Environment Sustainability

My illness forced me to take a closer look at my life: my symptoms, my prognosis and, crucially, my diet.

As I tracked how different foods and macronutrients affected my body, my curiosity widened to the tools used to cook those meals. I’ve always preferred preparing food from scratch when I can, so I began investigating cookware options and the materials they’re made from.

That enquiry led me to buy the book, Cradle to Cradle and later to explore the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s work on the circular economy; those ideas opened my eyes to fundamental design failures in everyday products and to practical ways they could be improved.

This website is a concise reflection of some of my findings, the Ethos and some reputable accreditations to look out for. A small selection of materials that, when used thoughtfully, can reduce environmental harm and in some cases actually benefit the planet.

At Aardelia we will apply Cradle to Cradle and Circular Economy thinking when listing or recommending products, the goal is to reduce or eliminate waste. When you think about it, nature doesn’t generate waste; but we do. Our current systems can create long term problems with huge volumes of waste along with persistent pollution to land, sea and air.

Recycling, can be great for some materials with strict quality systems in place. For others however recycling is limited, this is due to compromised, contaminated materials entering the recycling stream, this degrades the quality until it’s no longer recyclable and ultimately becomes waste.

My hope is that these brief findings plant a seed, a pause to consider what will happen to a purchase when it fails or reaches the end of its useful life.