We’ll be pausing our Sunday newsletter for now whilst we plan the next phase of BRiMM - our store will remain open and we’ll be back in your inbox soon.

Before you settle into this week’s newsletter, have you visited our Enough Store yet? With carefully curated products from 30+ brands now available across Home, Pantry and Self-Care, it’s never been easier to choose fewer, better things. Here are a few examples of what we stock, starting from £5.99:

• Dishwashing liquid refill pouches

• Raw British honey

• Small-scale farmed olive oil

• Plastic-free beauty products

• Refillable deodorant

Also, today is the final day of our promo offering a free bag of Origin Coffee for orders over £30. Grab your coffee now and browse the rest of our store.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… BRiMM’s autumn watch list 🍂 📺
The clocks have gone back (are you reading this an hour later than usual?), which officially marks the end of British Summertime. As the days get shorter and darker, we thought we’d celebrate the excuse to cosy up in front of the TV or head to a cinema. Here at BRiMM HQ we’ve put our heads together and come up with some thought-provoking, uplifting and inspiring movies, documentaries and short films to delve into over the autumn months – some new, some that may not have hit your radar yet. So grab a cup of tea – or a coffee – an organic cotton blanket, sit back and hit play…

Other Ways of Living
This three-part series from Waterbear and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explores exciting innovations being developed in the circular economy. Presented by award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Matt Shea, the episodes cover architecture, fashion and food.

Super Nature
Director Ed Sayers sent Super 8 cameras to a community of contributors around the world in a bid to make a more environmentally sound nature documentary, and the old family movie-style result is delightful. It just premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and will be released at a later date at theatres around the UK and Ireland.

Fashion Reimagined
Friend of BRiMM and fashion designer Amy Powney’s 2022 film explores how to make a planet-positive collection from field to finished garment. Watch on Sky Documentaries or even apply to host your own screening.

Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey
This sweet story of a trafficked baby pangolin – one of the world’s most poached and endangered animals – follows her journey with her “foster dad” as she rehabilitates and is returned to the wild.

Tribe with Bruce Parry
Twenty years after his original series, Bruce Parry returns to the BBC to immerse himself in remote communities like the Waimaha in the Columbian Amazon, who are deeply connected to the rainforest they live in.

Derby PLANTING programme
Animate Projects commissioned artists Simon Hamlyn, Lewis Heriz and Karen Okpoti to make short, animated films that explore our relationship to nature – cultivation, community, environment and place – in response to the work of three Derby ‘gardens’ – Derby Arboretum (Britain’s first public park), Hannah Fields community garden and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s urban Green Corridor project.

The Wild Ones
This six-part Apple TV+ series follows three men – Royal Marines Commando Aldo Kane, camera trap and survival expert Declan Burley and ecological storyteller and wildlife cinematographer Vianet Djenguet – as they travel through multiple countries on a mission to save six endangered species.

Common Ground
A BRiMM favourite (we screened this with a panel talk at Soho’s Curzon cinema a few months ago), this film is the follow-up to 2020’s Kiss the Ground, the Woody Harrelson-narrated documentary, but this time Woody and the filmmakers – plus Laura Dern, Donald Glover and others – are heading to Congress in the name of regenerative farming and soil health.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: PODCASTS SPECIAL

Too busy to watch? The BRiMM team and collective are also partial to an uplifting podcast. Stick on those headphones and get stuck into these joy-inducing shows, covering everything from food to clever morning routines to parenting fails.

→ LISTEN UP

BRiMM PICKINGS

We asked some experts for their favourite products stocked in BRiMM’s Enough Store. This week, dentist Dr Francis Chohan tells us why Laro toothpaste is worthy of a big smile (and it’s not just because of that incredibly chic packaging).

“As a dentist I am always looking for ways to encourage good oral hygiene while also boosting my patients’ oral microbiome. Laro offers a solution for people who are concerned with the chemicals in our environment, but don’t want to compromise on tooth protection. Combining a natural hydroxyapatite toothpaste with a good diet and good hydration not only benefits your mouth but your whole body.”

→ BUY THE TOOTHPASTE

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Daisy wanted to direct our attention to these amazing reef lampshades from Rootful, which are grown from plant roots into the desired shape

Becky is trying out Planthood’s meal kits and is looking forward to having healthy, planet-positive, affordable dishes arrive at her door soon

Sara at British Pasture Leather wanted to make sure you don’t miss their MADE WITH pop-up sale of accessories, bags, utility, lifestyle and craft items, live until Friday 31st October. It’s the only UK leather produced entirely from pasture-fed cattle raised on certified farms, with practices that improve soil as well as human health, ecosystem function, biodiversity, farm viability and animal welfare

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

MARKET TRADERS
If you need some new tech to watch your docs or listen to your podcasts on, upcycle your old gear and get something that’s been refurbished from Back Market, which has so far refurb’d more than 30 million devices, from phones to tablets to TVs. Why should we buy pre-loved? It’s 92% less impactful on the planet, and we couldn’t explain it more charmingly than Venetia La Manna…
→ TRADE UP NOW

JEEPERS PEEPERS
Peep Eyewear restores and repairs vintage glasses frames, which you can order to try on at home if you like to avoid any hasty decisions. They then fit your chosen style with your prescription so you can enjoy our watch list in style. And you can send them your old specs to be repaired or recycled.
→ BRINGING SPECS BACK

GREEN SCREENS
As well as looking out for venues, such as Parkway Cinemas across Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and the Lake District, who work hard to offer more planet-positive details including reusable cups, popcorn made on-site and local beer, coffee and ice-cream brands, you could join a film club. Groups like The Babel Film Club, now hosting screenings on Kingsland Road, not only offer the chance to watch movies as part of a community rather than solo, but also potentially reduce energy consumption (ie, stop you doing that simultaneous doomscroll on your phone…). Likewise, keep an eye out for BRiMM film screenings, too.
→ MORE ON FILM CLUBS

BROCCOLI, CHILLI AND ANCHOVY PASTA

As our friends at Northern Pasta informed us: it’s National Pasta Month! It’s also a great time of year to try a really traditional Italian pasta sauce – broccoli, chilli and anchovies. Most pasta recipe books will have a version of this, and Hannah’s made most of them, so this is her own tried-and-tested version. It’s incredibly simple and super tasty, and you can use whatever pasta you like (we’d recommend Northern Pasta’s Radiatori, which is available to buy in our Enough Store). The only other ingredients you will need are a head of broccoli (you can use frozen florets), a tin of anchovies, a red chilli (or chilli flakes) and a clove of garlic.

SERVES 2

• Divide the broccoli into florets and cut the stem into small cubes. Boil for 10 minutes.

• Remove the florets with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the pasta to the water and cook according to the instructions.

• In another pan, fry the garlic, chilli and around 8 anchovies in a little oil until the anchovies start to break up. Use the oil from the anchovy jar if you want an extra kick of saltiness. Add the broccoli florets and break up with a wooden spoon.

• Drain the pasta and broccoli stems but reserve a cup of the water. Add all of this to the anchovy mixture and toss together. Season and serve with a little parmesan, if you wish.

The carbon footprint of an email depends on the device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before you settle into this week’s newsletter, have you visited our Enough Store yet? This week we’re offering FREE COFFEE with every order over £50 (see below for details). With carefully curated products from 30+ brands now available across Home, Pantry and Self-Care, it’s never been easier to choose fewer, better things. Every purchase powers change – with 10% funding climate action. Browse BRiMM’s Enough Store now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

FREE BAG OF COFFEE WITH EVERY ORDER OVER £50

Just for this week we’re offering a free bag (worth £12) of the delicious Origin Coffee Sail Boat coffee with each order over £50. We adore this coffee from the Cornish B Corp which is transported from Brazil by, yup - you guessed it - a sailboat to save on carbon emissions.

Just remember to add the coffee to your basket and when your total reaches £50 it will apply a discount automatically.

→ GET FREE COFFEE

This week’s theme is… mushroom season 🍄‍🟫
It’s not news that mushrooms have certain superpowers. The Fly Agaric mushroom, for example, pictured top, could be described as the Superman of the fungi world; perhaps the most iconic, looks-wise, with legendary status in Scandinavia and religious uses in Siberia. They even have their own emoji.

‘Shrooms are shrouded in mystery, what with some being deadly poisonous (and looking almost identical to those that are not) and many possessing – as my Collins Nature Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools describes it – ‘disturbances of consciousness and hallucinations’. The more we discover about these mythical beings though, the more fascinating, and useful, they become, especially when it comes to our own health and that of the planet.

Mycelium – the root-like network of fungi that does everything from breaking down organic matter to allowing trees to “talk” to each other – is fast becoming a buzz word in planet-friendliness. The Royal Horticultural Society, which would have traditionally considered mushrooms to be a problem in a garden, have recently done a U-turn and are now encouraging us all to embrace them for the sake of soil health. Fungi are able to store CO2 and stabilise it in their network of fine mycelium filaments. The carbon can stay safely stored here, providing nutrients and improving soil health, for thousands of years.

But its superpowers don’t stop there, as mycelium is now being put to use as an alternative to materials like plastic and leather. Sam Shoemaker made a canoe out of mycelium and paddled for 12 hours in it. His mentor, Phil Ross, is the co-founder of MycoWorks, best known for its “mushroom leather”. One of last year’s EarthShot prize finalists was MYCL, an initiative to use palm oil waste to grow a viable low-carbon leather alternative while incentivising farmers to stop burning their crop waste. And it’s now being used as low-impact packaging for the goods we buy (more on that below).

Fungi are also incredibly good at helping us humans out when we mess stuff up. They even assisted during the aftermath of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. In 1991, scientists discovered a thick black fungus growing in the remains that was thriving on and able to “eat” radioactivity, decomposing radioactive materials like hot graphite in the reactor by absorbing them and converting them into energy for growth. Mycoremediation, meanwhile, is the practice of using fungi to clear up hazardous waste, including oil spills and heavy metals.

Add all this to our growing use of adaptogenic mushrooms – functional mushrooms that can help us to manage stress and improve our immune system – as well as the potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin (the hallucinogenic stuff), it’s clear that mushrooms are more than just good for us and the planet, they really could help to save it.

This year has been declared a bumper one for mushrooms, thanks to warm, damp weather, with an increase in rare and unusual species. So get out there with your pocket book or an app this weekend and admire the most mysterious things that nature has to offer – and check out the links below for other surprising ways to weave their magic into your life.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL

Today packaging represents around 40% of global plastic demand (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2022). But brands like Magical Mushroom Company are innovating new planet-positive alternatives. They combine agricultural waste with mycelium to grow protective packaging that can replace expanded polystyrene foam. It biodegrades in about 45 days yet is strong enough to ship cosmetics or electronics.

Read more in Mark Shayler’s fascinating article, over on our Journal.

→ DISCOVER MORE

BRiMM PICKINGS

We love hearing feedback from our members on which products they’ve been digging, so thought we’d share some with you so you can enjoy them too:

HOTEL MIKE HAND/BODY WASH AND LOTION: Based on how many rave reviews we’ve received, this probably ranks as our member favourite right now. In particular they “love the smell” – which we can attest to, too. Check them out.

UPCIRCLE SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER: This one is “all about the lather”, oh, and the scent as well. The pots last ages and because they’re made from glass you can either re-use them or easily recycle them. Find them here.

CITIZENS OF SOIL OLIVE OIL: We hear that our members love “using this as a base for salad dressing,” as much as “how great the bottle looks” in their kitchens. Oh and did you know they support regenerative farming practices as well? Too good to miss.

KINFILL KITCHEN CLEANING PRODUCTS: The aluminium forever bottles from this Dutch B-Corp brand have brought “a touch of glamour” to the kitchen sinks of our members. Looking for some kitchen glamour?! Head over here.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Hannah had the pleasure of sampling Knightor organic Cornish wines last week, which are made in small batches and, thanks to the British climate being colder than many wine producing regions, have a lower ABV

Amy loves this crafting project that pairs children with older people so that they can exchange artwork they’ve made for each other

Hardeep of Age of the Steward presents What Do I Owe The Cosmos?, a free
one-day immersive experience dedicated to radical slowness, led by Furoshiki artist-in-residence Tomoko Kakita and including lunchtime activation. Wednesday 29 Oct, registration essential

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

FUN GUYS
The Wolves is a Brixton-based slow fashion label giving vintage French workwear and other hand-picked finds like jackets and jumpsuits a new lease of life with beautiful hand-embroidered embellishments. We’re especially keen on the mushroom-inspired designs, but others include jellyfish, wild carrot and wolves (obvs).
→ SHOP SOME EMBROIDERY

MYGLU IGLOO
Alternatives to problematic concrete in the construction industry are always welcome – not only is it energy-intensive to produce, but it has added drawbacks like causing increased runoff and the urban heat island effect. So could mycelium be the answer to low-cost building solutions in hot climates? These architecture students from Frankfurt University think so, and have built an igloo from this lightweight, modular material.
→ FIND OUT MORE

LEGAL HIGHS
Since truffles containing psilocybin – which can have therapeutic benefits – are still legal in the Netherlands, it’s possible to travel there to have an above-board psychedelic experience. The Synthesis Institute holds supervised sessions and the 5-day retreat is preceded by a 7-week programme of preparation plus a health scanner quiz to see if you’re ready for it (or not).
→ SEE MORE

MUSHROOM MAPO TOFU

An extremely good dish that is about as umami as it gets. This centuries-old Sichuan meal is packed with meaty mushrooms and tofu – and is really easy to make. We love saving some for leftovers, so be sure to make a big batch.

→ MAKE ME

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before you settle into this week’s newsletter, have you visited our Enough Store yet? With carefully curated products from 30+ brands now available across Home, Pantry and Self-Care, it’s never been easier to choose fewer, better things. Every purchase powers change – with 10% funding climate action. Browse BRiMM’s Enough Store now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… circular design ⭕
You’ve probably seen the word circular used a lot recently when it comes to fashion, design and the economy. Circular is the new sustainable – a buzzword that started out with great intentions but that is now often, but not always, misused to bamboozle us into thinking that a product is better for the planet when perhaps, it’s not really (which is why the s-word is usually banned at BRiMM). So we thought we would use this week to have a simple look at circularity in order to empower us all to spot when a brand really is doing some fantastic circular things that are worth celebrating (and when it’s actually not). We’re all for supporting the good guys, after all.

A great place to start is the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the organisation whose whole ethos is to encourage designers in all industries to design waste out of products at their very inception. “In industries like fashion, food and plastics packaging, products and systems are designed in such a way that most materials are destined for landfill, incineration or leaked into natural environments,” they explain. “Through design, we can eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials and regenerate nature, creating an economy that benefits people, business and the natural world.”

The majority of production currently uses a linear model, which in simple terms means that items are destined for landfill once the consumer no longer wants them or they’ve worn out: for example, a single-use plastic coffee cup and lid, which is thrown in the bin and not recycled once that oat chai latte has been drunk. A reusable cup is undoubtedly a better option, but what happens to that cup once it no longer works efficiently? If it’s thrown away, that’s not circular either. The very best choice is a circular reusable cup, like these from Circular & Co. Made from recycled materials like fabric, fishing nets and even bubble gum, they’re designed to last for 10 years and – this is the crucial bit – the brand accepts the cups back at the end of their useful life to responsibly recycle them.

Over on our Enough Store, we stock the aptly named UpCircle, whose beauty and wellness products fit the circularity bill nicely. They use upcycled ingredients, like apple pulp, orange peel and coffee grounds. They also use glass jars, which you can refill with UpCircle goodies at many zero-waste shops when you’ve used up the lovely product inside. And since glass is infinitely and easily recyclable, even if you don’t refill them, there’s no need for the containers to ever go to landfill.

Unlike straight recycling, circular design puts the onus on the producer, not just the end user, to take responsibility for the product’s end of life as well as its beginning. Just because something is recyclable, doesn’t mean it’s easy for us to find a reliable way to do so. A nicer way of looking at it, perhaps, is that the people who design and make the product take care of the full life span of the materials they use to make it. Asking one simple question (OK, two) before you buy – “what’s going to happen to this when I don’t need it anymore? And how?” – should help you to make some genuine circular choices. After all, everyone knows, what goes around, comes around…

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL

Plastic is hiding in your wellness routine – in your creams, lipsticks and haircare. As beauty journalist Lisa Oxenham explains over on our Journal, it’s not just the packaging that fills our bins, but it’s inside the products themselves. “Hidden as microplastics, waxes and liquid polymers, these plastic-derived ingredients have infiltrated nearly every corner of our wellness world – from shampoo and SPF to lipsticks and hair serum,” she says. In this feature, we find out where it’s lurking and how to avoid it.

→ DISCOVER MORE

BRiMM HAS GREAT TASTE

At BRiMM we’re obsessed with taste. Our products have to be delicious to make it onto our online store. Which is why it’s no surprise that many of our curated brands are Great Taste award winners. Great Taste is the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme, which has been championing independent food and drink retailers and the producers, and the wholesalers and distributers that supply them since 1995. Check out some of our favourite Great Taste winners – and shop them – on the Enough Store now.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Susanna Bowers
This week we caught up with Susanna Bowers from My Global Pantry to find out her low-impact living tips, like this absolute gem: “I pickle my leftover vegetables before I go away on a trip – coming home to brilliant pink cabbage just makes my day.”

Read the full interview over in our Journal now.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Becky has been loving her Butter & Crust Sunday morning breakfast delivery by bicycle, full of premium London and UK produce

Zoë has been listening to The Tipping Point podcast, a fascinating delve into the story of some young scientists who, 50 years ago, predicted the climate crisis and were largely ignored

Hannah has become mildly obsessed with mending things – she just received back some Birkenstock-style clogs from The Boot Repair Company. They had worn straight through the sole but have now been returned to their former glory, thanks to these skilled geniuses

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

KNIT ONE, LOOP ONE
John Lewis has just launched a range of circular knitwear in collaboration with British wool recycler, iinouiio. The collection, which is called the Closed Loop Initiative, features beanies, scarves and jumpers made using recycled wool from John Lewis’s own takeback scheme FashionCycle, as well as other UK-based takeback schemes.
→ WRAP UP

MATERIALS WORLD
Published earlier this year, Circular Materials, by British architect Joe Gibbs, explores innovative ways of reusing materials in fashion, design and architecture. It highlights creative strategies for repurposing waste and replacing traditional materials with low-impact alternatives.
→ BUY THE BOOK

WILD DINING
While local, seasonal dining is nothing new, Wild, which has just opened in Berkhamsted, takes it a step further with a closed-loop system. All vegetable trimmings from the kitchen are returned to their own farm to be composted and fed to the next crops, creating a closed-loop system between farm and kitchen. The farm is also completely no-dig, regenerative and chemical- and pesticide-free.
→ BOOK A TABLE

MEAT-FREE DISH OF DREAMS

This one is a favourite of Susanna Bowers. “My courgette pasta recipe is inspired by spaghetti alla nerano, but I like to grate the vegetable to maximise the opportunity for caramelisation, and then use its bright green juice for a boost of freshness. It’s so creamy once you add the liquid that you don’t even need cheese, but no judgement if you want to throw some in there anyway.”

→ MAKE ME

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before you settle into this week’s newsletter, have you visited our Enough Store yet? With carefully curated products from 30+ brands now available across Home, Pantry and Self-Care, it’s never been easier to choose fewer, better things. Every purchase powers change – with 10% funding climate action. Browse BRiMM’s Enough Store now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… knowing the maker 🙌
One of the wonderful things about adopting a more planet-positive lifestyle is being able to tell the origin stories of the things you own and use. Because would you rather get complimented on an outfit and say, “Thanks! It was £5 from *insert fast fashion brand here*. I’ve no idea who made it”, or, “Thanks! It was made-to-order especially for me by someone called Pam in a workshop in Scotland that’s powered by renewable energy”. We know which version we prefer.

In fact, for many of us, learning about the potential exploitation of the workers who make our stuff is one of the main drivers for switching up our shopping habits. According to the campaign group Fashion Revolution, 69% of consumers want to know how their clothes were made, and 80% think brands should publish details about the factories that they use. The group began the Who Made My Clothes? campaign following the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 when it became starkly obvious that most consumers – and even some brands – really couldn’t answer that simple question.

By contrast, telling the stories about the people who make their products – as well as where they make them, and how – is a huge part of running a planet-positive brand, and one that most wear like a badge of honour.

Take the knitwear brand HERD for instance, whose product narrative runs through everything they do. They use Bluefaced Leicester wool, bought directly from high welfare British farmers in the North of England, guaranteeing a fair wage. Garments are made from field to fibre within 150 miles of the farms, using organic detergents, plant dyes and water (no nasty chemicals here). To put it very simply, this is about as local as knitwear gets (unless you farm the sheep, shear them, spin the wool and then knit it yourself. But you get the gist). So if you’re wearing a HERD natty knitted bonnet (or jumper) and someone asks you where it’s from, you can reply with an incredibly accurate and detailed answer.

Here at BRiMM, we stock brands with origin stories at their heart, and we love being able to amplify those planet-positive tales in our Journal as well as in this newsletter. Northern Pasta Co., for example, take a similar route to HERD. They use British regeneratively farmed spelt which is milled locally and packed in paper bags (no plastic – yay!). Meanwhile, Citizens of Soil, who source small batches of olive oil directly from a handful of regenerative farmers, were also a no-brainer for us to have as part of the family. You can meet all of their farmers – most of whom are women – on the producers page of their website. And because they use a mechanical (not chemical) process to extract the oil, milling the olives within 24 hours of them being picked, the oil itself is of a superior quality, too.

The way we see it, the more you know about the products we stock, the more you will feel a connection to them on a deeper level than if you just bought them at a regular shop. We hope you’re also more likely to spread the word about them (and us!) to others. Because the more people we can get to support the brands that are making stuff that’s good for the planet, the better off we will all be.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW THIS WEEK

This week we caught up with the founder of BRiMM-stocked brand My Skin Feels, Danielle Clementina Close, who is also a professional psychic medium. The early-stage skincare business caught our eye in so many ways. Firstly the concept: they use upcycled food waste (which is packed with good-for-the-skin antioxidants) in each of their products. The simplicity of their formulations make them a winner for sensitive skins and the packaging is chic, simple and innovative. In this feature, we find out how it all began…

→ DISCOVER MORE

Have you shopped The Enough Store yet?
We had such an amazing response to the launch of The Enough Store last week, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?! Packed with more than 80 planet-positive products, across upwards of 30 brands, our curated edit of Home, Pantry and Self-Care items give you convenience and the opportunity to make an impact at the same time. Shop individual products, from handy eco rubber gloves to beautiful refillable deodorants (yes!) and even the world’s first zero-waste granola.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Conrad Quilty-Harper
Our latest Q&A is with Conrad Quilty-Harper, the journalist, author and co-founder of investigative fashion newsletter and site Dark Luxury. He shares some of his planet-positive secrets, including this gem about his top second-hand find. “It’s a tie between the Sharp word processor with a built-in printer that I found for £5 in a Sevenoaks charity shop and the signed first edition of Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard, which I found on Oxfam’s brilliant online bookshop – which was more expensive.”

Read the full interview over in our Journal now.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Next year is going to be a particularly great year for seeing the aurora borealis, and Becky loves the look of this 5-day Northern Lights trip to do just that with B-Corp company Up Norway

Living on the south coast as she does, Hannah is keeping her eyes peeled for one of the many rare glossy ibis that have been flocking here in much larger numbers than usual. These wonderful birds were worshipped in Ancient Egypt, after all

James found this article on the biodiversity benefits of agroforestry in Latin America a fascinating read

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

SABAH RANKS
Sabah have been hand making their traditional slippers and shoes in Turkey and El Paso, Texas, for over a decade. Each pair is made using natural materials and is finished with the initials of the individual who made them written simply in ballpoint pen on the inside of the shoe. You’ll find loads of pictures and information about the makers on their website.
→ SLIP INTO STYLE

DOWN THE ISLE
The beautiful Isle of Mull Hotel and Spa keeps it Gaelic by using ishga products during its beauty treatments. These are made with four types of Hebridean seaweed, which is sustainably harvested from the shores of the nearby(ish) Isle of Lewis. It is then extracted directly into Hebridean spring water using a low temperature extraction process, which protects the beneficial compounds and enzymes.
→ BOOK A STAY

FARM HANDY
The Farm Shop Guide features 165 farm shops in England, Scotland and Wales, including their cafés and restaurants. The book is intended to guide anyone seeking the freshest local farm food, while helping British farmers at the same time. It also includes extra info like PYO (pick-your-own) options, maps, EV charging points and whether or not establishments are dog-friendly. A handy addition to your staycation bag.
→ BUY THE BOOK

SRI LANKAN RED LENTIL DAL

This week’s recipe is a favourite of Insiya Jafferjee, the founder of Shellworks who we interviewed in our Journal last week. “It’s comforting, nourishing and always reminds me of home,’ she says. “Cooked slowly with onions, garlic, ginger, spices and coconut milk, finished with lime juice and fresh coriander, it’s simple but endlessly satisfying.”

→ MAKE ME

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before you settle into this week’s newsletter, we’re thrilled to tell you that The Enough Store is here! With carefully curated products from 30+ brands now available across Home, Pantry and Self-Care, it’s never been easier to choose fewer, better things. Every purchase powers change – with 10% funding climate action. Shop The Enough Store now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

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This week’s theme is… community-led living 🤝
Whatever your thoughts on the film The Thursday Murder Club, if you’ve watched it, you may well have come away with the same takeaway as us: “I want to live somewhere like that”. With its stylish apartments, gorgeous grounds and, crucially, communal indoor areas, the elderly residents all seemed to be having a wonderful time, with not a socially isolated person in sight. In fact, our friend’s parents have just moved to Cotswold Gate – which very much seems like a real-life version of it (murders aside). And that got us thinking – is community-led living a better option, even if you’re not retired?

On a sunny hillside plot between a woodland and a hospital in Bridport, Dorset may well have the answer. Hazelmead, a 53-home cohousing project, is the brainchild of local people who were frustrated with a lack of affordable housing and craved a sense of community. It has taken 17 years to complete, and earlier this month won a prestigious Housing Design Award.

As well as having fantastic planet-positive credentials – including a renewable energy system, group growing and meals and shared electric transport – this way of living encourages more social interaction, which has benefits for all ages, from young families to the elderly. “It’s showing people do want to care about each other, they do crave community, social interaction,” the project’s architect, Sam Goss, told the BBC. “It is possible to achieve better environmental standards when the people themselves who are living in homes design them so they are more aspirational.”

Community housing projects, with modestly-sized private homes and shared spaces that encourage accidental socialising, originated in Denmark. Jystrup Savværk, for example, previously a sawmill, has 21 private residential units in one large building, with 40% communal space, part of which is made up of a glass-covered ‘street’ where residents can eat or play together. Elsewhere in Seoul, Bo-Da has treehouse-style micro apartments with clever details like modular storage and magnetic paint that allows for quick and easy personalisation, all linked to a huge communal glazed atrium planted with large trees.

With its positive effects on mental and physical health, reduced loneliness and the environmental benefits of resource sharing, as well as being a more affordable option, it’s little wonder that the idea is gaining traction here in the UK. New Ground in Barnet, London, is the only senior women’s cohousing project in the country. The 25 flats and shared spaces are run by the women themselves, which allows them to help each other out with tasks like collecting prescriptions from the chemist and doing the shopping. At the other end of the age scale, warehouses all over Hackney and Haringey are being co-opted by 20 and 30-somethings who have been priced out of the traditional housing market.

The food writer Rosie Kellett lives in one with six other people. They share a bank account and take turns to cook, which they’re pretty good at – Rosie hosts a supper club with her housemate, Virginia Malavasi, and her Sunday Times best-selling book, In for Dinner, features 101 affordable and great-tasting recipes that can help to save money, live with a lower environmental impact, reduce waste and share more joy. “There really isn’t anything more appealing to me than sharing a meal with my friends at the end of a long day,” she says. “I honestly don’t think I would still be living in the city if I hadn’t found this way of life.” We like the sound of that.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW THIS WEEK

We don’t often stop to think about just how many shampoo bottles we go through over a lifetime. But consider this: if you use one bottle of shampoo per month (a conservative estimate), that adds up to, on average, 744 bottles during the years from age 18 to 80. On our Journal this week, our Head of Beauty Sam shares the planet-positive bottles to buy to lower your impact – and improve your locks at the same time.

→ DISCOVER MORE

NEW! The Enough Store is here
Discover 80+ planet-positive products, across 30+ brands, now available to shop individually at BRiMM. Our curated edit of Home, Pantry and Self-Care items give you convenience and the opportunity to make an impact at the same time. From British single-source honey and Greek extra virgin olive oil refill pouches, to zero-waste face care and biodegradable bin liners, with The Enough Store, it’s easier than ever to shop planet-positive. Plus – everything works brilliantly and looks beautiful to boot.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Insiya Jafferjee
This week we’re chatting with Insiya Jafferjee, the founder and CEO of Shellworks. This groundbreaking company is developing Vivomer – a new class of natural materials made from waste biomass, created to replace plastic. She cites nature as her planet-positive hero – “It’s the greatest innovator and teacher we have, every solution we need is there if we look closely enough” – and shares her top deodorant, body lotion, podcast and recipe tips, plus loads more.

Read the full interview over on our Journal now.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Sam’s been reading up on the EU’s extended producer responsibility law – less waste and more circularity can only be a good thing

Christabel has just finished her house renovation and is moving onto the garden with ‘How to Design a Garden’ by Pollyanna Wilkinson

If Hannah lived in Sweden, she would be heading to ReTuna Återbruksgalleria, the world’s first recycling shopping mall

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

COMMUNITY CLOTHING
Founded by Patrick Grant (yes, him off the Sewing Bee), this brand makes exceptional quality everyday clothing (trust us, we wear it) at a fraction of the price of other premium brands. By making 100% of it here in the UK, it sustains and creates jobs, helping to restore local economic prosperity and pride.
→ SHOP GREAT GARMS

SUNNY SIDE UP
Want to generate your own solar power but don’t have the means to do it on your own roof? Community Energy Together is a collaboration of organisations across the UK that has so far brought seven solar farms into community ownership. One of its organisations is currently fundraising – shares are available to buy until mid-November from £250, which could make you money while helping advance clean power.
→ FIND OUT MORE

HOPE FULL
South East Londoners! Eat out or buy groceries at one of the three Good Hope cafés and community hubs in Hither Green and Ladywell. As well as serving excellent food and drink, they are a great tool for young people starting off their work life as they partner with Drumbeat School and ASD Services to provide personalised placements for young people with autism, enabling them to experience the workplace and acquire a range of essential skills.
→ EAT OUT

SQUASH MAFALDINE CAVOLO NERO GREMOLATA

This speedy recipe for squash pasta, green salsa and crispy garlicky bread crumbs comes from Rosie Kellett’s brilliant Substack, The Late Plate. It’s a divine autumnal dish, ideal if you love squash but hate the messy prep usually involved and, of course, it’s perfect for sharing.

→ MAKE ME

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before you delve into this week’s newsletter, a reminder that there are still a few tickets left for both our Stitch & Bitch event and our BRiMM + British Pasture Leather experiential Field Day programme. Head to our events page now for tickets.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… get psyched for recycling ♻️
Tomorrow is the beginning of Recycle Week, so today we’re celebrating the wonderful world of repurposing. We thought we’d start by establishing the difference between recycling and its other half, upcycling – because both are great, but they are not the same. Recycling breaks down materials, often by shredding or using a chemical process, before reconstituting them into a new raw material, while upcycling simply takes the original item and repurposes it into something else as it is, meaning that you can often see evidence of the original item in the new one.

The RE-PETE Project, for example (pictured: top), makes its outwear from rPET, which is recycled items like plastic bottles and coffee lids – you can’t see the bottles and lids in the parkas and trench coats, because they’ve been reconstituted into something completely different. World Secrets shoes, on the other hand, makes its carpet clogs from vintage rugs, which is pretty evident when you take a look at them in their resplendent colourful patterned glory.

Clever, eh? And there are so many brilliant brands, people and projects that are saving materials from going to waste and lowering their production impact to boot. How about turning an old pair of socks into a bespoke charger, for instance? (Yes, really.) RE_CONSIDERED transforms unwanted textile waste into lovely things like jewellery, furniture and homeware. It uses locally sourced UK textile waste (or yours) to make bold, colourful pieces from its innovative Fabreco material, which looks a bit like terrazzo. Müll Club recycles household plastic waste into beautiful, usable objects like combs and soap dishes (they have a particular penchant for pink Vanish tubs). Founder Charlie started the club when she learned that in the UK, 58% of plastic waste collected for recycling ends up in landfill, 14% is exported, 11% is incinerated, and only 17% is truly recycled – Müll Club aims to change that.

Recycled plastic gets a lot of air time, but less frequently discussed are the natural fibres that can be recycled, namely from clothes back into clothes. Teemill will accept 100% cotton clothing from any brand to be recycled and blended with virgin cotton, resulting in its ReMill recycled cotton fibre. This moves away from polyester – what the majority of recycled cottons use to strengthen their old fibres – and allows items to be recycled into natural products over and over again. Meanwhile, iinouiio, part of the Camira Group, has been using traditional Yorkshire wool recycling techniques since 1970 and will soon be upscaling to repurpose more textiles into yarn and cloth in its new Camira Yarns Mill in Huddersfield, and Gen Phoenix transforms discarded leather into high-performance materials. With so much material already in existence, repurposing it just makes sense.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW THIS WEEK

This week we have an extract from Emmi Salonen’s fantastic new book The Creative Wellbeing Handbook. This creative director and educator’s work centres on Positive Creativity – “the idea that design can connect people, foster wellbeing and support sustainable choices”. And we’re here for it!

→ DISCOVER MORE

NEW! Our Breakfast Reset Boxes
Some of our own brands at BRiMM are fully on board the recycling train. My Skin Feels, whose own skincare products are made from rescued food, takes old beach towels and makes them into bags, in partnership with New Commodity. Self-care and skincare gurus UpCircle uses upcycled ingredients including hemp seed (from the textile industry), coffee grounds (from artisan cafés) and olive stones (from the olive oil industry). And our brand new Breakfast Reset Boxes contain two boxes of Nibs etc. granola that’s made using rescued British apple juice pulp and organic grains. So look no further if you want to try out some repurposed products for yourself. Fancy buying some of these products individually too? That will be possible very soon – watch this space.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Anastasia Miari
This week, we caught up with the wonderful food writer Anastasia Miari, whose two books, Yiayia and the recently released MEDITERRANEA feature recipes (and wisdom) from Greek and Mediterranean matriarchs. We’ve tried the recipes, they’re fantastic (read on for one below). We loved Anastasia’s responses to our questionnaire, including this gem: “Live like a Mediterranean granny! Eat seasonal, organic, cut your meat, up your friendships, social interactions and time outdoors. Swim and NAP more.”

Read the full interview over on our Journal now.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Brick. Borrow. Build. That’s what’s on the cards for Becky (and her kids) as they join this Lego borrowing community.

Hannah is planning on learning to weave with a brilliant kit from Shive Textiles, which rescues deadstock yarn otherwise destined for landfill.

As a member of the Not Yet Named Wine Co., Andy has been voting on which grapes to harvest and how they are processed. He also went on a “school trip” to the Slovenian vineyards to meet the winemaker and taste the wine as it was being made.

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

HANDY GANDYS
Gandys’ new collection of recycled modular bags includes backpacks with detachable compartments that transform front pockets into smaller sidekicks, to weekend tote bags with multiway straps that make it possible to carry them in endless different ways. There are loads of colours to choose from and even the tiniest crossbody bag is capable of carrying loads of essential kit.
→ BAG ONE

REVINYL REVIVAL
While some musicians have started using rPET vinyl, which is undoubtedly a better option than PVC, the traditional material, Billie Eilish tapped the skills of Precision Record Pressing in Ontario for her Hit Me Hard and Soft album. Their Eco Mix vinyl is made using rejected records and excess trim cut from newly pressed ones, which is then ground up before being pressed into new albums.
→ FIND OUT MORE

BIKER TROVE
Recyke Y’Bike has been refurbishing unwanted bicycles since 2006 in the north east of England. Their work not only saves bikes from heading to landfill, but allows them to sell bikes at an affordable price or give them away to people in need, all while raising money for local charities and encouraging people to get cycling, for the sake of both their health and the environment.
→ GET ON YER…

ANASTASIA MIARI’S SPANAKORIZO

Taken from Anastasia’s new book MEDITERRANEA, this super easy dish is a kind of Greek spinach risotto. The vegetables are the star of the show and it’s much less fussy to make than a traditional Italian risotto. Serve it with a slab of feta, a wedge of zesty lemon, an extra drizzle of olive oil and plenty of crusty bread.

→ MAKE ME

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before you delve into this week’s newsletter, here’s what’s going on in the world of BRiMM:

• There are just a few tickets left for our Stitch & Bitch event on Tuesday 23 September, 6.30pm at The Meeting House in Peckham, London. Read on for an interview with our host, Orsola de Castro and get your tickets quick.

• In a few weeks we’ll be off on our BRiMM + British Pasture Leather experiential Field Day programme, exploring regenerative agriculture and local food, and sitting down to a gorgeous lunch. Put Friday 10 October in your diaries and buy your tickets now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… how to escape IN the UK 🌠
We’re a fortnight into the routine of September. Everyone’s back in the office, term time has started and the nights are noticeably getting darker (hands up who had the curtains closed before 8pm this week 🖐️). The summer getaway you literally just got back from already seems like a distant memory, but it was definitely still August just two weeks ago. We double-checked.

This obviously means that we’re already thinking about the next short break we’re going to take. We all need something to look forward to, right? And since low-impact holidays are high on the BRiMM wish list, we thought we’d use this newsletter to look at escapes you can book in the UK that include the kind of brain stimulation you need to really switch off from work and everyday life. Yes, even through winter.

A recent study found that breaks involving physical activity have a bigger positive impact than those featuring passive pursuits, such as lying on a faraway beach in the sun – and the British Isles are absolutely packed full of adventurous things to do that can be experienced year-round, from cycling to coasteering. If ‘active’ isn’t your thing on holiday (no judgement here), we’re also a cultural lot, so we’ve tried to find something to float everyone’s boat. Happy travels.

1. Visit one of the sunniest places in Britain. Check out this list from the Met Office revealing the 11 locations with officially the most sunshine hours per year.

2. Celebrate the arrival of winter migrating birds with a birdwatching holiday in Norfolk

3. Bristol is one of the most exciting cities in the UK when it comes to food. Book a culinary break with an eating tour (or two) and dig into some top fare.

4. Nothing says escaping the rat race like an adventure holiday. Wilderness England specialises in hiking, cycling, heritage, sailing and wildlife tours. See also Wilderness Scotland and Wilderness Ireland.

5. From dancing with swords to orchard wassailing, time a trip to an English village with one of the many weird and wonderful traditional English winter festivals held during the darker months.

6. Stay in a village with an award-winning pub, fish and chip shop and grocery store, all of which serve and sell goods produced by the local organically managed natural farm. The Collective at Woolsery, North Devon, is an off-season delight.

7. Make the most of the winter solstice (21 Dec) with a yoga retreat – complete with forest bathing, sound baths and cacao and fire ceremonies – in the Forest of Bowland with the Forestry Commission.

8. Go ‘set-jetting’ by visiting Castle Combe in Wiltshire. This picture-perfect Cotswolds town has been used as the location for War Horse, Downtown and Bridgerton, and looks especially pretty with a dusting of snow.

9. Do some stargazing at a Dark Skies festival. Organised around the best time to look to the heavens, they have extra activities like guided night walks and astronomy suppers. Held in Exmoor, Yorkshire and Cumbria all through the winter.

10. Britain’s not-so-best-kept secret Margate makes an ideal half-term break. Parents will love pubs like The Shakespeare (low-fi vibes) and The Last Light (low-lit and lively); meanwhile, treat the little ones to Quex Park’s Halloween Trail, which conjures just the right kind of mischief.

11. Swim with seals in a Scottish lagoon. Take a day-long boat tour with Basking Shark Scotland, guided by a marine biologist, to the Sound of Mull, a beautiful Hebridean marine paradise. (Tours run until the end of October.)
    
    Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: THIS WEEK

We’re diving back into the discussion sparked by our recent screening of the Laura Dern and Donald Glover-narrated regen-doc, Common Ground. Our influential panel included environmental innovator Mark Shayler, founder of fashion label AKYN Amy Powney (more on her below), sustainable garden designer Sarah Alun-Jones and Citizens of Soil’s Natalie Williams. You can now find the talk here as an epic Q&A, covering everything from prisons to polyester and all the promise and often harsh reality of trying to forge a more regenerative path today. It’s a fascinating read.

→ DISCOVER MORE

Also over on our Journal, our beauty guru Sam Zimmerman reveals the zero-waste bathroom products that really work.

→ READ MORE

Our Kitchen Cleaning Reset Boxes
Say goodbye to harsh chemicals and disposable plastic – and hello to fresh, spa‑like vibes in your kitchen. Every product in the Kitchen Cleaning Reset Box has been carefully chosen to ensure that each is a non-toxic, plant-powered essential. Together they will help transform your cleaning routine into something beautiful, planet-positive and effective – something to look forward to, even.

Read more about what’s inside our Kitchen Cleaning Reset Box and why we chose the products on the BRiMM Journal.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Orsola de Castro
This week we were delighted to catch up with Orsola de Castro, the trailblazing fashion disruptor who co-founded Fashion Revolution and is hosting our Stitch and Bitch event later this month.

What would you LOVE to talk about at our Stitch & Bitch event?
“About repairs and reparations. About how in a sea of waste, repairing our clothes prevents them being thrown onto another woman’s land. About mother mending, stitches of wisdom and how taking good care of one’s clothes is like taking good care of oneself.”

What are the hot topics in the world of mending right now?
“Breaking the stigma: how mending can be seen as the slogan for future generations. One visible repair is like a tattoo of our intentions. A declaration of love, for our clothes, for the people who made them, and for the Earth that we all share.”

What's the bitchiest stitch?!
“The prick that stabs at the status quo.”

Can an item of clothing ever be ‘past rescuing’?
“Never. I wear broken clothes. Embracing the fray - a tear like an embroidery, threadbare fabric exposing its weave, its essence. A dropped hemline making a straight line become an undulating lullaby. A breakage opening up a passage from my skin to the rest of the world. I am hole.”

Get your Stitch and Bitch tickets now, then check out our latest full Q&A with interior designer, upholsterer and broadcaster Micaela Sharp.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Charlotte is fascinated by the fact that oak trees are producing more acorns this year - and they got some help from mushrooms, too

James is digging the pioneering new collab between BRiMM founder member Amy Powney and Finisterre, “bringing you closer to the sea, no matter where you are“

There’s a rising trend for chaos gardening that Sam can’t wait to try - because messy nature is beautiful

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

NO NASTIES
If you’re going on a winter break in the UK, you *may* need a decent waterproof. Paramo’s outdoor gear is PFC-free - so no nasty forever chemicals are involved in the waterproofing - and they offer a repair and recycling service, too.
→ GET YOUR COAT

NEARBY THE WAY
While you’re on the road (or the rail- or waterways) it's always great to discover local producers to support in the area you’re staying. Whether you’re looking for food and drink or homeware and fashion, we love Produced Nearby, a country-wide online directory to help you do just that.
→ SHOP LOCAL

GOING SWIMMINGLY
The sea in the UK is at its warmest in September and October, so now is a great time to finally take up that year-round wild swimming you’ve been meaning to try. Rapanui clothing asked some experienced dippers around the UK for their favourite swimming spots, and came up with this handy round-up, featuring coastal, lake and river dips.
→ DIP IN

WARM AUBERGINE AND BROCCOLI SALAD

This is one of Hannah’s all-time favourite salads, from the book A Lot On Her Plate by food writer Rosie Birkett. The warm roasted aubergine and broccoli feel just right for this time of year, and the tangy dressing features honey, lemon, tabasco and anchovies. Irresistible.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR MERCURY RISERS

The Mercury Music Prize shortlist was announced this week, so here’s a tune from each of the 12 albums that made it, each of which is packed full of uplifting songs. We’ve taken care to ease you into this one with some Sunday morning-appropriate laid-back vibes, before picking up the pace to get you moving for the remainder of the weekend.

Half of you knew the correct answer to last week’s poll - it was indeed the chemist Paul Palmer who first coined the phrase zero waste in the 1970s

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us any feedback on BRiMM.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before we get stuck into this week’s newsletter, here’s what’s going on in the world of BRiMM:

• Have you got your tickets for our Stitch & Bitch yet? We’ll be joined by the brilliant Orsola de Castro for an evening of chat and mending on Tuesday 23 September, 6.30pm at The Meeting House in Peckham, London. Get your tickets quick.

• There’s still time to book on to our BRiMM + British Pasture Leather experiential Field Day programme, where we will explore regenerative agriculture and the positive impacts of local food, as well as tuck in to an excellent lunch. It’s on Friday 10 October at Weston Park Farms in Hertfordshire. Buy your tickets now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… how to be a zero hero 🦸
Making planet-positive changes in our lives is a bit like opening a can of worms. Once you delve into the world of recycling, plastics, agriculture, fashion and everything else that humans do that impacts the environment, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Which is why this week, we’re asking you to give yourself a break.

We’ve just finished Zero Waste Week, and although we absolutely applaud the sentiment behind it, that word – zero – can feel unachievable. Even the amazing Japanese zero-waste town of Kamikatsu isn’t 100% zero waste (more on that later), but it’s done enough to earn that impressive moniker nonetheless. So perhaps we should focus less on the word zero, and more on how we can lower our waste. For example:

• How are your products packaged? According to Zero Waste Week, the average person in the UK throws away five times their own body weight in waste every year. And even if you think you’re doing a great job at recycling, do you really know what happens to all of that stuff you’ve carefully cleaned and separated? A recent investigation found that 70% of soft plastics collected by supermarket recycling schemes ended up being incinerated rather than recycled. This is why we advocate for compostable packaging (meaning you could literally throw it on your own compost heap to decompose) as well as innovative materials made from seaweed, mushrooms and shells – read more about packaging on our Journal.

• Reduce your food waste. It’s estimated that one third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste and in turn, 6%-8% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are produced when it rots in landfill. It only takes the simplest of tweaks to your routine to save food, and a lot of it is just about being organised (hello, meal planning! We promise not to mention this every week). WWF has some great ideas and we love these zero-waste food tips from chefs, like making bowls from plantain peels.

• Support brands making cool stuff from waste. We applaud the people taking what others would view as rubbish and turning it into something not only usable, but beautiful, too. Bag brands seem to be especially good at doing this – Elvis and Kresse has to date rescued 300 tonnes of disused fire hoses from the London Fire Brigade, while, Offkuttt uses upcycled rubber from the Isle of Wight Hovercraft’s skirt to make bags and accessories.

We’ve all heard the phrase reduce, reuse, recycle, but did you know that it’s written in that order for a reason? Recycling is great, but it is less energy intensive to reuse things, and even better to reduce the amount we consume in the first place. Being a zero hero isn’t about reaching perfection, but if we all make small changes it can make a big difference.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

This week we’re thrilled to have an extract from the new book The Nature of Fashion by Carry Somers. Carry is a true trailblazer when it comes to planet-positive fashion, having co-founded Fashion Revolution, the world’s largest fashion activism movement. This book explores whether plants hold the secret to the future of fashion because “for thousands of years, our clothes have been made by working with nature, not against it. Fashion is at a turning point – to look forward, we need to look back”.

Read our exclusive extract over on the Journal.

→ DISCOVER MORE

Our Pantry Essentials Reset Boxes

We believe that small, everyday choices can have a big impact – especially when it comes to food. Our Pantry Essentials Reset Boxes are here to help you make delightful and easy swaps that are both better for your health and that of the planet.

Curated by Christabel Biella, former buyer at House of Fraser and a long-time foodie with experience at Farmdrop and Oddbox, this box is a handpicked edit of founder-led, flavour-first products that offer more than just great taste. Each item champions regenerative agriculture, circular packaging or waste-fighting brilliance.

Find out more about what’s in our Pantry Essentials Reset Boxes (and why!) over on our Journal.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Micaela Sharp
Micaela Sharp is an interior designer, upholsterer and broadcaster, whose creations celebrate colour, pattern and craftsmanship. With an online course and best-selling book sharing her knowledge and expertise about upholstery, she has a love of low-impact practices. She frequently hosts retreats at her home in the Malaga countryside; next year is her first luxury five-day creative retreat in Menorca. Micaela is a firm believer in living differently and going your own way in life.

Latest low-impact life reset
“I'm currently trying to collect as many seeds as possible, both from the garden and the organic food I buy, to plant next year.”

All-time top secondhand find
“I inherited most of my favourite vintage pieces from my nan. Her silk scarf from Liberty is one I treasure.”

Your planet-positive hero
“Sydney Piercey’s book Sustainable Play is the tip of the iceberg of genius ways she protects and respects our planet.”

Indie record store tip
“Sadly I don't know anything about vinyl shopping but as I've now deleted Spotify it's on my list to start a small collection.”

Issue you care most about changing
“Ending the occupation of Palestine.”

A message you’d like to share with the collective
“We all have the power to make change.”

The full interview with Micaela will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime, check out our latest full Q&A with journalist Hannah Rochell.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

A recent study found that nine out of 10 cosmetic products from 10 big brands contained microplastics. Sam found this read on the subject really insightful. Learn more about microplastics in beauty products over on our Journal.

Hannah spied Amy Powney wearing this Katharine Hamnett T-shirt to raise funds for child orphans in Gaza. Amy is passing the same T-shirt on to more people to raise awareness far and wide.

This book on happiness has been giving Matt joy – it explores how to find lasting happiness without relying on objects, situations and relationships

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

HOLD MY BEER!
It’s been found that 44% of bread in the UK never gets eaten, so we’re here for the brewers taking stale loaves and transforming them into great drinks. Crumbs has so far saved a whopping 56,600 of artisan loaves from going to waste.
→ GRAB A BREW

WASTE WONDERLAND
The small Japanese mountain town of Kamikatsu is the country’s first zero-waste municipality. All residents drive their waste to the town’s recycling centre to be sorted, even sending anything that’s still usable to the free onsite thrift store. Kamikatsu used to burn all of its waste (you could smell the smoke and burning plastics four miles away), but an effort to turn the tide in the ‘90s resulted in it achieving an 81% recycling rate by 2016. Impressive.
→ FIND OUT MORE

LIDDLE BIT OF GENIUS
These brilliant bamboo lids from Pudding Pots fit perfectly onto the little glass Gü jars we’ve all been saving in the Tupperware drawer “in case they come in useful”. They transform them into air-tight pots, perfect for keeping anything from half a tub of hummus to a travel-sized amount of moisturiser. Simple, but very effective.
→ BUY LIDS

SPAGHETTI ALLA NERANO

If you’ve got the holiday blues, we recommend getting a late-summer fix with a big bowl of pasta. This recipe from Notorious Foodie is a taste of the Amalfi Coast. You will need:

• 400g baby zucchini (thinly sliced)

• 300g spaghetti

• 2 garlic cloves, gently smashed (skin on)

• 1x bunch fresh basil

• 2 dried peperoncino (or ½ fresh red chilli / ½ tsp chilli flakes)

• Extra virgin olive oil

• 50g Provolone del Monaco

• 25g Parmigiano Reggiano

• Sea salt & black pepper

• Extra basil leaves to finish

For the full recipe, head to Notorious Foodie on Substack.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR THE NEW SEASON

It might be too early for a 2025 round up… but, well, here one is. Jump in to hear some of the tracks our founder James has been enjoying so far.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us any feedback on BRiMM.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before we settle into this week’s newsletter, here’s what’s going on in the world of BRiMM:

• Have you got your tickets for our BRiMM + British Pasture Leather experiential Field Day programme yet? We will explore the realities of regenerative agriculture and illuminate the positive impacts of local food, farming and fibre systems with insight from our experts. Put Friday 10 October in the diary for the event at Weston Park Farms in Hertfordshire and buy your tickets now.

• On Tuesday 23 September, Stitch & Bitch, hosted by the icon, pioneer and co-founder of Fashion Revolution and Esthetica, Orsola de Castro, will bring together curious minds to explore the quiet radicalism of visual mending over a shared table. It’s at The Meeting House in Peckham, London, and starts at 6.30pm. Get your tickets here.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… the great September reset 🍂
“September is my January”, said one of the BRiMM collective when we asked for their thoughts on this week’s theme. And in many ways, September is a much better time to reset than the new year. Setting new intentions in January can be pretty daunting – a whole year to commit to! – but setting them just for the last four months of the year can feel more achievable, especially since we’re still benefitting from that post summer glow, giving us more energy than we feel in those darker months at the beginning of the year (thank you, Vitamin D). Plus, getting into good habits now means you’ll already be well into the routine by the time those darker and party-heavy months come along, giving you a better chance of sticking to them.

For those of you that practise yoga, think of September as a little like the moment that you set an intention at the beginning of the class. Which in turn makes January – or perhaps, the part of a Yin Yoga session when you have to hold Lizard Pose for five minutes – that little bit easier to get through.

Of course, the start of new school and university terms always heralds a season associated with learning. But the shorter days and cooler weather do actually mean that we crave more structure at this time of year, especially if we really made the most of summer (some are calling this the Rave and Reset). It doesn’t necessarily mean having a timetable of lessons to follow, but it’s a great month to set new, more mindful habits with some kind of framework to help.

There are myriad apps out there that can lend a hand; Atoms, for instance, which was developed by the New York Times best-selling author James Clear, helps users to build small habits based on the person they want to become.

"All big things come from small beginnings,” he says. “The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time."

If you’re more of a pen and paper kind of person, your good habit building buddy could be something as simple as a magnetic meal planner to pop on the fridge. Coincidentally, these often look a bit like a timetable. Planning meals not only helps us to eat more healthily, but to reduce food waste, too. Refreshing and resetting intentions for the next few months ahead might simply mean making time to write in a journal, reflecting on what has happened in the last few months, the wins and positive things achieved, what to be grateful for, and what small habits you can change in order to make a positive change.

A survey on LinkedIn even found that over half of people asked thought that September was the ideal time to apply for a new job. We’re not saying you have to be that drastic, though, and your own September reset could be as simple as changing some of the everyday products you use to be more planet-positive. That’s where BRiMM can help – our Reset Boxes allow you to reset your life room by room. Each one is packed with products that are tried, tested and ready to work wonders for you. And the best bit? They also help to reset the planet.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

Packaging. It’s everywhere, and it’s often plastic. In this new feature, Mark Shayler looks at how we got to this point and how we can, potentially, get out of it – even through small, individual acts.

“On the one hand, packaging reduces food waste (which itself carries a huge carbon cost), ensures medicines and vaccines arrive safely, and makes global trade possible. On the other, excessive or poorly designed packaging contributes to environmental impact, litter, and rising public frustration (this last point is worth consideration in an article of its own; packaging is a diversion from the most serious and urgent threat of climate change and the resulting collapse of biodiversity).”

But there are also people doing it well, with innovative solutions using everything from mushrooms to seaweed. Find out more about packaging myths and breakthroughs over on our Journal.

→ DISCOVER MORE

Meanwhile, head chef at Bingham Riverhouse, the Richmond foodie mecca with rooms, Vanessa Marx is one of a new generation of visionary women in the British food industry. We caught up with her in-between services to find out her personal low-impact life hacks.

→ READ MORE

And our very own beauty guru Sam Zimmerman has been trying out the best planet-positive products for sensitive skin. You can read her results on the Journal.

→ FIND OUT MORE

Our Plastic-Free Bathroom Reset Boxes

It’s Zero Waste Week! The initiative, which this year runs from 1-5 September, is an award-winning, grassroots annual awareness campaign that aims to help people, businesses and communities to reduce their landfill waste.

So meet our Plastic-Free Bathroom Reset Box – where conscious choices feel effortlessly elegant. Every item arrives without a single piece of plastic packaging, proving that planet-positive living offers more convenience, not less. From innovative daily cleansing and moisturising duos, to delicious naturally whitening toothpaste, each beautiful, effective and design-led brand shows how thoughtful curation transforms daily essentials.

No plastic means no waste guilt, just pure ritual bliss and a smaller footprint left behind.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Dan Bell
A marketing specialist spanning festivals, events and mission-driven startups, Dan is now driving growth and community at BRiMM, building a planet-positive collective for better living. Here he shares his personal low-impact living tips (which may also serve as a guide to his hometown of Deal in Kent).

Latest low-impact life reset
“I bought a Hotbin composter - the aim is to get rich, organic compost in just a month. The plan is to use it on the allotment. Let’s see how it goes!””

Favourite walking route
”Just outside of Deal there is a gem of a walk around Waldershare Park, which during spring is full of wild garlic to forage.”

The independent coffee shop that makes you happy
”Pop Up Cafe can’t really put a foot wrong. Great coffee from Curve and the best cheese toasties around.”

Indie record store tip
”Smugglers Records. They also run Smugglers Festival, which I’m just about to go to.”

Person who inspires you and why
”Has to be my Mum. The voice of reason!”

Planet-positive hero
”Again, my Mum. She set up and runs a cooperative village shop!”

The full interview with Dan will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime, check out our latest full Q&A with Chef Vanessa Marx of Bingham Riverhouse.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Sugi’s project of “pocket forests” caught Tiff’s eye, which plants up urban spaces all over the world. They have 245 forests in 52 cities – and there are 24 in London alone.

Zoë is excited for the Design For Planet event which aims to equip one million people in green design skills by 2030. She can’t make it to The Barbican on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 September, so she’s booking an online pass for just £5.

From blue-green algae to the gelatinous film that floats on top of kombucha liquid, Hannah found this article on the future materials in fashion absolutely fascinating.

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

ME TIME
Nothing says reset like a wellness retreat. Reclaim Yourself specialises in slow travel experiences in lesser-explored destinations, using the knowledge of local experts to tailor trips the feature yoga, hiking and slow living. Many are outside the UK, but in November there’s a retreat in a magnificent Cumbrian castle, complete with yoga and plant-based meals, and it’s even dog-friendly.
→ RETREAT

DE-STRESSING
Reduce your reliance on the chaotic and uncertain outside world with Make Change That Lasts by Dr Rangan Chatterjee. This book explores the nine hidden ways day-to-day life causes responses like doom scrolling, snacking or pouring an extra glass of wine. It also shows you how to respond to them consciously by blending ancient philosophy with a deep understanding of health.
→ BUY THE BOOK

ALTER EGOS
Resetting how we think about fashion, the upcycle platform Alterist is popping up in ReSelfridges at Selfridges, London from 1–14 September. Ten UK designers will be showcasing their latest collections of limited-run, one-of-a-kind pieces reworked from pre-loved, excess and discarded materials. On selected days, the space shifts from shop floor to studio, as five featured designers deconstruct, rework and rebuild garments live in-store.
→ GET TICKETS

GRAB-AND-GO BREAKFAST COOKIES

Perhaps your September reset is as simple as making your first meal of the day ahead of time. We’re not just talking about overnight oats; how about these no-bake breakfast cookies? Just stir together mashed banana, 1¾ cups oats, ½ cup almond butter, ¼ cup maple syrup, 2 tablespoons chia seeds, ½ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon salt together until well combined. Fold in ½ cup blueberries and ½ cup walnuts then just roll, shape and stick them in the fridge for a grab-and-go breakfast.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR AN ENERGY BLAST

This playlist of indie/alternative faves is great to run to, and better than most regular gym music (in our opinion) – it also goes down a storm whenever we share it on insta. Ideal inspo for an exercise reset, perhaps…?

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us any feedback on BRiMM.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before we ease into this week’s newsletter, here’s what’s going on in the world of BRiMM:

• Have you tried our Reset Boxes yet? They’re designed to kick-start your planet-positive journey via careful curations of innovative products that will reset your food, cleaning or bathroom rituals - all in one box.

• Every item in our Reset Boxes has been vetted for performance, quality and environmental impact. Each one tells an amazing story of positive change. Find out more about how we created them.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… how to max out summer 🌞

The sunniest season is suddenly over. Or is it? Because while the September issues of glossy magazines have already been on the shelves for weeks, the shops are full of plastic Halloween tat (don’t get us started) and the kids have changed almost beyond recognition since last term, it’s August for another whole week. That makes it very much still summer, so we want to take a moment to stop and appreciate those longer days and all that comes with them before they fade away for another year.

Because what if just appreciating the present moment helped us to achieve a slower way of living? We’re all for that, here at BRiMM. Being distracted by what’s coming next, or what we are being told to buy next, stops us appreciating the things that are around us right now. Rather than forking out on some new knitwear that’s way too hot to wear until at least October, wouldn’t it make more sense to enjoy the last few wears of the year of your favourite pair of linen shorts? You could get out on a long walk before the mercury drops while you’re at it: studies show that walking in nature can improve concentration, calm the mind and even make us more creative. Bonus.

In a world that’s forever chasing newness and the next big thing, living for the present moment feels almost like an act of rebellion. Here are just a few things to celebrate before next month:

• The days might be getting shorter, but we still get around eight hours of daylight to enjoy and all the vitamin D that comes with it.

• Most kids don’t go back to school for another week. They’ll never be this young again!

• If you don’t have children, there are still benefits to enjoy before the start of term, like less traffic on the roads. Great if you like an early morning bike ride.

• It’s bank holiday Monday tomorrow. No further explanation needed.

• The sea in the UK is at its warmest in August and September, which makes now the perfect time to take up wild swimming and keep going through winter (don’t start in April. We speak from experience - it’s the water’s coldest month).

We do get that it’s not always easy to stay focussed on today though, and if you thought it was feeling more autumnal than usual for this time of year, you’d be right. Berries have been ripe since mid-summer, and trees like our native oaks are already shedding their leaves. This is all thanks to the dry weather and four official UK heatwaves so far this year. Nature is under stress, but there are ways we can help as the long hot summer creates a ‘food gap’. If you have a garden for example, being more relaxed about deadheading and raking fallen leaves will create cover for insects which in turn, will provide a food source for birds. This all gives you more time to laze around in the late-summer sun, a glass of something delicious in hand, appreciating the world - and the season - around you right now.

So before you get caught up in next season’s new clothes, back to school madness, roast dinners, or whatever autumn means to you, don’t forget to be present in today. In August. In the summertime.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

The end of trends? We’re here for it. This week editor, author and low-impact fashion activist Tiffanie Darke talks us through 25 rules for tackling fashion with a responsible hat on.

“It is not fashionable anymore to wear head to toe new season, or even to capitulate to some of those legacy brands that have got fat and sweatshop-sick on growth (Loro Piana, Dior, Armani) or those that have been brought back from the grave in 100% polyester (Topshop). Dressing well is about doing it in as frictionless a way as possible. Treading lightly and carefully, in natural fabrics, considered craft and timeless design.”

Read more of this extract from Tiff’s book, What to Wear and Why, Your Guilt-Free Guide to Sustainable Fashion, over on our Journal now.

→ DISCOVER MORE

Meanwhile, the BRiMM collective have been busy rounding up their favourite second-hand shops and markets. Whether you’re after fashion, furniture or funk & soul records, we’ve found some real gems.

→ READ MORE

Making Mother Nature a Shareholder

She’s everyone’s most important stakeholder – so we’ve put serving her needs at the very heart of BRiMM. We believe that business can be a force for good. So we’re setting out to build a company that not only endeavours to have a low impact, but also aims to give back more than it takes.

How are we going to do this? Here are a few things we’re starting with:

• Establishing thorough and transparent vetting criteria for every product we list

• Leading with an editorial focus that helps inspire you to lower your impact within your everyday life

• Pioneering a unique model that sees us invest 10% of our revenue into helping the brands we stock to lower their footprint faster (so not just offsetting impact that’s already been made – but actually decreasing it)

• Registering as a B Corp so we can share our progress against an external set of criteria

• Making Mother Nature a 10% shareholder and director of our business

And that’s just for starters. Find out more over on our Journal.

→ READ MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Hannah Rochell
This week we’re chatting to Hannah Rochell, who worked at publications including The Times, InStyle and The Standard before pivoting her career seven years ago when she didn’t want to write about fast fashion or trends anymore. Because, you know, the climate crisis. She slowed down her life by writing exclusively about planet-positive fashion and lifestyle for publications and brands - you’ll see her name at the top of this very newsletter and she writes her own, Slowette - as well as moving from London to the somewhat more chilled-out location of the Isle of Wight.

Favourite planet-positive products
“I’ve been using UpCircle for years and it’s so good. I’m lucky enough to live near two zero-waste shops and they both offer UpCircle refills, which is really handy. My favourite products are the day and night creams, as well as the facial oil, but I’ve just started using the shampoo and conditioner too and it’s brilliant.”

Favourite walking route
“This is a really hard one! And although I love so many walks locally here on the Isle of Wight, I think it would have to be the Great Glen Way between Fort Augustus and Invermoriston with stunning views of Loch Ness and the Scottish Highlands. It’s pretty challenging, but totally worth it.”

What’s your most joyful weekend moment
“I do yoga every Saturday morning which is a brilliantly positive way to start the weekend. During the summer months, our teacher moves our class to the beach which adds that extra level of special to the practice. And the fact that my best friends also come to the class is lovely because afterwards we plan what we’re going to get up to together before we go back to work on Monday.”

Plant-based dish of dreams
“You can’t go wrong with a veggie chilli. I often make a massive vat of the Anna Jones version when we have friends over in the winter months, served with baked potatoes. Although I also love it when they don’t eat it all and I can enjoy the leftovers.”

Indie record store tip
“Sounds and Grounds in Cowes on the Isle of Wight is a coffee and record shop all in one, and it’s dog-friendly too. As well as having an awesome and often quirky selection of vinyl, the glass tables house a host of old ticket stubs. When I was there recently I realised I had actually been to three of the gigs on our table!”

The full interview with Hannah will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime, check out our latest full Q&A with Karen Prado of Chimi Love.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

James has been enjoying Slop magazine’s weekly news round-ups of cool things to do, over on Instagram

We do love a bit of slow travel - Becky is feeling inspired by this five-day trip through New South Wales on a restored 1960s train. Very Accidentally Wes Anderson.

Hannah wants to take a trip to the V&A Dundee to see this exhibition of Palestinian embroidery, which is on until the spring

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

WRAP UP
We may be eeking out the last days of summer, but there’s no getting away from the fact that the evenings are a little cooler. Enjoy them outside for longer with a recycled blanket. Voited has a brilliant range of durable and beautifully illustrated ones.
→ BUY A BLANKET

GREEN FINGERS
Late August and autumn are a great time to plant winter veg in the garden while the soil is still warm. If you’re looking for inspo, the model-turned-gardener Poppy Okotcha is doing an autumn tour to promote her new book A Wilder Way.
→ BOOK TICKETS

PIZZA THIS, PIZZA THAT
B-Corp pizza oven makers Ooni are on a mission to become a completely regenerative brand. Where possible, they use recycled metal to make their ovens, and have partnered with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant over four million trees as well as giving back to Mad Agriculture, a US-based organisation championing regenerative agriculture. Oh, and their products make delicious pizzas, too.
→ GET COOKING

RASPBERRY, CHOC AND PEANUT BUTTER BITES

Been invited to a bank holiday BBQ and need to bring a little something as a contribution? These quick and easy (and seasonal!) raspberry, chocolate and peanut butter bites from Deliciously Ella are just the ticket. You only need four ingredients - plus some freezer time - and they’re even healthy, too.

→ MAKE ME

DUB BE GOOD TO ME

Whack on this playlist of reggae versions of well-known pop, rock and soul tunes. Perfect for some laid-back bank holiday vibes…

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us any feedback on BRiMM.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before we get into it, here’s what’s new in the world of BRiMM:

• Another BRiMM community event is just around the corner. Stitch & Bitch, hosted by the icon, pioneer and co-founder of Fashion Revolution and Esthetica, Orsola de Castro. The event will bring together curious minds to explore the quiet radicalism of visual mending over a shared table. It’s on Tuesday 23 September at The Meeting House in Peckham, London, and starts at 6.30pm. Get your tickets now.

• Our members get priority booking and special member pricing, so to be the first to hear about our in-person community events, join BRiMM to get exclusive info before everyone else.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… What should you do with a tent? ⛺

It’s nearly the bank holiday weekend! One of the last hurrahs of the summer. Which means that many of us will be getting out and making the most of the opportunity to sleep under the stars, whether camping, glamping or getting comfy in a yurt. And while going off-grid and getting connected to nature is undoubtedly a brilliant way to appreciate the world around us, not all camping is created equal. Or come to that, eco. We’re looking at you, festivals.

Festivals - however good their intentions - come with myriad environmental issues, and just one of those is the enormous amount of plastic waste. It is estimated that around 250,000 tents are discarded at festivals each year. Tents are made from nylon and polyester, aka plastic, which takes hundreds, if not thousands of years to decompose. Last year alone at the Reading Festival, which takes place again this bank holiday weekend, a whopping 71 tonnes of tents were left behind; 9 tonnes less than the previous year, sure, but still an unfathomable amount of avoidable waste that, as the festival states on its own website, is not recycled.

Thankfully there are innovative people tackling this issue, like Decathlon, whose No Tent Left Behind scheme encourages customers to return their tent at the end of the season in return for store credit. These tents then become part of Decathlon’s Second Life range, which makes outdoor gear affordable for more people. It also has a tent repairs and spare parts service, as does Mountain Equipment: incredibly handy for those who do actually want to hang onto their camping gear for as long as possible. Meanwhile, ReTribe (see below) makes bags in Sheffield from discarded tents, and even the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee upcycled tents into garments in last week’s episode with some great results. Of course, if people just took their tents home with them, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place, but here we are.

Many festivals also encourage fancy dress, which inevitably comes with rivers of sequins, glitter and face jewels. All of these things are more often than not made from plastic, and come with the added complication that they fall off the wearer, making it impossible to clear it up from the landscape once revellers have shed their sparkles and gone home. Microplastics on farmland and in natural waterways, anyone? We’re not party poopers, but we’d love to see more initiatives like Glastonbury’s, which has gone one step further than its initial ban of non-biodegradable glitter and has banned it completely. Imagine if people decorated themselves with fresh flowers instead! It would be blooming lovely.

And things are improving across the board. Many of the mainstream festivals now encourage cup collection and have water stations, as well as good recycling bins for everything other than camping equipment. But as usual, it’s the independents that are doing it best, some of which just so happen to also be taking place this coming weekend. There’s Between The Trees in South Wales, which is nature themed and has a wholesome acoustic line-up, while Into The Wild in West Sussex has a host of craft, dance, yoga and foraging workshops, just an hour outside London. And our personal favourite is Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire, but more on that later.

So whether you’re festival or campsite-bound for the end of this summer, take a moment to appreciate that fresh outdoor air and, above all, leave no trace.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

This week, we sent Conrad Quilty-Harper of Dark Luxury to explore the world of goat and deer leather at pioneering Billy Tannery on the Leicestershire border. Founder Jack Millington began the initiative as a side project when he learned thousands of British goatskins were being incinerated as waste, and has since become one of the UK’s only functioning tanneries. He now works with farmers, rewilding estates and restaurants to turn discarded hides into soft, characterful leathers, used in everything from place mats to handbags.

→ DISCOVER MORE

How and why we assess brands and products

We want to empower our community to make more positive product and brand choices. That’s how we know you can feel good about buying them.

We also want you to know exactly how we do it. For example, we sell products and brands that are independently certified or recognised as being better for the planet or people. Ideally both. We will be transparent about the standards each product meets and, in the future, plan to provide a ‘footprint’ for every product we sell, so that our members (hopefully that’s you - if not, get involved) can make fully informed decisions.

There’s a lot that goes into the process. And we want to tell you all about it so you can enjoy our products and brands with peace of mind. Find out more over on our Journal.

→ READ MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Karen Prado
This week we caught up with Karen Prado, co-founder of Chimi Love, the authentic South American fusion sauces. Colombia-born Karen and her partner Jacques use responsibly sourced ingredients to make their sauces right here in the UK, and you’ll find their excellent Chimichurri sauce in our Pantry Essentials Reset Box.

Song that lights you up and the story behind it
“‘Yellow’ by Coldplay. Every time I hear this song; it takes me back to a meditation retreat I did. That line, ‘Look at the stars, look how they shine for you’, feels like a quiet reminder that love, presence and beauty are always there, even when we’re too busy to notice. There’s something spiritual about the whole song. Like a mantra, repeating in a way that feels grounding, like someone saying, ‘I would do anything for you,’ not to impress, but for love. Even the word YELLOW doesn’t feel like a colour to me, it feels like a mood. Warmth. Stillness. Light. Like golden hour for the soul.”

Causes you support each month
“We proudly support Just One Tree by donating for every jar we sell. We also partner with Pineapple Women, a small nonprofit organisation founded and run by a Colombian woman. Their mission is to empower girls aged 14 to 25 by helping them find their voice, access resources to become creators and start their dream careers. My personal role is to mentor these young women, helping them build resilience, believe in themselves and overcome their fears.”

Issue you care most about changing
“The overuse of plastic and polystyrene, especially single-use plastics in food packaging. It is a major environmental problem.”

Do you have a message you’d love to share with the collective?
“I came to London from Colombia 25 years ago, without speaking the language, carrying a heart full of flavours and traditions. London, a city of many cultures, opened its arms and heart to me and became my first home. Chimi Love is a celebration of that journey. We are proof that being different is powerful, that food is a universal language and that community is everything. Build bridges. Share meals. Support each other. That’s how we all rise.”

The full interview with Karen will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime, check out our latest full Q&A with Chris Torpey of the brilliant Future Yard music venue in Birkenhead.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Hannah is obsessed with these modified espadrilles on Instagram - perfect for a gripping game of pétanque

Matt is planning on grabbing tickets for ‘The Listening Room’ Street Party, the first event at the SLOWE Living pop-up showroom in King’s Cross

Botanical Boys caught Becky’s eye, which sells rustic planters and pots as well as running workshops to build your own terrarium

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

CIRCLE LINE
With their line of upcycled accessories, ReTribe has so far saved 450 tents from landfill. They rework them in their Sheffield workshop, transforming unwanted nylon into handy hiking and outdoor accessories like sling bags and chalk buckets for bouldering. They also make to order, which means that none of their waste materials go to, err, waste.
→ GRAB A BAG

WAY OUT FEST
So many of the BRiMM collective have been to Shambala Festival - and LOVED it - that we had to give it a mention. It describes itself as “the most fiercely independent, seriously silly, wildly creative party in a field” and “completely and utterly committed to being sustainable, circular, regenerative, net positive, earth and life respecting, and future thinking.” Oh, and it’s powered by 100% renewable energy, too. What’s not to love about that? It’s from 21-24 August with a fantastic line-up and there are still a few tickets left…
→ FIND OUT MORE

SLOW BURNER
We’d love to try a Wonderbag while camping - just bring your one-pot meal to the boil, then place it inside the bag, where it will continue to cook for up to eight hours without the use of any power. A very chic slow cooker, if you will. The best bit? Wonderbag is also a social enterprise that helps communities struggling to afford or access power to cook without it.
→ TRY THIS WONDER

VIETNAMESE BBQED TOFU

We recently made this Vietnamese griddled tofu by bestselling food author Rukmini Iyer and our guests raved about it. It’s a really simple and outrageously tasty vegan option. Just dress the tofu in sesame oil (make sure you pick firm tofu to avoid it falling apart over the coals) and serve with BBQed tomatoes and a squeeze of lime. A brilliant veggie alternative to the ubiquitous grilled halloumi.

→ MAKE ME

STUDIO TUNES

Our very own Helen Kirkum, who leads our socials (both digital and in-person), has put together this week’s playlist, which she blasts out when she’s busy making new trainers out of old ones in her studio (she’s busy, is Helen). And if you missed them, you can read Helen’s planet-positive tips over on our Journal.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us any feedback on BRiMM.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before we get down with being more grounded, here’s the latest from BRiMM:

• We’re thrilled to announce that for our next BRiMM community event, we’re partnering with British Pasture Leather to bring you an experiential Field Day programme. Learn from experts as we explore the realities of regenerative agriculture and illuminate the positive impacts of local food, farming and fibre systems. It’s on Friday 10 October at Weston Park Farms in Hertfordshire and includes a delicious lunch. Buy your tickets now.

• Want to be the first to hear about our in-person community events? Our members get priority booking and special member pricing, so join BRiMM to get exclusive dibs for our next one.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff before anyone else.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… connectedness 🔗

When was the last time you took your shoes off and felt the ground beneath your feet? Really connected with the soil, the grass, the sand. With this planet we all call home. In a concrete-covered world where convenience is at our digital fingertips, many of us find ourselves completely disconnected from the Earth, as well as our fellow inhabitants.

So this week we’re celebrating the many people on a mission to reconnect, whether that’s by putting hands in the soil, or even simply by joining a group and feeling part of a community. Because it turns out that these things - soil and society - are intrinsically intertwined. And we can all benefit from that.

It was the panel talk after our screening of the film Common Ground that got us mulling over the idea of connectedness (not, as the headline of this article implies, a well-timed listen to the Stereo MCs 90s banger ‘Connected’, although feel free to whack that on as this newsletter’s soundtrack). Our panelists, all pioneers in regenerative practices in their own businesses, from olive oil to fashion, cited a feeling of connection as a driving force behind what they do. Sarah Alun-Jones is from Sitopia Farm in Greenwich, London, which grows vegetables and flowers using organic, regenerative and no-dig principles and sells them directly to the local community, chefs and florists.

“I think that food and farming is a huge answer to the climate crisis,” she says. “It's a really easy way to connect everybody to the natural world. I really do believe that all of the problems that we're facing, from the climate crisis, mental health crisis, obesity - everything - all come down to a fundamental disconnection from the natural world. The first part of it is understanding how disconnected we are, and starting to reconnect. And I think that local food, small, resilient farms and local food systems can do all of that.”

Food is certainly one of the most straightforward ways to nurture connectedness with the Earth. However small your home space, it’s possible to wonder in the magic of growing your own food from seed and eating the rewards, whether that’s simply by sowing cress on a windowsill or replacing a houseplant with a fruiting chilli. We’ve even tried a more experimental crop of oyster mushrooms in a cupboard - The Caley Brothers home grow kits are brilliant for this.

But it’s so much more than just growing and eating. Food production has the power to reignite our connection with our local communities, too. Incredible Edible was founded in 2008 by Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, because they both saw the wider potential in growing as “a visible sign of a kinder, connected community”. It is now a network of more than 170 growing groups around the UK, matching people together in their local areas as well as spearheading Right To Grow, which campaigns for the lifting of red tape so that communities can grow on unloved patches of public land. “An opportunity to take up our seed packets, spades and watering cans and nourish our communities, without all the hoop-jumping,” as they put it.

What we put on our bodies is as important as what we put in them, but it’s not always as obvious how our clothing and soil are related, as Amy Powney, founder of the brand AKYN and another of our Common Ground panellists explains.

“Consumers have a real connection to the field when they're eating their food, a visual representation and understanding,” she says. “But in fashion, people have completely forgotten where their fibres come from. There's a giant disconnect.”

Remembering that we can effectively grow our clothes, rather than creating fabric from petroleum, and that natural fibres are better for both people and the planet, helps to find a sense of grounding in what we wear. Rootfull is a literal representation of this, an ingenious technique of growing organic, locally sourced textiles to shape through beeswax templates. It takes just two weeks to go from seed to harvest, and any excess shoot or seed is then used as animal fodder. Meanwhile, the short film Woman Grows Jeans is a beautiful documentation of Justine Aldersey-Williams’ journey to do just that. In a bid to highlight our damaging denim overconsumption - the UK buys 70 million pairs per year - she and a team of volunteers take 600 hours to handmake the UK’s only pair of homegrown jeans as a provocative signpost towards a possible future.

So whether it’s getting to know your onions, literally, or learning the true origins of your favourite overcoat, take some time this week to consider how growing both plants and communities has a positive effect on the soil and society. Because we can all do better, together.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

History shows that if just 10% of people are committed to change, we can tip the balance. So while we can’t mindlessly shop our way out of the climate crisis, perhaps by supporting the brands that are genuinely doing things better, we really can make a difference. That’s the thinking that Bob Sheard explores in the latest read on our Journal. His book, The Brand New Future – How Brands Can Save The World, is a manifesto for CEOs on how to use brand design not just to grow, but to grow differently, in a way that allows our planet and everyone on it to survive and thrive.

“At a time when the climate crisis feels overwhelming and most of us have lost faith in politicians, there’s one surprisingly powerful force that still has the potential to drive positive change: brands. Yes, brands, the very entities many have accused of fuelling overconsumption, might just be our best shot at designing a more sustainable future.”

From fishing footwear that heals the planet with every step, to technical jackets designed to last 20 years, Bob showcases five brands that are reshaping the future, and ways that we can all be a part of it.

→ DISCOVER MORE

The BRiMM collective has also put its hive mind to exceptional use this week with a round-up of our favourite independent coffee shops. And we’ve gone global for this one! Whether your caffeine fix is a cortado or a cold brew, there’s something for everyone (including the non-coffee lovers among you).

→ DRINK THE COFFEE

BRiMM’s first Planet Fund project

Here at BRiMM, every purchase powers positive change. Because we invest a minimum of 10% of net revenue into our Planet Fund, which in turn is investing in initiatives to lower the impact of the brands we stock.

With our first Planet Fund initiative, we’re working with two innovative energy companies; Urban Chain and OneZero Energy, in order to bring more renewable, solar power energy to the businesses who create the products we sell. This means that the brands you see on BRiMM can switch to a cleaner energy mix, with the aim of reaching 100% renewable. And here’s the kicker: they can do it for less than they are paying now. Find out more over on our Journal.

→ READ MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Chris Torpey
This week it’s the turn of Chris Torpey, co-founder of music venue Future Yard in Birkenhead in Merseyside, to answer our BRiMM questionnaire. Established in 2021 as a new venue in the town, it also provides live industry training and is a regional hub for artist development. “We believe that music venues are the maternity wards of creative culture,“ they say. “They are always the trailblazers, the first cultural flagpole when it comes to thinking about a place differently.” Future Yard has also pledged to become the first carbon-neutral grassroots music venue in the north of England.

Indie record store tip
“Go and ask the staff what they recommend, or what’s new. Don’t be intimated by the stereotype of record store staff - they’re experts, and it’s a waste to not pick their brains! When I go to a record store on holiday, I like to ask the staff to suggest some local artists, because I want to take something home from the place I’ve visited. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ll learn, and how many other shoppers get involved! Also, don’t ever not go into Sounds Of The Universe if you’re near Soho, it’s the best.”

Favourite walking route
“Anywhere along the coast of Wirral! We’ve got the longest prom in the country here, and I grew up right by it. It’s really relaxing to walk along from Seacombe Ferry up to New Brighton, watching the weather come down the river and the boats coming in and out, people going by. You’ve got the big, wide open vistas on the Irish Sea when you turn the corner, and gorgeous nature intrudes on the Dee side; but I love the quiet churn of the Mersey on the Left Bank side.”

Who is your planet-positive hero?
“James Gillaspy, our Sustainability Lead at Future Yard. He’s tireless, passionate and really insightful about all the work he does, and is taking us on a journey to become operationally net zero by 2030. He’s also a lovely guy and he has a wand of a left foot when playing football!”

What is love?
“It is a warm blanket of support and trust and respect, the freedom to get things wrong and learn from them, knowing that someone else has your back, and the tingles that run down your spine or cause your heart to swell.”

The full interview with Chris will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime, listen to his playlist (below) and check out our latest full Q&A with BRiMM’s Community and Events Lead, Helen Kirkum

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Charlotte is loving The People’s Mending, a clothing repair book and workshops that encourage wardrobe longevity

Bottle feeding some calves at Surrey Docks Farm is on Helen’s mind this week - an incredibly cute way to spend your spare time

Sam is very into Oquist, the waterless skincare brand that comes in a reusable terracotta work of art

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

DISCONNECT TO RECONNECT
Unplugged’s cabins, all around an hour from busy city life, offer the chance for a proper digital detox. Lock your smart phone away (literally: they have boxes with padlocks and old Nokias for emergencies), then switch off, destress and fully relocate yourself, within nature.
→ BOOK A BREAK

KNIT PICKING
In the market for some traditional woollen gear made by home-knitters right here in the UK? London-based brand O’Pioneers uses a collective of women to make all of its knitwear, from Annie Hall-inspired tanks to puff-sleeved roll necks. They even swap knitting tips on WhatsApp.
→ SEE MORE

COME TOGETHER
When we think of ourselves as citizens rather than consumers, we’re more likely to participate, volunteer and assemble or join up to make our society stronger. That’s the thinking at New Citizen Project, which works with organisations from the Guardian to the RSPB.
→ FIND OUT MORE

GRANNY’S BELGIAN BUNS

The collective was craving something sweet this week, so we’ve obliged with a delicious recipe from Baking with Granny, the website dedicated to keeping one family’s generational recipes alive. Cherries? Lemon curd? Icing? What’s not to love about this swirl of sticky goodness. Amy Reid, who founded Baking with Granny to document her mum Christine’s brilliant back catalogue, will have her first book, Scottish Bakes, published in October.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC TO LIFT YOU UP HIGH

Turn up these feel-good tunes from this week’s Q&A interviewee and music venue founder, Chris Torpey.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us feedback to share what you think.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Before we take some inspiration from our Nordic neighbours, here’s what’s happening at BRiMM this week:

• Following our Common Ground screening last week (more on that below if you weren’t there), we have two more brilliant events coming soon: a ‘stitch and bitch’ with sustainable fashion pioneer and BRiMM founder member, Orsola de Castro, to hear about the state of the fashion industry, and a day out on one of the UK's leading regenerative farms for a tour hosted by British Pasture Leather. If you (or your like-minded friends) aren’t already, become a member to have first access to more info and tix (just forward them this email).

• Did you know that we invest 10% of our net revenue via our Planet Fund as grants in initiatives with the brands we stock to help them lower their impact faster? Check out this section of our site for all the details, and a lovely vid.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff before anyone else.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… be more Danish 🇩🇰

Copenhagen Fashion Week, which is widely regarded as the most planet-friendly fashion week in the world, kicks off this week. Aside from the fact that attending it is a far more chilled-out affair than rushing around its counterparts in New York, London, Paris or Milan - get to the catwalks by bike! Swim in a harbour bath between shows! - since 2020, it has had a framework in place to ensure that any brand wishing to show there makes as little impact as possible. Environmentally speaking, that is.

This means that in order to show at CPHFW, designers must meet a set of minimum standards, such as using circular design principles, making at least 60% of collections from certified or deadstock materials and even that the shows themselves don’t use single-use props in their presentations. It is built on and added to each year in order to raise standards even further and exponentially. As CPHFW itself officially states:

“By implementing this framework CPHFW is not claiming ourselves nor the brands on our show and presentation schedule to be inherently sustainable or to execute sustainability efforts perfectly. Rather, the framework creates a basis and common language for CPHFW and our brand network and sets the expectations to be met when wishing to be part of our fashion week.”

It serves as an inspiration to do better, and many of the resulting collections show their planet positivity on their sleeves (no pun intended, honest). Stockholm-based brand Deadwood uses nothing but upcycled materials, for example, while Skall Studio - a favourite with the influencer set - focuses on natural mono materials. And the rest of the world is beginning to catch on: earlier this year, London Fashion Week announced that it would be adopting the same sustainability requirements as Copenhagen, with a pilot for its NewGen shows (for emerging designers) throughout 2025 and a view to roll it out further in the future. Many pioneering London-based brands will no doubt welcome this, since they’re already following lower-impact principles. We’re looking at and celebrating you, E.L.V. Denim and Phoebe English.

At a time when fashion has, quite rightly, gained a terrible reputation for contributing to waste and the climate emergency, this offers the opportunity to rediscover some joy in our clothing. The mindset it creates is one of designing clothes with longevity in mind, using waste materials and, at the other end of the chain, treasuring our clothes for longer; repairing and recycling them, rather than seeing them as throwaway items. Quite the relief for those of us that find pleasure in the simple act of getting dressed.

The Danes aren’t just leading the way when it comes to fashion, either. Consistently ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, it already has a world-class green energy system and aims to be the first country entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050. It’s known for responsible dining at restaurants like Esmée, ARK and Vækst - little wonder when you consider that Denmark has the highest consumption of organic food in the world per capita according to The World of Organic Agriculture Report (2024). In Copenhagen, you’ll find a whopping 397km of cycle paths, which allows around 43% of its population to take a bike to school or work. Thanks to some forward thinking, low-impact living is a way of life for most in Denmark.

Perhaps the reason for all of this innovation is that Danes are hard-wired to turn negatives into positives. Authors of the book The Danish Way of Parenting Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl describe their fellow citizens as “realistic optimists”. These are the kinds of minds and attitudes that we need when looking at solutions to the climate crisis. So let’s all try and be a bit more Danish. Pastries optional (but advised).

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

Here in the UK, we buy around 95% of our food at the supermarket. But do those mountains of plastic and the convenience of online shopping actually help us to eat any better? This week in our Journal, we’ve tapped into the know-how of butcher and SLOP magazine founder Nicolas Payne-Baader, who has written our feature How To Shop Better Outside The Supermarket. He says:

“In the main, supermarkets are deciding how much you should buy and packaging it up in plenty of plastic. In contrast, local shops operate almost exclusively on a buy-as-much-as-you-want basis.”

From learning your weights (lettuce is a lot lighter than you think!) to buying in season, here are his personal produce-buying insider tips.

→ FIND OUT MORE

Couldn’t make our panel talk? We’ll take you there

Last week, guests including Melanie Rickey from The Enoughness podcast, model and sustainable fashion advocate Brett Staniland and fashion designer Alice Holland-Lu joined the BRiMM collective and descended on Soho’s Curzon cinema for a screening of Common Ground. The film showcases the world of regenerative agriculture with appearances from stars including Laura Dern and Donald Glover. It was inspiring and fascinating, as was our panel talk that followed.

Hosted by Mark Shayler, we heard the viewpoints of fashion designer Amy Powney of AKYN, sustainable garden designer Sarah Alun Jones and Natalie Williams of Citizens of Soil and discussed everything from prison farms to polyester. Couldn’t make it? You can now dive into the full panel discussion Q&A in another of our new Journal articles.

→ READ MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Becky Lucas
This week it’s the turn of our editor Becky to answer her own questions. Former digital editor at Condé Nast Traveller, insight and strategy editor at British GQ and editor of Time Out Dubai, Becky is the tone of voice behind BRiMM, from our Journal and site to this newsletter – and she’s also going to Denmark to stay by a lake next week, so is extra on-brand today. Here are a few of her low-impact living tips.

Favourite walking route
“From Hertford (worth a day trip from London by train) to a little country village pub nearby called The Woodman, through fields and woods. It triggers lots of childhood memories and was the first thing I wanted to do when I moved back to the UK after seven years in Dubai. I also found out recently it was one of the reasons my parents moved to Hertford from London in the first place – so it must be good.”

Latest low-impact life reset
“Does giving my kids a bath every other night count? Because that’s a bit of a gamechanger (don’t judge). And we’ve been using bars of soap for a while, too.”

All-time top second-hand find
“I guess my wedding dress was second-hand - it had been a display dress in Charlie Brear’s boutique, then in Fitzrovia (now in Queen’s Park). I added some lace to it from a store off Broadwick Street in Soho. I also bought some sheepskin boots from a Harington Charity Shop that were quite eccentric but I wore them all the time for a few years.”

Song that lights you up
“’Say My Name’, Florence and the Machine: it was the soundtrack to a night spent on Oman’s Telegraph Island, the place said to have inspired the phrase ‘going round the bend’. Watch out for the bioluminescence in the water if you ever catch a dhow there. And, lately, Lady Gaga’s ‘Always Remember Us This Way’, as we’re singing it at my new local choir, R Voices, which is bringing me so much joy each week! We’re on the lookout for more members, especially tenors (ie, men), if you’re in North London or Herts and fancy joining us - no audition necessary.”
The full interview with Becky and last week’s interviewee, Helen Kirkum, will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime check out our latest full Q&A, with BRiMM’s Sustainability Advisor, Tom Berry

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Shiraz is planning to order this kit that helps you transform recycled paper into works of art

According to Matt, this is hands down the coolest thing happening in homeware on the planet

Hannah is loving this shipping forecast printed tee from circular fashion brand Rapanui

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

IN THE ROUND
Circularity has always been at the heart of the Copenhagen-founded, now international Mater’s furniture design. They have created unique patented materials made from industrial fibre and plastic waste, as well as e-waste (electronic appliances). These materials are designed to be recycled infinitely, meaning that they can be sent back to Mater at the end of their functional lives, to be reincarnated as a new chair, stool or table.
→ SETTLE DOWN

LAKE HOUSE RULES
Søhøjlandet is often described as the ‘Lake District of Denmark’, and with good reason. With more than 50 freshwater lakes and covered in beautiful woodland, it’s one of the country’s most elevated locations. Denmark as a whole boasts around 120,000 lakes, and if you’d like to stay in one, log-cabin style, Landfolk has an easy search tool to filter properties by lakesides.
→ BOOK A CABIN

NORDIC FEASTS
Authentic Danish food and limited-edition London residencies are the name of the game for chef Anna Søgaard, who grew up between Denmark and the US. You can find her Jomfru pop-up at Godet, the neighbourhood wine bar on London’s Essex Road, until Monday 11 August, featuring Nordic favourites like pickled herring, smoked salmon and plenty of rye bread. Book in advance for a slice of Copenhagen in the heart of Islington.
→ RESERVE A TABLE

THE ULTIMATE GREEK SALAD

Anastasia Miari recently celebrated the launch of new book MEDITERRANEA with a spread of Isle of Wight tomatoes and a splash of oil from Citizens of Soil (both brands are available in our Pantry Essentials Reset Box). The book features recipes from grandmothers of the Mediterranean and when it comes the humble Greek salad, Anastasia has some thoughts! Check out her all-time perfect recipe now - to lettuce, or not to lettuce…?

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR ALL MOODS

From blue jeans to black belts, we’ve put together an alternative playlist of songs that celebrate fashion and clothing. Now get strutting…

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our website and send us feedback to share what you think.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

We’ve got a jam-packed newsletter for you this week, but before we get into that:

• Thanks to everyone who came to our film screening of Common Ground and panel talk on Wednesday. It was great to meet some of you in person! Details for our next event are coming very soon.

• Today is the last chance to take our survey and give us some vital BRiMM input. We want to hear from you! More on that below.

• Not a BRiMM member yet? Join now and you’ll be the first to hear about future get-togethers, read our Journal and shop our products.

And subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff before anyone else.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… balance 🧘

We’re about to head into August, a month when many of us start switching off, even if that’s just a little bit. When we take some time off work, school and our usual routines, it gives us the space and opportunity to connect to people and places in ways we can’t when we’re rushing around dealing with the minutia of everyday life. Even if you’re still working – because unlike much of France and Italy, we don’t tend to take the whole month off – you might find that many of your colleagues are away, giving you the luxury of a little more brain space than usual. Nice.

As we collectively embark on the great August reset it got us thinking: can we achieve and continue that same sense of clarity when we head back into our routines in September? And can having a better work-life balance also benefit the planet?

There’s no doubt that COVID was a catalyst for us to rethink the way we work. Or, for that matter, don’t work. As Zoe Williams wrote in the Guardian in 2021:

Maybe anyone with a sense of purpose and direction can work from their bedroom, perched on an ironing board, and you only need IRL colleagues if you’re aimless and chaotic. But that conversation is actually standing in for (and masking) a more profound one about work itself. “Hustle culture” – working all the time, finding your fulfilment and identity there, pledging yourself to your employer like a serf, having a side-hustle to plug any gaps, configuring yourself as an instrument of productivity – has taken quite a hit over the past 18 months.

Lockdown, coupled with the fact that we realised it can be more productive, is why WFH culture caught on with such vigour. It tapped into the mindset that nothing is more valuable than our spare time, whether we use it to take care of our wellness or simply to make our everyday lives more efficient. Here at BRiMM, we certainly appreciate the opportunity to get a few washes drying on the line during the time we might otherwise be commuting, rather than having to chuck everything in the tumble drier. Perhaps you’re able to use that extra hour to do a yoga class and connect with your local community, bringing a sense of zen to your working day. You might simply do a store cupboard audit and properly plan some healthy dinners for the week, instead of wasting what’s on the turn in the fridge (we’ll cover clever leftovers later). In just a few days you could lower energy use and prevent food waste, all while keeping your mind and body in check. It only takes the smallest things to tip us back into balance, after all.

Of course, not everyone is able to work from home, and studies have shown that a shorter working week could be the way forward, a model that is being spearheaded by the organisation 4 Day Week Global. Participating countries, including Denmark, Iceland, The Netherlands and Australia just so happen to rank very high on the Happiness Index. Coincidence? It’s catching on in the UK: a council in South Cambridgeshire voted this week to move permanently to a four-day week, citing an independent report that showed 21 out of 24 services had improved since the new way of working was trialled. Just think of all the life balancing things you could do with an extra day. Maybe you’d get into saunas and cold plunges (see Slomo’s pop-ups and London’s Sauna and Plunge for details), or scratch that lifelong birdwatching itch by joining a club. You could take up a slow hobby like this week’s playlist curator Georgie Carter, whose spare-time sewing skills won her a place on a certain well-known UK television show.

However you work and play, we recognise that balance is also the key to successfully living a more positive life. We can’t all get everything right, right away, because until the systems we all have to use are also in balance, it’s almost impossible to live better, perfectly. It’s another area where we should give ourselves a break. We’re striving to make it all easier for you though, with the BRiMM Journal. Whether it’s on the subject of food, beauty, travel and beyond, we’re here to help you rebalance your life habits to be more in tune with the Earth and nature. We want to equip you with everything you need to navigate life with a lower impact, and enjoy yourself while you’re at it.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

We’ve got some great new reads over on the BRiMM Journal this week. First up, we’ve put together a list of the ultimate joy-inducing podcasts, as recommended by our collective.

We’re also excited to have our first feature from motoring journalist Jason Barlow, the longest-standing editor-at-large of BBC Top Gear magazine and a former presenter of the TV show, as well as a GQ contributing editor of more than 25 years. He’s been delving into the world of electric classic car conversions and asking, is it correct to remove the combustion engine in favour of an electric powertrain?

Everything from the Rolls-Royce Corniche to the Jaguar E-type and even the DeLorean DMC-12 is thoroughly explored, and here’s a clue about the outcome:

As Charles Rolls himself noted, ‘the electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration, and they should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.’ That was in April 1900, so we can assume he would have approved.

→ FIND OUT MORE

Take our survey, WIN a Reset Box!

Today is your last chance to take our survey. We want you to help us make BRiMM the best it can be, because we’re a community and everyone’s voice matters. We believe we can make a real difference. But we’ll only be successful in this if it works for you.

This quick survey will help us understand what’s resonating, what’s missing and how we can make BRiMM the best version of itself. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete, so it’s really easy. The best bit? As a big thank you, you’ll be entered into a draw to win a Reset Box of your choice worth up to £193.

→ TAKE THE SURVEY

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Helen Kirkum
We’re delighted to be catching up with the incredibly clever Helen Kirkum this week. Creative director Helen is a trailblazer when it comes to footwear innovation, rescuing old (and odd!) trainers from landfill and transforming them into covetable sneakers. She’s also a big part of the BRiMM collective, leading our community and events.

The independent coffee shop that makes you happy
”A pal took me to Found Hope, in Hither Green: it was so cute and the fresh sandwiches were incredible.”

Causes you give to every month
”Recently my charitable donations are focused on aid to Palestine.”

Favourite planet-positive products and why
”Apart from my HK crossbody bag in stone, I also love my Label Hjem trousers made from upcycled shirts. The coolest thing I always think about wearing meticulously crafted upcycled garms is that they never fail to start a conversation. I love the side-eye on the tube when people try to figure out what your trousers are made from – it provokes a deeper thought about process and manufacture.“

Quote to live by and who said it
”‘You can only do what you think is right at the time’, from my beloved Nana Iris.”

Do you have a message you’d love to share with the collective?
”The world is extremely tough and overwhelming right now, be kind to yourself and listen to nana.”

The full interview with Helen will be live on our Journal soon – in the meantime check out our latest full Q&A, with model and sustainability advocate Isabella Charlotta Poppius

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Becky is planning to escape to this secret lavender garden, an hour outside London. There are only limited slots available (which is what makes it so special!) so be sure to book in advance

Hannah is borderline obsessed with this performance artist on Instagram who poses as street rubbish to highlight the problem of litter

Christabel has been tempted to hop on a train to the south coast because Nick Cave donated 2,000 of his own books to Oxfam in Hove earlier this week

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS
Food writer Elly Curshen – AKA Elly Pear – is an inspiration to follow on Instagram, particularly when it comes to tackling food waste. As well as delicious vegetarian recipes and the answers to your top culinary questions (can you freeze hummus?), her Rollover Leftovers series will give you ideas for all the nearly-off bits in the fridge, including even those chip shop chips you can never finish.
→ GET COOKING

SLOW IT DOWN
In this new book, Slow Down Or Die: The Economics of Degrowth, French economist Timothée Parrique challenges the notion that endless economic growth is the answer to most of society’s problems. In fact, our obsession with it is actually speeding up social and ecological collapse. Instead, how can we measure our economies by how well we provide for each other in a just, equitable and planet-positive society? Pick up a copy to find out.
→ BUY THE BOOK

WASTE NOT: WANT
We all know that second-hand fashion is booming, but what to do with your clothes and accessories that are too worn-out or stained to be resold or repaired? Loom app connects you with one of over 100 designers who can create something new using materials from your unused wardrobe. Hannah from the team recently used them to turn an old suede dress into a highly useful tote bag.
→ TRANSFORM SOMETHING

A SUMMER CURRY

We’re huge fans of Meera Sodha, the food writer whose books are well-thumbed and sauce-spattered in our kitchens. This spinach and paneer dish is a delightful balance of warm spices, fresh tomatoes and spinach (we’ve also successfully used a glut of rainbow chard we happened to have in the garden). Swap the paneer for tofu if you want to make it vegan.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR ALL MOODS

What could be a more balanced career than DJing at festivals while launching your own upcycled fashion line? Georgie has a set at next weekend’s Camp Bestival and has just started selling her wares via her Instagram Keep Collective. She has curated this playlist for us, which will take you seamlessly from chill to thrill.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our new website and send us feedback to share what you think.

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Before we get stuck into this week’s topic - and it’s a goodie - here are a few reminders about some exciting BRiMM things:

• Our screening of Common Ground, the much-anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed Woody Harrelson-starring Kiss the Ground, followed by a panel discussion is now sold out, but we are keeping a waiting list open to notify you if tickets become available. It’s happening on Wednesday 23 July at London’s Curzon Cinema, Soho, 6.30pm-10pm. Sign up now - we’d love to see you!

• Enjoy some exclusive recipes from the brands behind our Pantry Essentials Reset Box. Yum. (more on this below).

• It’s never too late to become a BRiMM member. Choose to pay monthly or annually for exclusive benefits and events.

And subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff first.

Subscribe now

This week’s theme is… slow travel 🐌

Here at BRiMM, we appreciate the need to travel, but we also understand the climate anxiety that creeps up when booking a trip or even just getting in a car. Whether our reason to move is to explore the world, open our minds and appreciate the biodiversity that it is so important to protect or to simply go to the supermarket, the choices we make to get from A to B can make a difference. (Side note: might we recommend one of our Reset Boxes to make the big shop a little easier? They’re filled with joy and ready-to-go).

Since it’s summer holiday season, travelling for fun seems like a good place to start. Slowing it down could be as simple as going on holiday less frequently but staying longer, for example. Taking fewer or no flights is undoubtedly the ideal way to go, and there are sites, like BRiMM-fave Byway, dedicated to booking flight-free trips that do all the hard work for you. Should getting on a plane be the only option, it’s now the norm to travel with hand luggage only, which reduces, albeit slightly, the amount of fuel burnt on the flight (baby steps, it’s true, but better than sitting still).

Something that many are embracing is travelling to their destination by train. International train travel expert, journalist and award-winning author Monisha Rajesh has written a wonderfully romantic piece for our Journal on this very subject – who better could we have enlisted than the author of the books Around India In 80 Trains, Around The World In 80 Trains and upcoming release Moonlight Express: Around the World By Night Train (available to pre-order ahead of next month)? She tells us more about the eight-week journey, 33 train rides and more than 10,000 miles overland that took her from London St Pancras to Bejing in 2015, in lovely lyrical passages like this:

“As we rolled from one hub to the next, I discovered regional cuisines as hawkers hopped on and off selling snacks unique to each state, the railways key to their livelihoods. Soon my guidebook was laid to rest as my companions pointed out glorious, but lesser-known temples, historic salt flats and rare kingfishers, advising on where I should eat, sleep and visit to support their local communities. Many passengers became lifelong friends, and although I hadn’t realised it at the time, I was already embracing the slow travel revolution.”

Now read the full article.

So in a week when the UK government has reintroduced grants for electric cars, maybe we’re heading in the right direction. And when it comes to all types of slow travel, we can’t go quickly enough, because according to the UN, getting on board with better transport choices is one of the fastest ways to address the climate emergency.

After all, the hare didn’t win the race…

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

In an increasingly fast-paced and disconnected world, we crave more than ever the need to relax and enjoy our social lives. But while many are turning away from alcohol, is there really a way of achieving that one-drink buzz without any booze? In this exclusive and fascinating feature for BRiMM, brilliant lifestyle journalist and fellow Substacker Kate Spicer explores the rising number of options out there offering a genuine kick, minus the potential personal, social and environmental risks of excessive drinking. She says:

“In a recent experiment with two family members who normally choose not to drink, I shared Professor David Nutt’s Sentia, which enhances the effects of the hormone GABA, which is totally crucial to the effect of relaxation and sociability that we get from alcohol. Certainly in our house, Sentia volubly raised levels of fun, laughter and joy.”

→ FIND OUT MORE

Pantry Essentials Reset Box RECIPE SPECIAL!

If you’ve pre-ordered one of our Pantry Essentials Reset Boxes, they will be arriving with you soon (and if you’ve not ordered one yet, here’s where to find them in our new online shop). Packed with the greatest-tasting ingredients, everything included is grown by brands that matter and has been curated for those following a meat-free, pescatarian or vegan diet. What’s that you say? You’d like some recipe ideas that incorporate these lovely foods? It just so happens that we’ve published a fresh Journal round-up including three delightful meals that are quick and easy to make.

→ GET COOKING

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Isabella Charlotta Poppius
This week we spoke to the model and sustainability advocate who’s on a mission to redefine conscious luxury, from fashion and beauty to slow, meaningful travel. Isabella has also curated this week’s playlist – keep scrolling for a listen.

Latest low-impact life reset
”As a skincare addict, I’m really committing to refillable beauty – for example IRÄYE and Noble Panacea are skincare brands that do this very well, without compromising on luxury.”

All-time top second-hand find
”A pair of vintage terracotta-coloured Bally sandals with black piping. I’ve just sent them off to be refurbished by the ever-helpful team at Shoe Spa London in Kings Cross, so I can wear them for another 10 years!”

Most joyful weekend moment
”I’m quietly smug about usually not making any weekend plans. Waking up with no schedule, moving slowly and letting the day unfold is pretty indulgent to me.”

Quote to live by and who said it
“‘You can never be overdressed or overeducated.’ Oscar Wilde.”

Issue you care most about changing
”I’d love to see a shift in the ownership and influence of mainstream media – particularly in the UK and US, where so much of it is still run by a handful of billionaires with very specific interests. Even though digital platforms have changed the landscape, traditional media still holds enormous power: it shapes public perception, influences elections and decides which issues get taken seriously. And if that power sits with a self-serving elite, what hope do topics like climate change, equality or human rights have of being represented fairly?”
The full interview with Isabella will be live on our Journal next week – in the meantime check out our latest full Q&A, with Danielle Clementina Close, founder of My Skin Feels

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

When a love of the sea and veggie patches collide! Matt found this sea gardener whose seaweed boosts beans, broccoli and beyond

This London-based, female-run record recycling and lower impact record-producing plant caught the eye of Shiraz

With wedding season upon us, will climate change make us rethink Champagne? Becky’s loving Ruinart’s new planet-friendly take on bubbly

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

BOUTICO-A-GO-GO
Booking a trip with a positive impact doesn’t mean scrimping on comfort. Boutico’s founder, the author and Condé Nast Traveller’s sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman, has curated a trustworthy list of design-led hotels that don’t cost the Earth, from solar-powered 16th-century stone cottages in Greece to minimalist cabins that overlook the Norwegian fjords. And relax, sloooowly…
→ PLAN A TRIP

THE WATER’S LOVELY
Armed with a team of local experts from around the UK, award-winning author and photographer Daniel Start has just published an updated and expanded edition of the hit book Wild Swimming. It contains a whopping 1,000 beautiful dipping locations in the rivers, lakes and waterfalls of England, Scotland and Wales. Just add recycled swimwear.
→ BUY THE BOOK

A SHOE-IN
Might we point you in the direction of KEEN’s cult UNEEK sandals? This unisex lightweight style is made using just two cords (recycled and PFA-free, naturally), which means they can uniquely accommodate the shape of your foot. Add a trainer-like sole and you’ve got the ultimate in comfort. We’ve even worn ours in the sea, and you can chuck them in the washing machine if they get dirty.
→ CHECK THEM OUT

A SLOW-COOK FEAST

Seemed appropriate to slow down this week’s recipe, which takes even longer if you’re growing your own tomatoes (🖐️). This butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes dish involves drying out the tomato skins on a low temperature in the oven, which also works in an air fryer, or you could even try popping them in a greenhouse for this stage… The butter beans from our Pantry Essentials Reset Box are perfect for this happy-making meal from Ottolenghi.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR A SLOW ROMANCE

Isabella (this week’s interviewee, see above) compiled this feel-good ethereal aural journey for you to languish in this Sunday. Enjoy…

MEET: our new newsletter writer

This newsletter was lovingly put together by me, Hannah Rochell. Hi! I’ve been celebrating all things planet-friendly for the last six years by writing exclusively about slow fashion (you can read my own Substack here). I live on the Isle of Wight, where slow travel is non-negotiable, so it was a pleasure for this to be my inaugural issue!

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our new website and send us feedback to share what you think.

If you liked the above, do kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. You could even share it with anyone you think might like it. Thank you!

Share The Planet Positive edit

Thanks for reading The Planet Positive edit. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

BRiMM News Desk

• The website is live and Founder Memberships are open! Join a limited group of founding members - the people helping build BRiMM from the ground up.

  As a Founder Member, you’ll co-create a new way of living - one where we rewrite the rules of commerce. Join up here.

• Our BRiMM Journal publishes a powerful new essay from Hardeep Kaur, editor of The Lissome: Visions of a Brave Regenerative World (more on this below).

• Now booking: Join us for a screening of the new Woody Harrelson and Kiss the Ground team documentary, Common Ground. We will be at the Curzon, Soho, London on 23rd July, hosting a post film discussion with some of our amazing founders. Book tickets here. Move quick as there are only a few left.

This week’s theme is…  🚨Systems Change!🚨

We came up with this theme fresh off the back of a month that has been PACKED with events where positive change makers have come together to create real action. As one report put it: “It wasn’t just about talking. It was about what happens next.” Whether it was 10,000 commercially available solutions at Future Fabrics Expo, the tripling in size of Blue Earth Forum, (an event that matches impact investment with business innovation), or the thousands of farmers jumping around to Andy Cato’s Wednesday night set at Groundswell. It feels like at last, there is change in the air.

What is systems change exactly? As Systems Change Lab puts it:

“The world stands at a crossroads. We can continue to invest in yesterday’s economy — a decision that will intensify climate change, accelerate biodiversity loss and deepen socioeconomic inequities — or we can embark upon a new path toward a more sustainable, prosperous and just future. Limiting global temperature rise, conserving nature and building a fairer economy will require fundamental change across nearly all major systems, according to the world’s most authoritative scientific bodies on climate change [IPCC] and biodiversity [UN].”

Transforming structures, mindsets and power dynamics is hard work. (We know this at BRiMM towers 😅). It means negotiating complex networks and interconnectedness, with few short term wins in the pursuit of long-term goals. We love hearing the successes of the businesses we work with - whether its the growth of alternative energy networks (Yes Urban Chain!) healthier food (Yes Citizens of Soil!) or non toxic domestic products (bring it on Seep!). But the one issue everyone keeps coming back to is - growth. How do we define growth? What is prosperity?

For this we like to turn to Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics. Growth as we currently know it will not be exponential. We are consuming our resources at 1.7 times the rate we can afford. This is an endgame. We need to transition to systems that regenerate our natural and human resources. Kate says it better than us, but she prefers the word ‘thrive’ to ‘grow’.

While regenerative practise has sounded like theory for so long, there are now signs it is becoming reality: Groundswell, a regenerative agriculture conference that was started nine years ago by John Cherry and a handful of farmers in a barn, is now a 10,000 strong conference/festival of researchers, pioneers, retailers, scientists and brands. (and watch this space for a future event we’re hosting on John’s farm)

Is Groundswell the heart of the change? It could be, because so much starts with soil. Our landscape, our air, our clothes, our food, our home, our general wellbeing - the health of the environment determines it all. And while our post industrial systems have been focussed on extraction, depleting our land to devastating effect, the turnaround is coming: in the US, as the production teams behind Kiss the Ground and Common Ground have documented, (Join us for that film screening! Ed), in South America where brands like Veja have galvanised co-operatives of small farmers, in Europe, South Africa, Turkey and the UK. “There’s always a sense of collective action and movement,” said Alice Robinson of British Pasture Leather, “but this year it feels different. It’s really growing.”

And as these communities grow, the movement changes - it becomes more diverse. Whether that’s a Reform voting 6th generation farmer wanting to engage with a new way of practise, or the Chief Business Officer of a legacy brand looking for new foundations. Many of those who have toiled in the space for years are feeling a new rush of energy because these systems are beginning to get traction - change seems tangible. “The regenerative space feels so positive,” says Tamara Cincik, CEO of Fashion Roundtable. “We launched the Great British Wool Revival in September with the Kings Foundation and now we have over 200 brands signed up!”

Business is getting involved too. Oatly, Ecosia, Tony’s Chocoloney, Patagonia, Natura and Triodos Bank have come together to urge the EU to create a new regulatory framework in which regenerative business can flourish, where circularity is at the heart of industry. They are calling for an environmental crime directive, the promotion of sustainable food systems and a strengthening of corporate due diligence. These pioneering brands are examples of ‘growth businesses’ who are profitable whilst still retaining their purpose. Like House of Hackney, the lifestyle brand now crowd funding to buy out their private equity overlords so they can accelerate their ESG vision; “to go beyond ‘sustaining’ to instead actively creating measurable positive social and economic change,” they say.

And we can do it too. Our power is in every decision we make, every journey we take, every transaction we undertake, every cause we choose to back. What will we choose? Legacy, extractive businesses, products and people? Or those part of these new systems of regeneration and rebirth? Let’s choose ones that add, not subtract.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

Threading together Visions of a Brave, Regenerative, World

In this beautiful, lyrical musing on the history of fibre, fashion and craft, storyteller Hardeep Kaur weaves together myth, history, culture and community to show how clothes have always been more than craft - they have been kinship. “Clothing was heirloom and habitat, not commodity,” she writes. The making of things was with The Seventh Generation Principle, the Indigenous wisdom that teaches us to weigh decisions against their impacts seven generations ahead. “It calls us to stewardship over ownership, responsible resource management, and care over consumption. How did we go from living with land to living against it?” she asks.

Your perfect Sunday morning read. Put the kettle on.

READ IN FULL HERE

🚿 THE MINIMALIST BATHROOM 🚿

What are the bare necessities to kickstart your day? The Minimalist Bathroom Box is your answer. Soap, toothpaste, deodorant and moisturiser is all you need if each one delivers powerful, premium results and is a joy to use. For all those ultra-efficient minimalists who want to simply shower and head out the door, or those looking to switch their morning essentials to something of superior quality, here you go. This being BRiMM, you can rest assured the accreditations, supply chains, ingredients and manufacturing of each is planet first and best in class.

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is less, but better.

CHECK OUT THE BOX HERE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire

This week it’s the turn of Christabel Biella, the genius behind the curation of our BRiMM reset boxes. An OG of responsible product and buying, Christabel has cut her teeth at House of Fraser, Oddbox and Farmdrop, and is now the wise counsel in the BRiMM office.

Latest low-impact life reset that’s brought you joy
An old lemon, cut in half, rubbed over kitchen scale deposits in the kitchen. It melts the scale away! Try attaching it to the end of your kitchen tap with a rubber band and keeping it there for a few minutes to soak in

What’s your most joyful weekend moment
Taking time to prepare an amazing brunch with some kitchen dancing & really good coffee

The independent coffee shop that makes you happy
The original Gentlemen Baristas in London Bridge

Best second hand find
The arm warmers worn by Sarah Jessica Parker/Carrie in an early episode of Sex and the City. I got them in the ONLY Sex and the City wardrobe sale back in New York in 2004!

Which issue do you care about the most
Our health, livelihood, and earth’s future lies in the hands of us taking action now. The discoveries we are making in this lifetime give us a great privilege and a responsibility

Read more of Christabel’s reccos in our Journal here

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Tamara is loving the More than Human exhibition at the Design Museum. “How we can create design not just for humans but nature and all of life. Go!”

Tiff says check out supermodel Astrid Munoz’s Curatoria collection. A social impact fashion brand changing craft systems

Becky’s all in for Belmond’s new Britannic rail explorer: not your average canteen carriage

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with here

BRIMM LINKS

CHANGE YOUR TUNE
If you’re balking at the price of gigs and festivals these days, here’s a change model to get on board with. Earth Percent is the music industry’s self-styled climate foundation, inviting artists and labels to donate a small percentage of their income “to stand with the Earth on their creative journey”. Funding projects focus on just energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change and protecting nature. Look out for the festivals (Primal Gathering, Medicine) and artists (HAAi, Hot Chip) who have bought in. Founded by the great Brian Eno, of course.

→ CHECK IT OUT HERE

SHEEP SCHOOL
Fibershed is a US non profit that promotes soil to soil textiles. Looking to bypass the petrochemical industrial complex, they fund and develop natural fibre systems that promote local economies, global climate, and healthy and diverse ecosystems. Join vocational training programs in land stewardship and shepherding, regenerative livestock management, beginner-level sheep handling, sheep shearing and even a live lambing and delivery class. One for the Plan B list.

→ LEARN MORE

TOURISTS WANTED
While sustainable travel recs are often limited to local, land based destinations, and some of the most popular spots in the Mediterranean are in active revolt from ‘over tourism’, here’s five exotic places that need tourists, now! Greenland, Sierra Leone, Panama, Georgia and Jordan are the places any adventurer can visit, knowing your visit is helping exactly where it is needed.

→ BOOK HERE

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THE SYSTEM CHANGE SMOOTHIE

What system? Your system! You need one and a half cups of organic berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, frozen will do), half a cup of coconut milk and a heaped tablespoon of rolled oats. Whizz it up and glug it back for an antioxidant power punch. Plus healthy coconut fat to help you absorb all those vitamins.

REGGAE, REGGAE, REGGAE

It was either punk or reggae this week - what better soundtracks for systems change? We asked Bristol students Herbert and Sam to bring the beats, seeing as they know their way around a Jamaican back catalogue or two.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our new website and send us feedback to share what you think.

Peep our new site

If you liked the above, do please kindly leave a ❤️ . It will help circulate it more widely. Thank you!

BRiMM News Desk

• This week - drumroll please - a preview of our website is now live! All of a sudden, it’s here, and we’re so proud. Ahead of a broader launch later this week we’re inviting you all in early to check it out. Please dive in and take a look around (but maybe read this newsletter first, there’s another link at the bottom) and let us know what you think - we’d love to hear.

• Our BRiMM Journal publishes a powerful new essay from environmental expert Mark Shayler: How A New Food System Can Heal Us and The Planet (more on this below).

• Now booking: our first film screening. Woody Harrelson and the team behind Kiss the Ground are back - and this time they’re going to Congress. Common Ground is their excellent follow up, and BRiMM are screening it at a very lovely central London location accompanied by a panel of founders of brands we’re working with. All members invited to sign up here.

This week’s theme is… Change Your Habits

The power of tiny habits, atomic habits, habit stacking - you can’t move these days for advice about how to organise your life. But as the demise of our modern systems and economies proves, whether that’s in food or fashion, attention or money, it’s time to change the way we do things. Wholesale. Radical change is hard, but as many of these new habit theories point out, big changes can come from starting small. Tried doing 10 squats every time you brush your teeth? That’s 20 squats a day. Over the course of a year. That’s some great thighs.

A quick survey of the BRiMM collective shows we’re all at it. Whether you’re a member of the 5am club, practising the Five Tibetans, zoning in to some meditative time, or incentivising a kitchen clean up with a cup of tea, we’ve all got hacks for a better routine - and they work.

According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviours on any given day. As James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, puts it: “Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits. How in shape or out of shape you are? A result of your habits. How happy or unhappy you are? A result of your habits. How successful or unsuccessful you are? A result of your habits.”

“Everything from procrastination and productivity to strength and nutrition starts with better habits,” says Clear. So let’s apply that to systems - as our beauty ed Sam says, if we all finished the bottle before buying a new product, that would save so much waste. (Admit it: how many open bottles do you have in your bathroom?).

There’s a refrain in sustainability circles that goes something like this: “We don’t need a handful of people living a low impact life perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” It begins with what you put on your body and what you put in your body. “If we can fix food, we can fix the planet,” Wildfarmed’s Andy Cato tells Mark Shayler in our Journal piece this week. What if we all followed Tim Spector’s habit hack, to eat 30 different plants a week? Not only would our guts thrive (according to Spector), but so would the planet: as countless peer reviewed studies prove. This study in Nature Food found the environmental footprint of a vegan was around one-third lower than that of a meat-eater. And that what people eat, as opposed to where or how it was produced, is often far more impactful. So berries from Spain can be a better option than a couple of rashers of British bacon. “That is the spark of a revolution starting, one mouthful at a time,” says Mark.

As for the products you use to clean your home and your body - many contain toxic ingredients and microplastics that not only harm sea life, but may cause allergies, disrupt hormones and act as pre-cursors to degenerative disease. Check Fairy washing up liquid next time you’re in the supermarket: their bottle label clearly states: “harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects”. Finish dishwasher tablets contain plastic-binding agents that don’t readily break down in the environment. This is what coats your everyday crockery and cutlery and is going into your body. It’s easy to hack the system: just switch your consumer choices to brands that take responsibility for their effect on the environment.

The BRiMM Reset Boxes are there to give you some inspiration, but we can promise, once you start stacking those habits, you’ll never look back.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM Journal

Tweaking a handful of daily diet and drink choices is the most impactful thing we can do to improve our health and that of our planet, argues Mark Shayler, the author, environmental expert and founder of innovation agency Ape, (a consultancy that saves its clients over $200 million and a shed-load of carbon every year). In this exclusive essay for BRiMM, How A New Food System Can Heal Us and The Planet, Mark explains why our food systems are responsible for a third of global carbon emissions. Problem? No: it’s an opportunity, says Mark: “Our forks are mighty tools.” Here’s four habits to get you going:

• Eat more plants and a greater variety.

• Support “better” food producers.

• Cook more, waste less.

• Grow something.

Read More Here

📢 RESET YOUR PANTRY 📢
Ready to change your food habits? Then start here. Whether you’re a seasoned flexitarian or just starting to rethink your cupboard staples, our Pantry Essentials Reset Box is a treasure trove of inspiring swaps that are better for your health and that of the planet. Curated by BRiMM’s Christabel (formerly of House of Fraser, Farmdrop and Oddbox), this box is a handpicked edit of founder-led, flavour-first products that offer more than just great taste. Each item champions regenerative agriculture, circular packaging or waste-fighting brilliance.

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire
This week it’s the turn of Vanessa Marx, Head Chef at Richmond’s Bingham Riverhouse, the riverside foodie mecca with rooms (“Highly recommended”, Ed). Leading a new generation of visionary female chefs, we caught up with Vanessa in between meals for her low impact life hacks.

Latest reset?
Juicing and then using the leftover pulp to bake carrot banana loaf or crackers.

All time top second hand find?
A tweed jacket that belonged to my mum – circa 1980, fits me like it was made for me.

Most joyful weekend moment?
A Sunday sunset Kundalini practice to seal the week

Song that lights you up?
Coming Home by Jeremy Loops & Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It reminds me of home and my heritage – South Africa

Causes you give to every month?
Local food banks

Message for the collective?
Do one small sustainable step at a time, it will become a habit and we will all contribute to the larger change. Nothing is too small, something is better than nothing. Don’t be afraid of not getting it perfect – just go for it.

Fancy doing our BRiMM Life Questionnaire yourself? Get in touch

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Becky is loving musical mushrooms: engineers have ”taught” mushrooms to play musical instruments

Tiff says follow Louis Elton’s Nation of Artisans project: Louis is attempting to have an entire outfit of clothes sourced and made from within the UK.

Matt’s loving Earth FC. If you’re getting in the mood for the Euros, start here

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with here

BRIMM LINKS

A MODEL OF BEHAVIOUR
This one’s not about getting your child off the naughty step, it’s more for your inner child. Dr BJ Fogg founded the Behaviour Design Lab at Stanford University, and is the author of the bestselling Tiny Habits. The Fogg Behaviour Model shows that three elements must converge at the same moment for a behaviour to occur: Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt. What’s more he does free calls - if you have a product you think will change behaviour, Dr Fogg will give you a free 15 minutes.

→ CHECK IT OUT HERE

JOIN THE ONE PERCENT
The one percent rule looks at why few people get the most rewards. As Oxfam points out each year at Davos, the richest 1 percent have earned nearly two-thirds of all new wealth since 2020, almost twice as much as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population. James Clear, (Atomic Habits), explains this effect as “accumulative advantage,” or “winner takes all.” How? Habits of course. “Small differences in performance can lead to very unequal distributions when repeated over time,” says Clear. Just follow his advice to enter the trillionaire class.

→ LEARN MORE

FOLLOW THE PROCESS
If you’ve never heard of the Hoffman Process, it is, according to attendees, like “ten years of therapy in ten days”. No one is allowed to say too much about it, but let’s just say it takes you back to your childhood to reset the habitual ways of thinking that don’t serve you. The retreats often take place in beautiful countryside locations. Curious? Book yourself a free consultation.

→ BOOK HERE

POLL

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THE GREEN PASTA FIX

Enjoying the watercress season? Us too. Our friends at Northern Pasta Co suggest lacing it through their Radiatori salad with some charred pepper, then break a deep fried, oozy goats cheese over the top. Yum.

→ MAKE THIS

THE SUMMER ONE

This is the July playlist you never knew you needed, says Matt. We’ve been tapping away all week to it: three hours of pure joy. Thank you Matt! For more of his joyous playlists mosey over here.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

You made it to the bottom! Congratulations, now have a look at our new website and send us feedback to share what you think.

Peep our new site

If you liked the above, do please kindly leave a ❤️ It will help circulate it more widely. Thank you!

Brimm News Desk

• This week we launched our new Kitchen Cleaning Reset Box, another big step to detox and decarbonise your home (deets below).

• Now booking: our first film screening. Remember the Woody Harrelson-narrated documentary, Kiss the Ground? Woody and the film makers are back - and this time they’re going to Congress. Common Ground is their excellent follow up, and Brimm are screening it at a very plush central London location. All members invited! Sign up for invites.
  

Brimm Journal

The next essay to land in our flourishing Journal is courtesy of climate justice activist, author and BRiMM founder member, Joycelyn Longdon. Combining a PhD in AI and ecology with her work in post colonial rainforests inspired one of BRiMM’s books of the year, Natural Connection. Now on a sell out tour of the UK, Joycelyn found time to sit down and explain her premise: that the relegation of Nature by modern life may have triggered environmental and societal collapse, but you can still find joy and wisdom if we know where to look for it. “We talk about artificial intelligence, we talk about human intelligence, but plant intelligence is mind-blowing. That is nature's technology,” she says. We strongly recommend you make a cup of tea and dive right in.

Dive In Here

This week’s theme is…

Powering up: Investment, Energy and Connection

We loved meeting you all at last week’s Future Fabrics Expo 2025 and Blue Earth Forum - if you’re new to this letter after coming across us, then WELCOME. What both events showed us is that new structures are rising. Different systems, common purpose and radical visions are growing like new green shoots amongst the crumbling edifices of late stage capitalism, corporate greed and climate injustice, and we felt right at home. Doing things differently means changing structures and systems, and both events were packed with businesses, brands, founders, activists and visionaries who are beginning, literally, to change the world.

We believe business can be a force for good - in fact has a moral duty to be good - and that means giving back more than it takes. So how are we doing it?

• Establishing vetting criteria and an editorial focus that help you lower your impact

• Channelling 10% of all our revenue into a Planet Fund that helps our partner brands lower their footprint faster

• Making Mother Nature a shareholder and director of our business, legally granting her a vote in all our company decisions

We believe business has a crucial role to play in helping us face the world’s urgent environmental challenges. By giving Nature a formal voice in our governance, we’re making a structural commitment to put the planet alongside profit. We’re not the first to do it: Riversimple, House of Hackney and Faith in Nature all have Nature on their boards, Patagonia have made Earth their sole shareholder. We deeply respect these models, and that’s why we’re following.

But we’re also going further. We’re investing 10% of all of our revenue into a Planet Fund, which in turn is investing in initiatives that will lower the impact of our partner brands. Those initiatives might be in packaging, supply chain, repair or something more sector specific, but before we launch we’re kicking off the fund with a £250k investment. Our first initiative will be solar energy. Why? Because every business, no matter what they make or sell, needs energy.

How are we doing it? With two fantastic new green shoot businesses: Urban Chain and OneZero Energy. Together we will bring our brands more renewable energy for less than they pay now. OneZero Energy are “a team of energy experts and digital nerds”, and they are supplying and installing the hardware on a factory site we have located in Northamptonshire. Urban Chain is a peer to peer energy exchange founded by maths whizz Somayeh Taheri, an Iranian immigrant who found an education, a husband and a new life in Britain, and her company is supplying the tech and the network. Urban Chain is now one of Europe’s fastest growing tech companies (top 10 actually!!!, Ed), according to the Sunday Times.

Both are brilliant examples of this new, regenerative, climate-just economy, but Taheri is one of only a very few climate tech female founders. Last year solo female founders in climate tech secured only 5.28% of deals and an even smaller 1.14% of funding. That’s why community amongst investors, business and customers is so important. Of the beauty brands on Brimm, 70% are female founded, and amongst our kitchen and cleaning brands, over 50% are. Together we will rise!

Our hope is that this first solar project can kick-off a flywheel. Any profit made from the project will be invested in more solar panels. The more our community grows, the more solar we can install. The more solar we install, the more brands we can help lower their impact. It’s a flywheel, powered by real action from you, our members.

If you run a business and want to cut energy bills and emissions, get in touch. We’re not limiting our project to the brands we stock. Likewise, if you have a roof that could host solar panels, let us know. The more spaces we can use, the more brands we can help.

We believe in mitigating impact, not offsetting it. We’re not promising the world. But we are promising to act, to measure, and to share how we get on.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

P.s. If you haven’t joined yet, in our pre launch phase we are offering a lifetime membership fee of £200, rather than £180 per year, for all the same benefits – this is closing any moment now, so join the waitlist while you can. Refer a friend, and if they sign up we’ll invest a further £200 into the solar project.

Join the waitlist

📢 CLEAN UP YOUR KITCHEN 📢
It’s here! Your kitchen cleaning collection that helps detox your home and the planet. If you’re still using Fairy and those plastic J cloths, you are missing out on a whole new wave of top notch kitchen schizzle. Non toxic, plant powered and brilliant at getting the job done, our product whizz Christabel has been trying and testing for months. Read more about the box and how she picked her recommendations here. From surface spray to dishwasher tabs, you'll never look back.

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire
This week it’s the turn of Chris Money, who co-founded Kit & Kin with Spice Girl Emma Bunton (pictured above). They came up with the brand together when they struggled to find products which were both kind to the planet and didn’t irritate their children’s skin. Kit & Kin offers natural, gentle and sustainable alternatives, from eco nappies to the powerful plant-based cleaning range we are offering in our reset box.

Favourite walking route?
Along the river near where I live. I’m often out walking while on the phone, or just thinking through the day ahead. It’s my way of easing into things, and a great start to most mornings.

Most joyful weekend moment?
Spending time with my three boys. Weekends are usually full-on with sports and clubs but it’s those quiet moments in between that get me. Just being together.

Second-hand spot worth a mooch?
The old cinema in Chiswick is great for upcycled furniture, Sunbury Antiques Market is a favourite too. I’m always on the lookout for things with character and history.

Causes you give to every month?
Our partnership with the World Land Trust means every product we sell helps protect rainforest through their network of local NGOs. Every Kit & Kin purchase also helps fund vital medicines for remote communities and educational scholarships for kids.

Which issue do you care most about changing?
The idea that businesses should exist purely for profit. Business can and should be a force for good. Purpose and profit can co-exist and if more brands embraced that we’d all benefit. As consumers we have power: we get to support the change makers.

Quote to live by
"Be yourself; everybody else is already taken." Oscar Wilde.

Fancy doing our BRiMM Life Questionnaire yourself? Get in touch

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Tiff says follow The Nat: a new platform accelerating action for Nature from Stella McCartney, Harrison Ford, Sabrina Elba and Laura Dern. Watch out for The Nat Gala coming to New York in September

Sam is heading to Our Story at the Natural History Museum, the new 360 immersive experience from Sir David Attenborough: “an epic tale of people and planet”

Matt’s loving Perfect Days – the 2023 film from Wim Wenders “about how fulfilment arises through mindful routines, ordinary moments and human connection”

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with Becky.

THE 3/3/3 METHOD
Long for an organised work life? Attention economy getting the better of you? Feeling distracted and unproductive? We’ve got you. Or rather Oliver Burkeman has. The author of Time Management for Mortals has come up with this method and it’s got the Brimm team hooked. Spend three hours a day on your most important current project, with a defined goal for daily progress. Then complete three shorter tasks, that take just a few minutes each (calls and meetings count). Then attend to three 'maintenance activities' that need daily attention to keep running smoothly. "The man who works so moderately as to be able to work constantly," wrote Adam Smith, "not only preserves his health the longest, but in the course of the year, executes the greatest quantity of work." Doing less as a way to get more done? We’re in.

→ CHECK OUT

MORAL AMBITION
If you are hungry for change but stifled by your work place, then here’s a way out. Author and philosopher Rutger Bregman, (Utopia for Realists) runs The School for Moral Ambition, a foundation that awards scholarships to help you explore a different path, one where your career and the precious time you invest in it can shape a better world. Currently focusing on food transition and a tobacco free future, this well funded American venture is now recruiting in Europe. “We believe small groups of dedicated individuals can change the world. We fund ambitious idealists to leave behind empty careers and build lives of real impact.” Get in.

→ BROWSE MORE

LEND WITH CARE
Blue Earth might have been teeming with new biz and hungry investors, but if you want to start somewhere, this individual micro financing site is everything. For as little as 15 quid you can fund Arnold in the Philippines to buy feed for his fattening head of pigs. Or Chung in Vietnam to buy microbial fertiliser to expand her Green Agriculture-certified plantation. Or Uwimana in Rwanda to hire 10 temporary workers to boost his crop yield. Best thing about it? They grow, you get your money back and then you can go again.

→ SHOW MORE

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REFRESH HERE
Watermelon, feta and mint is a summer classic, but have you ever tried barbecuing the melon? Those clever folk at Riverford insist it just adds to the taste. Just add sumac and cumin.

→ MAKE THIS

THE MUSIC OF QUIET REVOLUTION

Ahmet went on a sonic journey this week, where 2000s electronic, dream pop and trip-hop flirt with global rhythms and oriental undertones. Tracks to remind that the sounds of today are often born from yesterday’s quiet revolutions.

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

If you liked the above, do please kindly leave a

It will help circulate it more widely. Thank you!

First up: a couple of quick diary invites before we submerge ourselves in this week’s (increasingly) hot topic. It’s our last chance to invite you to meet us at the Future Fabrics Expo 2025 over in North Greenwich this week, being held from Tuesday 24 to Wednesday 25 June. You’ll be able to check out products from our Reset Boxes, and chat with us IRL. We’ll also be at Blue Earth Forum in Shoreditch from the party on Tuesday 24 evening, and then during the day on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 June (busy week!) – come say hi if you see us.

This week’s theme is… the great big blue: our oceans 🌊
"I know that the sea comes before and after me, and hold my madness ready."
The Sea Close By, Albert Camus

The ocean has long been used as a symbol of chaos and madness in literature. Think Woolf’s To The Lighthouse and The Waves. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Which is either entirely fitting or completely ironic – we haven’t quite decided yet – because our treatment of it, and our relationship with it, is, frankly, a bit unhinged.

Water covers 71% our own shiny blue marble. Which means, when you think about it, that what we consider to be ‘normal’ land territory is actually abnormal: The Other. Sealife considers us to be unusual air-breathing creatures (so we’ve heard). As Sir David Attenborough put it on the eve of the release of his latest film Ocean last month (still showing in select cinemas and on Disney Plus): “After almost 100 years on the planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea”.

In the movie itself, Sir David communicates a surprisingly, even excitingly, hopeful message. “The ocean can recover faster than we thought possible,” he says. “If we just let nature take its course, the sea will save itself. If we save the sea, we save our world.” He points to kelp forests and coral reefs with fully recovered eco-systems following fishing bans, the recovery of whale numbers after the enforcement of hunting bans and much more – see the doc for the full, promising picture.

Adding to this climate optimism is the outcome of last week’s UN Ocean Conference 2025 in Nice. Despite the US’s “we’re just observing, we’re not officially here” presence, it symbolised a shared renewed faith in the idea of international partnership, as nearly 200 countries gathered to work together to undo the threats facing the big blue. As we know, there are many, spanning from plastic pollution and deep sea mining to bottom trawling (as demonstrated by Stephen Fry and Theo James in this fantastic clip by The Blue Marine Foundation, as part of its new campaign, The Bottom Line), climate change and plenty more besides. The main takeaway? It looks likely that a key treaty to protect or restore at least 30% of our “terrestrial, inland water, and that of coastal and marine areas” may come into force in record time. For more details on that, keep reading.

You’ll also find in this week’s waterproof mix: ultra-chic cotton bikinis, beautiful refillable bottles that contribute to ocean plastic collection in a major way and the underwater love represented by the rise (or plunge?) of Eco Diving-inspired travel.

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

P.s. A couple of extra sea-related finds for you worth sharing: The Marine Conservation Society’s upcoming Ocean Film Festival, touring the UK with ‘the world’s best ocean films’ from September to November; and this UK Pro Surf Movie crowdfunder, aiming to document a bygone dreamy UK surf tour that not enough people know about – yet.

P.p.s. Our limited one-off membership fee, starting from £200 per lifetime rather than £180 per year, for all the same benefits – is going to close soon, so join the waitlist while you can. Refer a friend too and we’ll invest £200 into solar energy for our brands through the BRiMM Planet Fund – and you’ll get a further £20 off each, plus a shot at a free membership.

Join the waitlist

📢 IT’S A BRIMM THING 📢
In case you missed it in our quick catch-up Thursday newsletter – this week we published a fresh piece by our head of beauty Sam, revealing the reason we decided to start curating our Reset Boxes in the first place. “Because it really is true: you don't have to sacrifice anything in order to buy more earth-conscious brands,” Sam explains. “Together we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure every single product not only works brilliantly but also stands up against conventional alternatives.” She also covers why our first five boxes are focussed on three specific areas of daily life that can “create larger ripple-effects of positive change”. Intrigued? Find out what the categories are and why – check out Sam’s Journal article now.

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire
This week it’s the turn of Laura Rudoe, founder of Evolve – the small-batch, nature-inspired skincare brand we mentioned in our Solstice-themed newsletter last week, that we thought was equally worth mentioning in our ocean coverage, since they offer a reef-friendly product (keep reading to find out what it is…). What’s more, you’ll soon find it in our Luxury British Brands Reset Box.

Favourite walking route
“Lately, I’ve been loving a peaceful riverside walk near our studio in Radlett. It’s the perfect way to reset during a busy day especially when I can turn it into a walking meeting and soak up some sunshine. Being surrounded by nature always brings a fresh perspective.”

Top planet-positive products and why
“Right now, I’m loving our Climate Defence Facial Cream SPF 30, especially in the summer. It protects my skin without harming the planet as it’s reef-friendly, and it's packed with amazing natural ingredients. It’s one of those everyday essentials that really aligns with my needs and values.”

What is love
“Love is the quiet force that expands our sense of self until ‘me’ becomes ‘we’. It is presence, care and courageous kindness in motion – fuel for growth, resilience and belonging. As Jalal al‑Din Rumi, a 13ᵗʰ‑century Persian poet and mystic, put it: ‘Love is the bridge between you and everything’.”
Watch out for the rest of Laura’s answers on wearebrimm.com soon. Fancy doing our BRiMM Life Questionnaire yourself? Get in touch

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Sam shared this insta reel collab between Condé Nast Traveller and chef Douglas McMaster, celebrating 10 years of Silo – the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, based in Hackney Wick – and its dish greatest hits

Rebecca realised it was British Flowers Week just in time – it ends today – and spread the word about Flowers on The Edge, a showcase of emerging, season-led floral designers happening in Peckham this weekend

Matt’s loving Japanese Walking – apparently ‘the new low-impact fitness trend for a healthy heart’

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with Becky.

OCEAN’S 60
Discover exactly what went down at the UN Ocean Conference [UNOC3] last week in Nice, France in this roundup on Earth.Org (link below), or this snappier BBC explainer. The headline news? A total of 50 countries have now ratified the UN High Seas Treaty – shockingly, “the world’s first treaty to protect and conserve marine biodiversity in international waters, adopted in 2022” – an agreement to put 30% of the ocean into protected areas. The official requirement is 60 ratifications to make it actually come into force, and lots of promises have been made by other countries that they’ll do so by the end of 2025.

→ READ MORE

MESSAGE IN THE BOTTLES
We recently met with the guys behind OceanBottle, a seas-saving movement. For every super-aesthetically pleasing and smart reusable bottle you buy, 1,000 plastic ones are collected from beaches where most waste washes up. The fact that there are so many bottles to be picked up an entire business can be based on this idea is compelling in itself. Oh – and they also recently posted a handy little insta review of the UNOC3 too, that’s even more succinct: five points and six behind-the-scenes pics.

→ BROWSE MORE

OUI OUI TO NOUNOU
If premium designer women’s swimwear brand nounou sounds and seems sexy enough to be French or Italian, that’s because it’s inspired by founder Anouchka Houser’s childhood memories of her French-Italian mother’s sun-kissed, care-free 70s beach look. She actually created the line in the UK, in small-batches out of London. But the most cute thing about nounou, apart from this sensationally sensuous branding and the genuinely gorgeous bikinis and swimsuits? The fact that they are made from cotton in an industry that’s still a sea of hidden and not-so-hidden plastics.

→ SEE MORE

UNDERWATER LOVE
One of the most heartwarming travel trends of the last couple of years has got to be Eco Diving. What it boils down to is the fact that more and more divers are now choosing where to go guided by their common desire to love and protect the oceans. In 2022, The Reef-World Foundation, a UK marine ecology charity, discovered that 95% of divers wanted to “book with sustainable operators, but struggled to do so”. Quickly seeing a need, PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors) alongside the United Nations Environment Program and Reef-World, launched a new international Eco Center accreditation in 2023. The application requirements for achieving it are so thorough, including proving your centre has had a direct influence in improving the local environment, that it takes around a year to complete. With 100 accredited PADI Eco Centres in 32 countries now confirmed and more than 300 in 64 countries actively working towards it – why not plan your next diving trip to one, using this locator app?

→ EXPLORE MORE

GLAZE OVER AND OVER
Dr Johnny Drain’s plant-based dish of dreams? “Aubergine miso glaze, roasted till molten. Serve with rice, pickles, smugness.” A food tip from a former Noma collaborator with a PhD in materials science from Oxford is well worth a try. Here’s a more detailed recipe inspired by Angela Hartnett’s version, courtesy of The Balanced Kitchen blog.

→ MAKE THIS

MUSIC TO IMAGINE YOU’RE AT SEA TO

James fell asleep on a lilo this week, and dreamt about being at sea. This is what it sounded like… 

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

It’s not long at all now until we can introduce our own LIVE online shop, filled with our fave earth-conscious items that both do what they say on the (recycled) tin and look, smell and feel design-led and delicious. And while we’re on the topic of all things delish, this week we’re serving up details of what will be included in our upcoming BRiMM Pantry Essentials Reset Box – see below.

Then in real LIFE, a quick reminder that you can come along and meet us at our Future Fabrics Expo 2025 stand over in North Greenwich from Tue 24-Wed 25 June. Come touch, smooth on, sniff and waft our soon-to-launch self-care, pantry and cleaning Reset Boxes.

This week’s theme is… the Summer Solstice and natural connection 🌞

“Margate is where the Summer Solstice feels most alive. Turner captured these sunsets – wild, glowing, unforgettable. Looking at this photo taken on Solstice 2022, I felt that same heat, but also a warning: the world’s warming like a kettle left boiling for too long. The Solstice here isn’t just the longest day; it’s a moment to witness nature’s strength and vulnerability side by side. The sky over Margate tells a story every year – bright, bold, urgent. It reminds us why this place is perfect for marking the turning of the seasons and the state of our changing world.” Matt Hardisty, the architect behind BRiMM’s brand and marketing strategy

The thing about the sun, once you start thinking about it, considering it, looking up at it (without actually looking at it) – is that suddenly you realise it’s everywhere.
Because, of course, it’s the source of so much of our energy (and more on that from us very soon). Our life fuel.
It affects our sleep patterns and circadian rhythms, more than the limelight- (moonlight-?) hogging moon.
Even our happiness and health is all tied up with the Vitamin D it pours down on and into us.

Walking up Primrose Hill this week one sunshiney morning, we noticed an ode to it under our feet (William Blake’s “I have conversed with the spiritual sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill”.) In the news this week, not as high up as it should have been, we noticed this sublime first ever sighting of its shimmering south pole. (And we won’t mention, directly after something so seismic, that one of our young sons also inexplicably told us he’d had a bowel movement shaped just like it, which was a very stark, and timely, metaphor for how it feeds all of us).

So the Solstice is the very epitome of all that and more, with our celebration of it dating back to the beginnings of the Neolithic era, ie 10,200 BC. And oh – in case you’re wondering, this year it’s happening on Saturday 21 June 2025, at 3:41 am BST – in the Northern Hemisphere, at least.

Feeling inspired? Where did you spend your greatest Summer Solstice? Where are you going next weekend? What does it mean to you generally, what does it evoke? We want to know – send us over the full-watt, full-beam story. We can’t wait to shine a light on it – just like this peak Summer Solstice memory from Tiff, our editorial and fashion advisor.

“My finest Summer Solstice so far was spent at Wasing [Estate in West Berkshire] two years ago where I finally stayed up through the night to greet the dawn – I've tried so many times at Stonehenge etc but it's always pouring with rain, cold and miserable and a total fail. 2023 at Wasing was a perfect midsummer eve. It's a no-alcohol festival (my first) which lends a really Midsummer Nights’ Dream atmosphere - there is very little noise, no one shouting, just music and people listening. At midnight there were about 500 people round a campfire listening to a song and you could hear a pin drop. Josh (the steward of the estate) led a ceremony up a hill at sunrise which was very moving (on intention setting) and then the best bit was after breakfast when the DJs kicked in in the forest and everyone was ecstatic and danced through to midday. I drove back to town and went to work – it was quite the experience.”

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

P.s. You still have time to become a founder member and pay a one-off lifetime fee of £200. After the slots go the same level of membership will be £180 a year. So we think it’s a great deal not least because the membership pays for itself in no time (as well as supporting the planet). Phew! Just join the waitlist at no cost now. Refer a friend and you’ll both get a further £20 off and have a shot at an entirely free membership.

Join the waitlist

📢IT’S A BRIMM THING📢
Introducing the third in our Reset Box curation series – and this time we’re moving from your bathroom over to the main room of most houses these days, with the BRiMM Pantry Essentials Reset Box.

Our Commercial Director Christabel Biella is our resident foodie who knows the world of small, tasty makers very well having worked at the likes of FarmDrop and Oddbox previously, as well as from being an avid cook herself. Here she explains how she personally selected each of these choice items, following many rounds of testing and trialling and comparing, and yes, more team tasting, plus the story behind them all in this latest Journal roundup.

The BRiMM Solstice Questionnaire

This week we’re mixing it up and handing over to David Johnston, founder of ‘We Don't Know What This Is' – aka sunrise gatherings every equinox and solstice that have been taking place on Hackney Marshes since 2023, and which are quickly and joyfully gaining in sunny size and momentum. Here he shares a little more on their backstory and exactly what goes on.

How did these sunrise gatherings come about?
“Believe it or not, it started in a dream.

Feverish, half-dreaming, I had a vision of people gathering at dawn on Hackney Marshes. A particular spot.

Watching the sunrise. Silent. Together. Like they'd always done it. Like it mattered. It seemed important and so I told my friend, the poet Thomas Sharp. He didn’t laugh. He just said: “That’s a premonition. You have to make it happen.”

So we did.

Who comes?
“All sorts: young and old, queer and straight, dogs and babies. Sunrise doesn’t discriminate, it levels us and for me, that’s the magic. On the Marshes, there’s no algorithm curating who shows up. It’s just who’s brave enough to get out of bed at 4am and curious enough to wonder what might happen when we do... together. For me it’s Hackney as it really is: messy, beautiful and quietly epic.”

What's the vibe?
“Boring, magical and everything in between. Sometimes the sun doesn’t show up, but that’s never really the point. We’ve had mist, mud, freezing fog and full technicolour glory. With music, movement, meditation art… you are simply invited to ‘bring your thing’ should you wish to, whatever that is. The feeling is gentle – like an exhale. A soft collective ‘yes’ to the idea that presence can be powerful, even in stillness. You come, you sit, you listen. And somehow you leave changed.”

Why do you think they're becoming so popular?
“It’s hard to say exactly, but maybe, in a time when systems are cracking and certainties are thinning, we’re looking for something older than ‘progress'. Something human. Something true? For me, these gatherings aren’t just a reaction – they’re an echo, of solstice fires and equinox rituals, and people long before us pausing to mark the turn of the earth. And so maybe it’s because something in us remembers – remembers how to gather – how to greet the dawn not with urgency, but with reverence.”

What's your number one Summer Solstice piece of advice?
“Don’t look at your phone for at least an hour after sunrise. It's called golden hour. Let the light get to you before the world does.”

Anything else you'd like our readers to know?
“It’s grown from five people to hundreds gathering in the dark to meet the light. No agenda. Just the signal reaching those who wish to receive it. It’s not a wellness thing. Or a branding thing. Or even really a thing. It’s a gentle refusal. A ritual for the future disguised as something ancient. It’s not the answer. But it might be the question. Join us.”

To learn more, join the WhatsApp group (where you’ll find location, timing and more) and show up next Saturday, check out their IG: We Don't Know What This Is.

Fancy telling us about your own special planet-positive gatherings? Get in touch

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Sam loves that LOEWE is turning orange peels into T-shirts. Here’s how.

Matt is looking forward to this virtual Open Masterclass on Tuesday this week, on The Psychology of Systems Change with Dr. Renée Lertzman.

Claire’s happy that Jump the Hedges’ Farm to Garment women’s tee is now available again in a final restock.

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with Becky.

“COMPARING THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY”
As well as Shakespeare referencing it in his most famous sonnet and writing A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, an entire play that uses the Solstice as its backdrop (though, curiously, doesn’t directly talk about it much), there are hundreds of examples of canonical literature inspired by our star and its big day. Take this quick little dit by Derek Walcott, entitled Midsummer, Tobago:
Broad sun-stoned beaches.

White heat.
A green river.

A bridge,
scorched yellow palms

from the summer-sleeping house
drowsing through August.

Days I have held,
days I have lost,

days that outgrow, like daughters,
my harbouring arms.

Then there are all the films, like the rather harrowing Florence Pugh-starring 2019 cult horror, Midsommar (prepare yourself if you’re going to watch it – and definitely don’t do so with your teenage children, like we did.) Plus the libraries of beautiful non-fiction out there – including this awesome audio extract from The Old Ways by number-one nature writer Rob MacFarlane, about that other Solstice, the one even now we know will come, in mid-winter.

→ LISTEN TO MORE

SOLSTICE-STYLE SLOW TRAVEL
Besides the likes of Hackney Marshes, Margate, Wasing, Scotland (which has some great solstice spots, btw) and many other special spots in the UK and Ireland (some of which are good for camping and caravanning, too) – another planet-positive Solstice adventure could involve catching a train somewhere the light rages on the most. Parts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia, Iceland, Norway and Finland can all experience 24-hour daylight on the day – and Sweden. You could head to Skansen, the latter’s oldest open-air museum and zoo, where celebrations including dancing, music, markets and the tales of a ‘wise old woman’, last three whole days. Maybe just don’t watch Midsommar beforehand. Tempted? Let us know if you spontaneously go for it after reading this.

→ FIND OUT MORE

WE ALL SCREAM FOR SUNSCREEN
“Wearing an SPF everyday is a non-negotiable for me, though perhaps not for most,” says BRiMM’s Head of Beauty, Sam. “This face sun cream may well convert the non-appliers among us though.” Evolve, a brand that can soon be found in our Luxury British Brands Reset Box, formulates and distributes in small batches from their Hertfordshire-based studio and have worked seriously hard to create a light, perfect-under-foundation, even reef-friendly SPF. Founder Laura has been creating nature-inspired skincare with proven results for more than 15 years and her transparency about aiming to become a ‘better brand’ has always struck a chord. Sharing that you're not perfect but are on a path to ‘do better’ sits well with us at BRiMM. Featuring UVA and UVB defence, this non-nano Zinc Oxide-based SPF 30 also melts in without leaving a white cast. Check out what else is inside the box now.

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REAP WHAT WE SOW
“A tomato from Spain grown in open sun may have a lower footprint than a local one from a heated UK greenhouse in winter.” So explains Mark Shayler in his brilliant launch piece for BRiMM’s Journal, which highlights how tweaking a handful of diet and drink choices throughout our day-to-days is just about the most impactful thing we can do to improve both our own health and that of our global home. As well as clearly explaining the problems with our food systems today, the clear alternative options we should move towards and what we as individuals can easily do to make a difference, Mark busts some myths along the way, starting with the fact that: “How your food is grown often matters more than how far it travels.” For more mindblowing insights, go check out his feature.

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COTTAGECORE
“Right now, I’m craving a rich, comforting lentil cottage pie,” says regular Journal contributor Lisa Oxenham. Hers will be on our site soon – in the meantime, why not check out this luscious Able & Cole take.

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MUSIC TO SEE THE SUNRISE TO

“You can get a feel for the atmosphere of previous gatherings from these soundscapes, captured and mixed by Steven Boardman,” says ‘We Don't Know What This Is' Summer Solstice Guru, David, above. Transcendental.

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The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.