Our main sustainability claim comes from our recycled glass Eco Earring range which are on average 97% recycled content with only a pair of Sterling Silver Earring hooks extra. The Sterling Silver for the Eco Earrings is sustainably sourced, for the rest of our range it is not currently guaranteed from sustainable sources but we are in the process of changing over. The Eco Earring range is the future of Stone Arrow and we continue to expand our idea of what is possible with the medium of reused glass. In addition we live our lives working towards being as sustainable as we can, of course you can always do better (and worse).

To keep things crystal clear we have laid out what we do to keep our business sustainable.

Sustainable practises in our Workshop and Office

• We use only recycled cardboard Eco Trackpack Courier bags to send out goods. All bubble wrap and plastic bags are reused from things sent to us.

• Office paper is saved and reused on both sides then shredded and used in our worm farm at home, which is great as the worms love it and the vermicast is then used in our garden to grow food.

• All plastic bags including the million courier bags I get go up to the Community House shop where they are reused by people to collect bulk goods in.

• We don’t have a hot water system (apart from the jug for morning tea!).

• We use Energy efficient light bulbs throughout the workshop and turn off all appliances at night and when not in use.

• The workshop is fully insulated with wool batts and a layer of reused bottles under the floor slab. It is heated in winter by a small wood burner using wood harvested off the land, we have no electric heating.

• The Kiln is always fired totally full of earrings (about 30 pairs at a firing) and it is a very small efficient bead making kiln using about as much power as an electric heater going for 1.5 hours. Only a few designs actually use the kiln.

• The tumbler is always run full of earrings (several hundred at a time) so the energy cost per unit is tiny.

• Jewellery, because of its size and weight, has a very low carbon footprint to transport around the world.

Social objectives

Just wanted to share a little of the philosophy behind what drives the Stone Arrow business and brand. The truth is I am a bit of an old hippy at heart and realised at some stage part of me had some resistance to growing the business to a much larger more profitable entity.

What changed it for me is that I realised I could potentially do a lot more good in the world running a large business with larger profits than I could by keeping it small. It seems kind of obvious but to me at that time that was a breakthrough.

So the sum of my business philosophy is to build the business up to a level where it can comfortably provide for my family and then donate the excess profits to charities.

What does comfortably provide for my family mean? It means the mortgage is paid off, we have a vehicle that doesn’t break down all the time, the house is finished, we can go on holiday occasionally and pay for the kid’s education and save for our retirement. I am not a martyr wanting to skimp on the comfort of our family, but I do have ideals that would consider an expensive car, holiday home, going overseas often for pleasure more than the world can support. I have some anxiety about the future of the world and the direction it is taking and want to do whatever I can as an individual to make a difference any way I can.

Note: this is NOT a judgement of anyone else; I am referring only to my personal viewpoint.

Of course at the moment all of this is a moot point because I have a largish mortgage I need to pay off and lots of expenses for the family that come first, so you will just have to trust that I will stick with my ideals!

I am aiming to sell a lot more jewellery than I do currently and continue the trend of growing the business until it is several times larger than what it is now.

In addition I am personally closely involved with an organization called Tracks which runs 5 day programs acknowledging Rites of Passage for teenage boys growing into young adults.

Existing donations support the following organizations:

Greenpeace, Green Party, Amnesty International, Forest and Bird, Rites of Passage Foundation (Tracks).

We have also donated to the Christchurch Earthquake appeal and regularly donate jewellery to support charity auctions for various causes both local and national.

Tui Community Ethos.

Stone Arrow is based in an intentional Community called Tui, which has been running for about 30 years. When Tui began it was bare farm paddocks, it is now unrecognisable and covered in regenerating Native bush.

I have personally been responsible for planting several thousand trees over the years around the land, our workshop and house.

Tui has a strong environmental ethos, it has it’s own sewerage system, many of the houses use alternative energy and the water is sourced from our own local creeks.

My personal house has hot water needs met by solar in summer and wetback in winter (from wood harvested off the land).

There is a large community garden and most houses have their own gardens to grow food, all food waste is composted.

Tui land is owned and run by a trust called the Tui Spiritual and Educational Trust which is based on the following aims and objectives:

The Objectives of the Tui Educational and Spiritual Trust

The primary objectives and purposes for which the Trust is established are:

• To promote education within New Zealand on the role and function of sustainable Communities, by establishing a living, working example of an intentional community that combines the essential principles of spiritual awareness, earth care, connection with nature and appropriate lifestyle, where residents and visitors can participate in a variety of educational and spiritual practices.

• To promote a holistic approach to education within New Zealand through teaching the principles of community and co-operation, the need for social, cultural and environmental awareness and the importance of physical and spiritual health and well-being.

• To promote and provide vocational training and research within New Zealand in the practice of Permaculture, organic agriculture, horticulture, arts and music, cottage industries and manual trades.

• To promote and provide seminars and workshops within New Zealand on the design and function of intentional communities and to promote the establishment of such communities.

• To promote research within New Zealand on the development and production of environmentally appropriate technology.

• To promote spiritual well-being within New Zealand through the unification of religious, cultural and other differences, in order to bring about renewal of love, creative energy and universal wisdom.

• To promote physical, mental and spiritual well-being within New Zealand and provide facilities for healing and relief of suffering through education and the provision of life-skills, healing practices, specialised therapies and counselling services.

• To promote the creation of a holistic nurturing environment that enhances and sustains a quality of life that does not exploit the environment or people and that is permanent, healthy and sustainable for future generations.

The secondary objects and purposes are:

• To carry on any other charitable objective which may seem to be capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with the above charitable objectives or calculated directly or indirectly to advance the above charitable objectives.

Areas we need to work on.

• Our Sterling silver is not guaranteed sustainably mined at present except in our Eco Earring range- our long-term preferences are to do a lot less silver and greenstone work (maybe not at all) and focus on selling the Eco Earrings. At present feeding the family and paying the mortgage mean we will be continuing with using regular Sterling Silver with our regular range although we are in the process of moving to using more and more ethical silver.

  The average percentage of the weight of a pair of Eco Earrings is 97% glass and 3% silver. We are investigating sourcing ethically mined silver for the hooks for the future.

• We use mains power (in the south island of New Zealand it is almost entirely Hydro)

• Our packaging has some recycled content but is not really very Eco! We had a large amount made up several years ago and when we have used the existing stuff up we commit to finding a sustainable alternative. It doesn’t make sense to throw out the packaging we have left so in the meantime we will continue to use it.

• We would like to be able to state a set percentage of our profits that we donate to charity, at the moment supporting the family and paying our workers takes priority, however we are quickly moving towards a place of more abundance.