White Black Grey Blog — Sustainability

We've recently welcomed to the store this delightful menagerie of wooden animals by T-Lab Japan. Called Pole Pole animals (meaning 'little by little' in Swahili), each one is hand-carved and hand-painted by skilled artisans. Not much makes us happier at White Black Grey than a behind-the-scenes tour showing how out products are made. We hope you might be interested too, join us for a little photographic walk through the production process of these adorable animals. The wood is sourced from the Albizia tree, one of the fastest growing tropical trees. This rapid growth allows T-Lab to produce the animals sustainably,...

Whilst dreaming about my Grand Designs house (more on that here), I've been researching furniture and materials made from waste plastic and other waste materials, and it has been fascinating!    Kitchen in 'Alba' from Smile Plastics. Designed by Indie & Co.   Since 3D printing has become more accessible in recent years, all sorts of awesome projects have been popping up around the globe, using post-industrial or post-consumer waste.     This is the "Print Your City" project by The New Raw, for Coca Cola Greece. Using waste collected from around the city of Thessaloniki, the company created an installation of...

I'm delighted to see a strong theme emerging in current posts from bloggers I follow. That is the concept of a slow and simple Christmas. All sorts of thoughtful posts are popping up with considered advice on how to approach the festive season in a quieter, more minimal, or more sustainable way.  This idea speaks to me very personally. I have never been a huge fan of Christmas, and whilst of course I love my family, it's never been a time of year I particularly look forward to. I suppose (and this sounds ridiculous now), I had never considered it...

Welcome to our latest "Brilliant Blogs" post. Where we write a blog post about other blogs that we think are brilliant. Meta.  This month, we're taking a look at Hearth and Nook, a beautiful little blog by Laura Willers. Laura is an interiors and lifestyle writer, blogger and consultant based in East of England, so not too far from WBG Towers. At the heart of Hearth and Nook are the twin ideals of slow living and minimalism. Laura's posts are honest and personal, and we've really enjoyed joining her on a journey in pursuit of a simpler and more authentic...

 In the news this week, it has been proposed by MPs that a 25p "latte levy" should be applied on single-use coffee cups in a bid to combat waste. They're further proposing a complete ban on the cups by 2023 unless recycling improves.  Having read about this on the BBC and The Guardian, I found some of the figures involved staggering: 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away in the UK each year. Less than 1 in 400 are recycled and it is reported that half a million per day (per DAY!) are littered. I'm amazed our city centres aren't all...