Several years ago the lovely Co Founder of Synchronicity Earth introduced me to Arizona Muse. At the time, Arizona was (and is) a renowned model who was layering in a future career in sustainability. I liked her practicality, passion and compelling way of dissecting complex issues... Fast forward a few years and she has founded DIRT Charity, a UK charity working globally to turn fashion into a climate solution starting with the soil.... Specifically DIRT supports farm projects and biodynamic farming education.
In 2020 we moved our HQ to a farm, specifically to launch a regenerative agriculture project. We know first hand what the transition to regenerative looks like, which is why we are so proud to support DIRT. We will donate £5.00 from the sale of every Festival Pouch to DIRT.
We are two organisations which agree that plastic (fossil fuel derived) fashion isn't sustainable, and that transforming our farming system is fundamental to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss... a match made in DIRT you might say!
We are supporting DIRT with a brand new piece, which we have called our Festival Pouch. We called it this because it perfectly fits a phone and some tissue or toilet paper... we know our festival essentials! It can also hold a phone and passport, so it is great for travel. Why did we choose this piece to support DIRT? Well, it is both practical and fun, which if you think about it are both important skills to have when you are approaching large complex problems (like climate) and know that giving up or burning-out just aren't options.
And just in case you want to stop and smell the flowers... here are a few recent pictures from our farm!
A lone poppy in a sea of daisies, just outside the Field House
Monty, admiring the sea of yellow rattle growing between the vines.
Six Inches of Soil at Elvis & Kresse!
On June 13th we will be screening Six Inches of Soil at our workshop together with our friends at COOK, who will be providing a simple supper.
This wonderful documentary has been taking the country by storm with sold out screenings across the UK. We are very excited to be hosting one in our workshop!
The film tells the inspiring story of young British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, our health and provide for local communities.
Details:
Why are we hosting?
This documentary features farmers who are all on the same Regenerative Agriculture journey that we are. And what is regenerative agriculture? This is a great graphic, to give you the details in a nutshell:
We armour the soil, we keep living roots in the soil, we do not disturb the soil, we have livestock and we are fostering biodiversity at every opportunity! We also don't use synthetic chemicals or fertilizer.... we just use compost (that we make from locally available waste) and compost tea! Come along and learn more.
In particular this film features three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey - Anna Jackson, a Lincolnshire 11th generation arable and sheep farmer; Adrienne Gordon, a Cambridgeshire small-scale vegetable farmer; and Ben Thomas, who rears pasture fed beef cattle in Cornwall. As the trio strive to adopt regenerative practices and create viable businesses, they meet seasoned mentors who help them on their journey. They’re joined by other experts providing wisdom and solutions from a growing movement of people who are dedicated to changing the trajectory for food, farming and the planet.
“We imagine a world where Nature is Muse, Nature is Teacher, Nature is Client, Nature is Rights Holder and Nature is Stakeholder…”
The Garden of Tomorrow is a 2 day event, hosted by The House of Hackney at their HQ, 74-76 Leonard Street London EC2A 4QS.
All of the contributors have unique connections to nature - whether they are growers, communicators, activists, NGOs, or fellow B Corps... they all understand that we are a part of Nature, not apart from it. We all believe in the power of creativity and collaboration to make a change.
This is an incredible initiative by the House of Hackney - a company who we admire so much for acting on nature, when they could so easily just be talking... They are genuine kindred spirits!
Do come along for the event which runs from the 13th-15th of June, I will be giving a short talk/Q&A on the 13th in the morning before rushing back to the farm for our screening of Six Inches of Soil!
Click here to book your tickets for The Garden of Tomorrow.
A bit of a preview on our discussion where we hope to host a lively Q&A!
We will focus on our regenerative journey and why we moved our HQ to a farm, so that we could literally live, work and be in nature.
Our journey to the farm has been both short and long...
The short version? We saw it in the summer of 2020, and after first losing it in sealed bids in August, it was re-available in late November and we bought it on the 4th of December... It was quick because we had been looking and planning for a lloooooonnnnng time.
The long version? Years ago, when we realised that sustainable was not enough (if we all go net zero, we will cruise past 2 degrees) we wondered what Elvis & Kresse would look like if we became a regenerative business.
What does regenerative mean? Well, there is no single definition, but for us it means doing more. In practical terms it means that you give more than you take, you sequester more carbon than you emit, you generate more (renewable) energy than you consume, you treat more water than you use, you foster more biodiversity than you corrupt and you create more than you destroy. You have to solve more problems than you cause too... and all of this 'more' it has to be substantially more. We aren't talking about jumping on a plane and then planting precisely the amount of trees to account for it. We are talking about redesigning your business so that it delivers for nature and remember, nature includes people. We are redesigning our business so that it regenerates...
We thought the best way to do this, to weave this through our work, was to take on a farm. And not just any farm, but the worst farm we could find. Why the worst? Two reasons really, terrible farms cost less but more importantly we felt that it would be a much greater achievement if we could bring a degraded landscape back into biodiverse abundance. The past 3.5 years have been absolutely incredible - so do come along to discover the rest of the story!
As you can imagine, increasing biodiversity means doing lots of different things. Don't worry, a much bigger post is yet to come, but today we are going to focus on water, and newts! We are celebrating our first real biodiversity victory at New Barns Farm.
Water brings life... and our farm held no water. The first thing we did here, precisely 1 day after our planning permission came through, was to dig a series of ponds. We have 7 in total, two of which are quite large and hold well over 300,000L of water between them. These are live, soil lined ponds, planted to create complex ecosystems... In the first year they were a little barren but now they are absolutely teeming with life.
At just before 9pm, on Friday, April 26th (yes, Friday nights are a whole different kind of fun on the farm) our first newt survey began. With the expert guidance of John, a Masters Student from the University of Kent, we spotted 2 in our top pond and 10 in the bottom pond (all Smooth Newts). This was on an unseasonably cold night, when they are relatively inactive, so we expect to find more as it warms up. Also, John told us that the rule of thumb is that for every newt you see there are 10 that you don't. Can you spot the newt in the first image? We have zoomed in and circled it in the second one, to help you out!
Newts and other predators like dragonfly larvae are a sign of healthy ecosystems... it was great to have John's confirmation that our ponds are doing very well indeed! During the count we saw common frogs, toad spawn, pipistrelle bats, at least 10 kinds of beetle, nesting Moorhens, and two large hedgehogs.
Here is a maths challenge for you, when you go from 0 newts to 12+ newts, what is the percentage increase in newts?
Water brings life.
We love a special request, particularly when it so specifically speaks to our skills! Several months ago London's Air Ambulance Charity got in touch with us about a few fire-hoses that required decommissioning. We are always delighted to keep hoses out of landfill but there was an added bonus with this project. We were tasked with transforming these hoses into pieces for the Charity, so that they could auction them to raise additional funds, keep the helicopters flying and continue to save lives!
We made a selection of pieces from Weekend Bags to cufflinks and candle holders.
We sent them over and then held our breath... would London's Air Ambulance Charity love them as much as we did? And then came the feedback...
"We’re hugely grateful to Elvis & Kresse for putting together these amazing bespoke bags made from our old fire hoses to celebrate their anniversaries.
Elvis & Kresse make beautifully designed accessories and homeware from 15 different reclaimed materials that are contained within decommissioned fire hoses.
Speaking about Elvis & Kresse, our CEO Jonathan Jenkins said: "Our advanced trauma team attended over 2000 missions in 2023, so as you can imagine a lot of our kit gets worn out very quickly. To see our old fire hoses repurposed like this is amazing to see – and I can’t think of a more fitting gift for our longest-serving member of staff, Chief Fire Officer John Power.
"I’ve been a long term admirer of the work of Elvis & Kresse, and was delighted to be able to do this with them. I'd like to thank them for their incredible work.”
Introducing our Scottish Stockist! Try saying that 3 times quickly!
We have been having an ongoing conversation with Clare Campbell for many years now. Clare is the founder of Prickly Thistle, an incredible business which is bringing back centuries old weaving techniques and equipment to breathe new life into the tartan landscape. Her mission, her team and their products are all just amazing.
Their Flagship, Rebel Row, is now stocking a selection of our pieces so if you find yourself in Inverness and are keen to discover innovative sustainable design then head on over!
Rebel Row, 17 Union Street, Inverness, Highlands, IV1 1PL
EXTENDED HOURS COMING SOON FOR SUMMER!
Mon - 12noon-4pm
Tues - Closed
Wed - 11am-6pm
Thurs - 11am-7pm
Fri - 10am-6pm
Sat - 10am-6pm
Sun - 10am-2pm
On April 10th we had a lovely visit of all the Kent Mayors, coordinated by our local Mayor Sarah Stephen.
Of course Monty took Centre Stage
The event, which consisted of a full tour of our workshop and farm, helped to raise funds for Mayor Sarah's three chosen charities. We had a lovely afternoon, answering all manor of questions, sharing the Elvis & Kresse story, finding the perfect bag or belt for those who could not resist and of course there was time for tea and biscuits!
It is always a joy to welcome people to the farm, particularly a group so committed to the wider Kent community.
Did you know that Mayor's have a whole host of roles and duties including promoting public involvement in council activities, highlighting the work of local charities, presiding over council meetings and officially opening anything from schools to fetes!
We know what we do is unique, we know it is important. And we don't just know this intrinsically, we know it because we get emails like this all the time.
Our best story tellers are often those impacted by what we do, and the causes we support.
This lovely message arrived yesterday and we immediately asked Laura if we could share it - today we got a delightful reply, a wholehearted YES!
Hi to all that work at Elvis & Kresse,
I’m loving my gorgeous Small Post Bag. I spent 30 years as a firefighter in the LFB and was medically retired following an accident. Retirement has been, interesting. I started my transition from roughty toughty straight retired firefighter to being the women I had always known myself to be some years ago.
I was a proud London firefighter and I am a proud transgender woman and member of the LGBTQ+ Community but how do I link these two halves of my life together? A beautiful hand crafted handbag, hewn from the materials of my past fire service life is just the perfect way!
I will always enjoy the incredulous looks I will get when people ask me about my bag and I explain my journey. As I do talks to groups on trans issues this will happen a lot. It might lead to a hug or a smile or a sneer, it’s always difficult to know but I will very proudly use my Elvis & Kresse firehose handbag as a perfect symbol of the two halves of my life. Please inform your staff that sometimes a handbag is not just a handbag.
We are just delighted to be a part of a business like this. Indeed Laura, sometimes a handbag is not just a handbag.
One of the reasons we are so happy at our new HQ, New Barns Farm, is that we work in an efficient, warm, near passive building.
Essentially we use less energy here, because the building is very well insulated. We have dramatically reduced our need for heat because the straw bale walls, insulated roof and floor are all doing their job. Our heat pump and MVHR (mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system) provide our warmth and cooling without fossil fuels. We have the most energy efficient lighting possible, again, reducing our energy demand.
But the best news? Our Solar Panels are really working. Here is the latest report from Justin Ford, who installed them back in October 2022 (with batteries following as they were available, in May 2023).
I have conducted a brief review of the performance of your PV system over the first 280 days since we started monitoring its performance in late April 2023. Total generation reported by the Solis monitoring portal is 11,575 kWh. This compares to an estimated annual output in our original proposal of 10,671 kWh. With only three quarters of the year gone the array output is already 8.5% above prediction, which is pleasing.
Since the SMA Sunny portal started collecting data on 4th May 2023, 191 kWh has been imported from grid, mainly between Oct and Jan, whilst 177 kWh has been exported to grid, between May and Sept. Over the same period 1439 kWh were charged into the battery at an average of 5.3 kWh daily, which is relatively high utilisation for a 7.68 kWh battery capacity.
Overall, based on this evidence the PV array and the ESS seem to be relatively well matched to the consumption in the new building with only small surpluses exported to and imported from the grid. Also there is little overlap between periods of importing and exporting, which indicates that the impact of additional battery capacity would be minimal.
So we are pretty self-sufficient, great. But why don't we, with our large roof, go for more panels and more batteries?
We import from the grid at 27.98p/kWh but when we export we are only paid 4.10p/kWh. Now I realise that we don't have the cost of operating the grid, but we pay a standing charge, a daily charge for that... Why such a large discrepancy!
Also, we have 3 supplies into the farm, and neighbours. Why couldn't we supply ourselves for say, 20p/kWh, or our neighbours?
We have been told by UK Power Networks that we can't.
I am thrilled that some community energy pioneers are finding ways around this, as we feel a distributed system, with local generation can help with the renewable transition and with energy independence.
Right now we are just proud of our HQ. Find out all about the build on another post.
Here is the Direct Comparison with our previous site, Tonge Mill:
In our last year at Tonge Mil we used 7767 kWh of energy. In our new building at New Barns Farm, which is three times the size, we used 6107 kWh in our first year. But! We also generated 4502 kWh, meaning that we cut our total electricity consumption from 7767 kWh to 1599 kWh… or by 79%. And do you know what else? Because the old site was on gas and the new site is on a heat pump we eliminated fossil fuels, and the kWh we were spending on gas now sits on our normal bill. In our last year at Tonge Mill we used 22360 kWh of gas….
That last year at Tonge Mill we used 7767 kWh in electricity plus 22360 kWh in gas, or 30127 kWh in total energy.
Now we are down to 1599 total… or a reduction of 94.7% in kWh demand. And we did this while trebling the size of the workshop!
Last week Elvis & I sat down (remotely unfortunately!) with the indomitable Holly Tucker, founder of Holly & Co.
We have known Holly for what seems like forever... Elvis & Kresse was one of the first small brands to go live on her first big venture, Not On The High Street and we are now very excited to be joining Holly & Co, a wonderful marketplace celebrating the most creative small businesses in the UK.
Holly has a regular podcast where she interviews founders and innovators, her research is absolutely first rate and what can I say, so far she is the only person who has been able to get Elvis to put on the headphones and record.
It was a great chat, we hope you enjoy it. It is definitely worth waiting until the end where we read letters written to our younger selves and Elvis manages to remind me once again just how very lucky I am.
Q&A
I will never quite forget the first time we were told, by an august incumbent luxury brand that we were 'not a Maison', we were 'not a House'. It was meant to put us in our place, we were too small, we were not really luxury, etcetera etcetera.
We could have a lot of discussions about what a House might be, and who gets to define it... but why? We have always followed what we know to be good and true and radically on the side of a shared healthy future for the planet and its people.
Which means no, we are not a Maison. We are a Farm.
What does this MEAN?
We put the earth first, we put soil first, we put future generations first. This is how we make our decisions, this is how we design, this is how we manufacture and communicate and live.
What does this LOOK LIKE?
Want to learn MORE?
And just to be clear - our farm is also our home. We live here, our Vineyard manager and his family live here, and we have a cottage so that you can come and stay here.... why be a House when you can be a Home, a Farm, an ecosystem that is being restored to abundant biodiversity. It is time to think beyond outdated definitions, which are restrictive and reductive. If we want to do more, and be better, we have to think bigger.
