What being green means to you
Home » Blog » Holly Jean Brooker » What being green means to youHolly Jean Brooker chats with Catie Wilkinson, marketing manager at the NZ Skincare Company, about what being green means to her at work and at home
What is your business about?
We are a certified organic manufacturing company based in Hamilton, New Zealand. Our core range of products is 'geoskincare', a certified organic skincare brand that is available in pharmacies, beauty salons and healthy living stores throughout New Zealand.
What does green living mean to you?
Everything! We are really passionate about creating skincare products that are free from toxic chemicals. Our mission is to create authentic, natural and organic products that enhance a healthier lifestyle for our clients and our customers.
We want to help consumers understand which ingredients should be in their skin and body care products, and which ingredients should not! We believe there is no room in this industry for ingredients or messages that are toxic and are committed to producing skin and body care products, which are healthy, not harmful.
How have you implemented sustainability into how your run your business?
Being a skincare manufacturer we receive and create a lot of packaging! We try to reuse in every way possible. Every box we receive gets put back into our dispatch area or used for re-packaging. All of our paper waste is recycled and then shredded and used in our packing. Penny’s (owner of NZSC) mum and dad sit in front of the TV and shred paper for us! We recycle all containers that we can’t use.
We also find creative ways of reusing – for example we do a factory sale every quarter and make bulk body washes, cleaners, garden spray, etc available for our die-hard fans. These are all packaged in recycled bottles that are supplied by a local company - which benefits everyone as it reduces plastic waste and lowers the cost of the products for our consumers.
Being committed to organic principals has far-reaching impact - most of our ingredients come from certified organic sources, we know that the growers and suppliers share our philosophy for health and don’t use herbicides, pesticides or other nasty chemicals when the raw materials are grown and undertake sustainable practices like crop rotation and companion harvesting which is good for the earth, surrounding nature and ultimately us!
The ingredients that we use in our products are really diverse and we try to use New Zealand grown or sourced ingredients where possible, which has a positive impact on our carbon footprint. We are so lucky that in New Zealand that we have some amazing native extracts and oils to choose from.
How does eco living overflow into your personal life?
For me personally it has overflowed hugely. Generally I’ve always been your average consumer – but since I started with NZ Skincare Company I have become more and more educated and this has a follow on effect in my personal life. I am now really careful about what I put on my skin, I now know how to read a label and highlight any potentially dodgy ingredients and I know now why these ingredients are toxic.
This has flowed through into the products that I use in my home – I can’t stand the thought of using chemical products now whereas I used to just pick up the cheapest bottle on the shelf. Interestingly enough I was recently in a situation where I had to clean a small bathroom with a standard chemical cleaning product. By the end my nostrils were burning!
I used to think that it would be too hard to ‘go green’ but what I am finding is that small changes add up to a big change and an overall healthier lifestyle.
Check out geoskincare at their website or at their Facebook page.
Holly Jean Brooker is Good's eco-living blogger. Read all of her blogs here.
