What makes us ‘Sustainable’, ‘Eco-friendly’ Wedding Planners?
At Emerald and Ebony, sustainability and making eco-friendly and ethical choices isn’t just something we preach to you. It’s a concept we live by; in our work lives, our home lives , our adventure lives – it’s something that we are constantly working on, learning about and striving towards… we’re maybe just a little bit obsessed… maybe…
But don’t worry! We’re not about to push you into anything. We want your wedding to reflect you and your values, not ours. And besides, we don’t believe in perfect. We believe in doing what works best for you in your current situation with your current priorities and your current passions. Because we’re all different and circumstances change.
And that’s a good thing!
If we all walked our sustainability paths in the same direction with the same sized strides, well, that’d be one awfully mundane world we’d be living in.
Here’s a little look at what sustainability currently means to us:
The Stuff We’re Proud of:
- Paperless Systems.
We’re fully electronic, with the exception of the odd bit of note taking and our back up timelines for your wedding day (no flat batteries ruining plans here). - Tree Planting.
Spoilers: but for every booking we ensure a tree is planted in your name. - Eco-Friendly and Ethical Wedding Solutions.
Helping you to find the solutions for your wedding that fit your personal values is one of our favourite parts of the job. - We’re (almost) plastic free!
In all that we do, both in our home and out of it, we’re proud to say you won’t find much plastic hanging around us. Sure, the odd bit sneaks in here and there (damn you packaging and medical waste!) but it’s definitely the exception to the rule when it does. - No branded litter.
There’s a reason you won’t see us handing out branded keep cups, notepads, pens or even business cards when you catch us out and about. We know you don’t really need that stuff and it all simply ends up in landfill later anyway. If we do give you a freebie, it’ll always be electronic, and if you see us rocking branded uniforms, know they’ve been eco-ethically sourced, and more than likely that’s our own custom hand embroidery you’re reading.
The Stuff We’re Working on:
- Offsetting emissions.
While not a final solution, we’re looking into ways we can offset our emissions while we develop more sustainable long term solutions. In the past we’ve funded tree plantings and in the future we’re aiming to just not have emissions that need offsetting anyway… - Zero waste home and office.
The next step for us to expand on being (almost) plastic free is to go completely zero waste! We have no idea how achievable this will be for us, but that doesn’t mean we won’t give it a good shot. Slowly but surely we’ve been reducing our total waste, and in 2022 our curbside landfill bin has only had to be taken out 4 times!
The Stuff We’re Not-So Proud of:
- Petrol fueled engines.
Unfortunately we’re not yet in a position to go electric… oh how we can dream – anyone feel like sponsoring us? In all seriousness though, moving to a fully electric vehicle is high on the dream list but it’s not looking like it’ll happen anytime soon. Until then, we’ll keep walking and biking when it’s appropriate while we stare longingly at the EV’s that pass us by.
If we’ve missed something off the list – let us know! This page and our methods are a constant work in progress.
Jodie’s extensive knowledge of event planning meant she not only was able to keep us on track, but was also able to let us know of all the extra bits and pieces we would never have known we had to consider.