise the profile of environmentally and ethically responsible businesses and organisations. We like to talk about the positive work that our clients do.
We really want to go above and beyond the services of a regular web design and hosting company to spread the word about all of your positive work. So we’re starting a new way of helping our clients get their message out there, through our own regular streams of communication. It won’t cost clients anything extra at all and it will mean that you tell our audience (and like-minded folk), in your own words, what you’re all about. Read our newsletter to find out more.
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