Why Less Is Having a Global Impact // 5min read

Do you shop with Mindfulness?

Recently Athella Tea has joined the Green Friday shopping movement, that looks at 'Conscious Consumption'. Which really got me thinking about how much I love this time of year but also how I get swept up in the excitement, that is the festive season. To be honest at times this can be all consuming and overwhelming, even if you are like me and love decorating your home (to excess), celebrating with family, friends and delicious feasts (over indulging) and of course the art of buying the perfect gift.

Over the last few year I have started to relook at the way I embrace Christmas and all the trimmings that come with it. Becoming more mindful of how I purchase during the gift giving season, has given me a fresh perspective on what it means to be a small business owner and how much it means to support, our local home grown talents. Many Australian businesses also care about their environmental impact and are consciously making a difference every day, this can often mean their items are more costly but the benefits are, that their suppliers are being paid a fair wage, items are often well made, ethical, biodegradable and they truly care about the impact their products have on the planet. This is one of the big reasons we have chosen to partner with Green Friday, as we align with their message of inspiring Australians to shop more consciously during Christmas.

This year I will be gift giving with consideration and mindfulness, on ways I can minimise the impact on the environment of my gift giving. This has naturally flowed into my business, Athella Tea. I wanted my brand to be a gift that had a purpose, bringing people together for a cuppa, had mind and body health benefits for the consumer, while also being conscious of our planet. Plus a gift which could be completely enjoyed for weeks on end and then disposed off in a way, that it would be able to be completely broken down in our environment.

Green Friday, has given us a platform to show case how we have created our teas, with an emphasis on minimal environmental impact. This is why when I created Athella, I knew I wanted to offer both Loose Leaf and teabags for there connivance but it had to fit in with my philosophy and be a reflection on how I felt about the impact on the environment, my new business could potentially have. I decided that if I wanted to add teabags to our blends of Loose Leaf, I had to leave off the extras, which meant no teabags with tags, strings or staples. Yes it would have been great for our brand awareness to have a tag, to remind you that it was us Athella Tea, that created the delicious brew you were drinking but caring for our planet and showing our children how we could make a difference, if only a small simple change, could accumulate to have a powerful impact.

While at Athella we mainly drink Loose Leaf, because Loose Leaf simply tastes better and our gardens love our used tea leaves. We also understood that teabags are oh so convenient and sometimes we just want a straight up, hassle free cuppa, this is why we introduced to our tea line up, reusable Tea Tongs, so that our tea loving community could enjoy a cuppa and know that you are making a change to a teabag without the extras.