Sustainable Squad

Beans have come a long way since being drenched in tomato sauce and poured on toast.

Amelia Christie-Miller, founder of Bold Bean Co, joins me for this weeks episode to share their start up story, all the delicious things you can do with beans and why they're so good for our health, food poverty and our soil. We should all be absolutely obsessed with beans.

Their brand and content is fun and useful and I'd urge you to take a look and have a try. The best thing is, they want people to start eating beans whether it's their jars or not! However, I can hand on my heart say the 3 varieties I've tried were all delicous and really good value. One jar is the equivilant amount of 2 supermarket cans and they're a much better quality and flavour.

For recipe inspo and where to buy Bold Beans visit their website https://boldbeanco.com/

It's very likely that you will have recently bought, upgraded or replaced some sort of tech or electrical appliance in the last month. Unsuprisingly, tech is one of the top 5 things we buy at Christmas - but what do we do with all our old stuff? It feels a little more complicated than giving away clothes due to pack testing and how things are put together.

Dr David Greenfield from Tech Take Back in Brighton joins me this week. I visited their new hub and got a full guided tour of the victorian building packed full of retro tech treasures. David shares how they repair and donate old tech to charities, what kinds of tech you can take back and buy from their shop on North street and the meaning and importance of a circular way of doing things. He also shares what other companies such as The Library of Things and the Restart Project are doing to help us reduce waste.

You can find out more here https://www.techtakeback.com/

Described as an accidental Calvados, Avallen, in it's beautiful paper bottle, is flying off the shelves at the moment and I wanted to find out more.

This week, I'm joined by founders Tim Etherington Judge and Steph Jordan Balmforth who have spent their whole careers in the drinks and hospitality industry and are really passionate about having a positive impact on the planet.

They share the incredible benefits of using apples to make their spirit (a type of french brandy), all the delicious ways to drink it and their start up story.

One thing we didn't have time to discuss is that they're proud supporters of 1% for the Planet. Every bottle of Avallen sold contributes to a series of charities around the world that are championing the protection of bees, the restoration of their habitats, and the ban of harmful neonicotinoids.

You can buy Avallen from places like My Green Pod, Harvey Nichols and Fortnum and Mason. To find more stockists and find out more about the brand visit https://avallenspirits.com.

44% of all bread is wasted in the UK. This was one of many food waste stats that got the attention of the founders of Toast Ale, so they decided to do something about it.

Chief Toaster and co-founder, Rob Wilson invited me up to their new premises in London for a chat. We opened a couple of cans, had a good laugh and I heard all about how they brew with surplus bread, which beers pair with what foods, being the first uk beer company to get a B Corp and all the cool things they do as a social enterprise.

Rob very generously shared a 20% discount code too, you need to listen to the end to get it - it'll be worth it. There's 6 different Toast brews to choose from and you can buy their delicious planet saving beer at toastale.com, Coop (look out for their Hazy pale ale collaborative brew), Waitrose, Ocado and plenty of independants like Hisbe and North Laines pubs. Cheers

The most organised homes can still turn to complete chaos when kids toys are thrown into the mix. Most of my friends have kids and now my own brother has just become a Dad. So what toys do I buy for kids, or have they got too much already? A child can lose interest in a toy within just 36 days, according to a recent study.

This week, I'm stood in the beautiful Timeless Toys shop talking to owner Susan Luxford. Susan helped introduce me to choosing toys based on a kids playing style, what to do with old toys and how plastic intensive the toy industry is. It was an eye opener, but also incredibly helpful. She has some great tips and I loved her idea on how to approach kids party bags to take the pressure of the parents.

Susan clearly cares a lot about how children play, the psychology behind it and making sure she leaves a plastic free legacy. This is well worth a listen if you have children in your life. You can visit the shop on Portland road, Hove or online https://www.timeless-toys.co.uk/

Charity shops typically sell about 25% of what they get donated, so what happens to the rest of it?

Steven Bethell is the co-founder of Bank and Vogue. Their purpose is to find innovative and relevant solutions to the crisis of stuff, working across the world to give used products a second life. Beyond Retro is their shop front, I first walked into the Brighton store over 10 years ago and immediately fell in love with the lay out, the treasures and the fun you can have shopping in a vintage store like these.

They've not only survived but thrived over the last couple of years, managing to keep their prices accessible as they know their biggest competitors are the fast fashion brands.

Steven spoke to me from his off-grid Canadian home while sharing stories of their amazing partnerships with the likes of Converse, how their business works and what happens to all these unsold clothes. He also tells me about his encounter with Kourtney Kardasian and his own love for clothes and accessories. It was a genuine pleasure to talk to him.

You can shop online or in store at Beyond Retro and find out more about Bank and Vogue here https://www.bankvogue.com/

"3 out of 5 T-shirts will end up in the bin. It's wasteful and doesn't financially make sense"

I hopped on a Ferry and headed over to the Isle of Wight to make my very own branded t-shirt for this episode (see Sustainable Squad on social channels to see my experience). Sofia Voudouroglou, who looks after marketing and comms, walked me through their clever but very simple process of setting up your own website, creating your own clothing brand and then printing your own design on a t-shirt made from 100% organic cotton, a material made to be remade.

Founded in 2014, Teemill is the world's biggest dedicated circular economy platform. It works with more than 10,000 brands, including global NGOs and businesses, media, online content creators, influencers and side hustlers, providing an open-access circular design and supply chain platform. Its users include Greenpeace, WWF, BBC Earth, Google, Selfridges, Fortnum and Mason, and Lush.

They truly believe in accessibility and collaboration to tackle the huge issue with waste. That's why they've created a platform that anyone can use, anywhere and however they.

If you want to find out more after listening to this podcast, go to teemill.com

Alcohol is everywhere, it's almost impossible to get away from and it can cause some real scenes if you're the one NOT drinking at a party. However, younger generations are drinking less, the health implications of booze is better known and finally there are brands making tasty alcohol free options - like Freestar. For this bonus episiode, I'm joined by one of the co-founders of Freestar, Eddy. It was super interesting to hear how their beer's brewed, why it tastes so good, the sober curious, the part time drinkers, the waste in the beer brewing industry and some great causes Freestar work for. We are big fans of this 0.5% beer in our house and I'm delighted to confirm you can now buy this beer in both Sainsbury's and Tesco. Cheers!

I travelled to Hackney Wick to meet the brilliant Douglas McMaster for this week's podcast. Chef, author, presenter and founder of Silo London, an inspiring zero waste restaurant that started in Brighton. We cover the interior design, menu inspiration and Doug shares a quick beginners guide to help a fermenting novice like me. We also cover what inspired the opening of Silo, how hard the first 6 years in Brighton were, learnings from that experience, and what to expect from the Zero Waste Cooking School - Doug's lockdown baby. The content online is really interesting, fun and useful and I urge you to watch, learn and eat in Silo, London.

I'm never one to turn down food, especially when it's muffins, pies, rolls and pastries from Higgidy. If you've not heard of them before, Higgidy are manufacturers of feel good food and they're based in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. Earlier this year, I spoke to sustainability manager Meg Welch and concept development manager Chelsea Gumbrell about their new range of veggie and vegan products and what it takes to become, and remain, a B Corp. I loved talking to the girls at Higgidy, their new tasty range hits the supermarket shelves on the 14th September 2022. You can find out more about their products and recipes on their website https://www.higgidy.co.uk.