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Natural Collection a large showcase of unusual and beautiful lifestyle
products including natural, organic, energy efficient, fairly traded and hand crafted
product.
Natural Collection company was formed in 1999 with a vision to create
a distribution platform to support sustainable innovation and ideas. By offering a wide
selection of ecologically considered products and services we hope to reach as wide an
audience as possible.
In this way, Natural Collection hope to demonstrate that the basic power of
consumer choice can make commercially viable a growing range of top quality ecological products,
even within a competitive and well established market place; products which use modern technology
to harness nature’s benefits without exploiting her resources; products which can represent our
21st Century vision where trade is fair and poverty is alleviated through sustainable income
generation; and ultimately and ideally, products where holistic consideration stretches right from
their inception through their manufacturing process, to the benefit for the end user and eventually
to their recyclability and/or bio-degradability.
Natural Collection work with renowned environmental expert Edwin Datchefski, who
has been consulting on product design and sustainability for fifteen years. Edwin independently
assesses all products against our carefully considered criteria: Eco, Organic, Fair and Sustainable
Trade, Natural Living and Well Being.
Since Natural Collection inception in 1999 we have enjoyed the fantastic support
of our ever increasing and dedicated customer base and we now have the largest showcase of its kind
in the UK.
Natural Collection are the UK’s leading non-food ecological retailer and are proud
to be the official catalogue for Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Trees for Life, Out of This
World, The Vegetarian Society, Compassion in World Farming and the World Society for the Protection
of Animals.
Thus far we have raised and contributed over £300,000 for environmental and other worthy
causes.
Through our constant research and analysis of market viability and ecological criteria, we update
many suppliers about the use of better environmental materials and the importance of careful
sourcing from ingredients to base materials and the best use of innovative eco-alternatives for
product manufacture.
| Natural Collection have watched niche specialist
alternative suppliers whom we have nurtured and supported become accepted into
mainstream retailers. |
| When few people were aware of the toxicity of NiCad batteries we were
convincing suppliers to change them to NiMH |
| Before it was widely recognised that PVC was a pollutant we were
researching alternatives and encouraging suppliers to change their packaging and
material wherever possible. |
| We commissioned research into the problems created by the palm oil
industry and issued documents to all our suppliers explaining Friends of the
Earth’s concerns about its role in rainforest depletion |
| Natural Collection have spent hundreds of thousands
of pounds supporting fair trade communities world wide and have received heart
warming responses about what those purchases have meant to their communities. |
| Natural Collection were one of the first publications
in the UK to print on post-consumer waste paper – that’s the paper we all throw
away (which has greater environmental benefits than simply using off-cuts from
paper mills) when sourcing such paper was difficult and expensive. |
| Natural Collection have spent hundreds of thousands
of pounds on up front purchases of organic cotton at a time when it was expensive
and difficult to acquire. We have watched organic cotton change from an obscure
luxury to a regular commodity in many retail outlets. |
By buying in volume such a variety of products we have given many small and dedicated
suppliers the confidence to produce, change specifications and continue their ecological
innovations, secure in the knowledge that our volume purchasing can take their products to the
market and make them viable.
Natural Collection did this because ultimately we believe that as consumers we
have a tremendous power to shape the future of our world. Each and every individual choice, no
matter how small, can contribute to a tremendous sway towards an optimistic vision, where we
continue to enjoy the benefits of our creative discoveries and inventions but at the same time,
participate in a collective drive towards environmental stability and harmony with the rest of
nature.
Natural Collection believe that environmental awareness does not have to mean the
deprivation of the benefits our modern society has grown to enjoy, but rather adds a new and
exciting dimension to the definition of leading edge technology, innovative design and a vision for
a new and braver world.
Come and join us on this amazing journey and see how great ideas can really change the world for
the better.
Yours truly
Jo and Julian
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