The weight of the world

I am currently experiencing a new sensation - the worst back pain I have ever known.

Traditionally I have focused stress in my abdomen however this appears to be linked to emotional stress rather than 'buttock clenching too much to humanly do' stress. My stomach stress and the usual side effects (use your imagination) are off the agenda. It seems that doing something meaningful as a career, eating well, cycling everywhere, having love and friendship a-plenty agrees with my stomach. I must actually be happy!

However my back has other ideas it seems that pulling 14 hour days 7 days a week for less cash that I had when I was a student gives my back the hump. The throbbing stabbing painful kind of hump. I have tried to explain that we are busy saving the world but seemingly this is of little importance to my weary bones.

Before I started GreenKnickers I would spend a lot of time worrying about the world. Focusing the emotional stress of seeing so much injustice and hate in the world. Loved ones have often said to me that I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, crying at the news and feeling personally responsible for every global crisis that I couldn't solve. I still feel sad about the world and helpless sometimes, but something is different now.

GreenKnickers is not going to cause all the change that I would like to see in the world - which is probably a good thing as I struggle to think of any ethical dictatorships off the top of my head. But GreenKnickers does represent a way in which I can maximise my positive impact.

Running an ethical business is not less ethical than giving your time for free (which actually for now we still do...). Starting an ethical business is a way of using your career and your every day life to push forward the changes you want to see. The ethical business itself has the potential to transform the lives of our vulnerable suppliers and to inform and educate people in the developed world who can create their own positive effects. But the concept of the ethical business the fact that business can be ethical and can succeed on ethical principals is itself an immense vehicle for change. Successful business' grow and so too do the effects of the business, all the energy which I used to point towards my long suffering abdomen I can now pour into my knickers - sorry couldn't resist.

However - there is one party who is yet to be convinced - my back. Well perhaps it is time to close the list book for half a day and forget that the world is going to ground. Think I will lie on the floor with my knees bent and try not to think about work. Writing this blog doesn't count does it? Doh!

Lesson 1 - 'Good intentions'

Lesson 1 is actually not the first lesson that we have learned so far along the journey but it is as good a place to start as any.

The lesson really is simple "Never let good intentions cloud your judgement" Sounds easy enough but this is not always so straight forward when you are running an ethical enterprise. Along the journey of starting any kind of production it is necessary to establish relationships with other businesses. These relationships are often simple, they have something you want and you buy it from them or visa versa. The agreement is conditional on a price and standard along with any ethical stipulations that you have mapped out for the conduct of the business (we will get round to these another time).

Sometimes however (and this is often the case for a start-up business) a relationship must start on the basis of 'good faith'. This is where there is an intention in principal to work together pending funding, equipment etc. During this stage where there is only a 'good faith' agreement much time and money can be taken up moving all parties towards a position of 'take off'. This is where the lesson comes in.

Our experience is of forming one such 'good faith' relationship with a key ethical supplier who appeared to be the answer to all our prayers. Both in terms of ethics and of experience. However we made a few key mistakes along the way. Not mistakes that resulted in the breakdown of a good relationship but mistakes that failed to identify how unworkable the relationship ultimately was. 1)We did not pressure our supplier for accurate quotes, 2)we did not criticize shoddy samples harshly enough, 3)and we did not assert our own needs for the dynamic of the relationship forcefully enough.

I use the term 'we' loosely, Rose was infact away for much of these mistakes so it was 'I' that was failing on all these counts. (Her's was simply a failure to be around doing what she is good at). In fact within a couple of weeks of Rose's return she had picked up all the loose ends of the supplier agreement and ultimately exposed the fact that the relationship was unworkable. A fact that could have been established months ago if I was a bit more like her or she was bloody around! (Me thinks lesson 2 will have to be 'Ethical business teams - Knowing your skills)'

Having taken the blame for this I feel I must defend my position. I am in life and in business an utterly optimistic person. I always play to the best case scenario - Rose plays to the worst. It is perhaps not suprising to her then, that every demand that I failed to make on our supplier turned out to be the end of a sparling wick leading to a bomb. I put faith in their abilities without having them proved. I put faith in their pricing without demanding breakdown of costs, I put faith in their ability to learn, despite numerous warnings. And on all these counts I was wrong to do so.

Why did I have faith? Because they are ethical and I wanted to help them to achieve the worthwhile goals that they are striving for. Becasue I let my good intentions hide the reality that they neither should or could go into business with a company like us. Or infact anyone for the time being - they are not ready.

So to summarise this lesson - Good intentions are not enough. All parties need to be able to proove their abilities and their commitment to the project. It is not unethical to make demands on suppliers, being supportive is about helping your suppliers to realise their potential and not to forgive unneccesary failings. Vulnerable suppliers are not vulnerable because they are not skilled, they are vulnerable because they are bullied by powerful businesses. Ethical busienss is about changing this dynamic and proving that another way is possible. In order to make these changes on a larger sacle, ethical businesses must prove that they are capable and sustainable and in every way 'better' than their unethical counterparts.

In this struggle intentions are key but ability is paramount.

Introduction (and job no. 6)

GreenKnickers began life as a final major project whilst studying Eco Design at Goldsmiths Art College. She was born out of a combination of influences including a passion for underwear, a strong desire to bring more of my own personality to my work and a determination to combine all the things I love. She was exhibited in 2005 at the truman brewery in Brick Lane London and has had a life of her own ever since.

Brilliant press coverage and an ever increasing fanbase turned GreenKnickers from a dream into a reality. A frustrating, expensive, heartbreaking yet wonderful reality. I teamed up with my best friend Rose who was then working in fashion merchandising and started the ball slowly moving.

The basic premise of GreenKnickers is the combining of fun, sexy design with social and ecological ethics. The knickers are designed to engender sex, humour, enchantment and education. They are made using ethically sourced and produced textiles including organic cotton, hemp, recycled fabrics and manmade ecological fibres. The knickers are then manufactured by various fair trade businesses and less formal groups who work to improve the lives of textile workers.

As a team Rose and I are able to pull together enough skill and experience to cover design, accounting, PR, web developement, stock management, merchandising (whatever that means) and finally job number 6 (see last entry if confused) - sewing the darned knickers when necessary! When your manufacturer lets you down and your customers have waited far too long already, the only thing to do is to take out the sweing machine and the fiskars and just start making. We probably should have done this months ago.

So why didn't we? Well running an ethical business is in many way the same as running a normal company. Infact the only difference is a single consideration of ethics amongst the normal list of thousands of considerations. However, this consideration underpins not only the ethos of the business but more often than not ties the undulations and goals of the business firmly to the heart strings of the founders and employees. Decisions that would normally be easy such as make it cheaper, or drop the lousy supplier are fraught with agonising questions. Lesson 1 and the reason for Job no.6 explains this quandry in more detail.

Six jobs no brain...

I have decided to start a blog about the up's and downs of starting an ethical business.

My business GreenKnickers is my life, it is also likely to be the death of me. When I say it is my life I do not mean to imply that I am able to spend my time doing greenknickers work. Infact at the last count I had six jobs. These include two paid jobs - Part time receptionist for an Architect's firm in Soho(where I am also involved in some graphic design work on the side) and freelance graphic designer/illustrator. This is my source of income at present which covers the rent of a little flat in West Norwwod London and food - nothing else. Being a greeny and being utterly broke I cycle to and from Soho each day to earn my bread and butter.

So those are the two paid jobs, other jobs/projects include illustrating a childrens book written by my talented other half as well as and assiting him in the making of short films and videos. Number four - designing bags and mens ties for a fair trade coop in India.

My fifth and main job is both the sunshine and darkness in my life, designer/director/ad hocker for GreenKnickers Limited. She captures everything that I want from a business and from a career. Designing exciting products that capture my two most treasured passions - Ethics and undies. I love underwear and I love designing underwear. I love the relationship that women have with their underwear - secretive and expressive. My other passion is the planet and it's people, something that I do not see as two seperate entities. I am naively optimistic about the possibility for change and the consequesnces of sustainable, ecological and ethical developement.

What is the sixth job? Well job number six comes hand in hand with the first lession I have learned that is specific to ethical business. Many other lessons have been learned so far which are key to the running of any business. What is this lesson? Well that will have to wait until I have had time to digest the lesson fully.

Over time I will attempt to caprture the experience and challenges of creating an ethical enterprise (job number 7? - we'll see). In my next entry I will introduce you to GreenKnickers and to my business Partner Rose - she is the difference between GreenKnickers the business and GreenKnickers the project.

Time is the most difficult thing to find, if there was more time then everything would be possible. But there isn't.