Conscious & Conscience: Luke’s Top 3 Shopping Sustainably Hacks

In the Conscious and Conscience podcast, Holly and I share how we’ve started to change our shopping habits so that we can in good conscience be conscious of what we’re buying, how long it lasts, and the impact it has on the planet and those who have made it.

Here are top 3 sustainability hacks to help keep your conscience clear!

1. Shop locally – and enjoy it!

I simply love bakeries that go the extra mile to create their own unique offerings using good produce and a healthy dose of creativity! Happy Sky Bakery and Gu Choki Pan, both Japanese artisanal bakeries offering sweet and savoury delights, do just that. It’s a real favourite pastime of mine to sit down with a cup of tea, a good book, and a tasty baked good – and both of these bakeries in London help satisfy my hunger for Japanese food, as well as my ACTUAL hunger, and I know that I’m supporting local and sustainable businesses whilst I do so.

Another of my favourite haunts is the Rathfinny Wine Estate in East Sussex, but a stones’ throw from where I grew up. Whilst it’s not exactly local to me now, I do enjoy popping in when I go home – and I recently LOVED their picnic on the estate, paired with their Cradle Valley White. I’d thoroughly recommend Rathfinny if you’re looking to make the move to English wine – and if you’re in the area, you have to pop in and try the food too.

Who said shopping sustainably had to be tasteless and unadventurous?!

L-R, Happy Sky Bakery in Shepherd's Bush, Gu Choki Pan at Bishop's Park Market, and Rathfinny Wine Estate in Alfriston East Sussex.

2. Shop long term – and style it!

One of my favourite stockists of organic and ethical clothing is Brothers We Stand; this simple and easy to use website has all the staple menswear items you need from a variety of independent labels that are fashion conscious yet with a good conscience. This means you can shop for those essentials that you know are going to last. I stumbled across one of my favourite London based designers here: Alec Bizby! And my KnowledgeCotton Apparel shorts are my go-to in the hot Italian summer I’m currently enjoying.

My other favourites are: Riz Boardshorts (recycled from plastic bottles and beautiful designs), Komodo (one of the first accessible sustainable fashion brands and where I got my hands on a wonderful pair of light and comfortable patterned black shorts), and BAM (mainly because their sports and yoga wear is just so soft and comfortable).

Who said shopping sustainably had to be frumpy and dull?!

L-R, bright and bold from Riz Boardshorts, and the morning coffee powered by Pact.

3. Shop fairly – and get a buzz from it!

Tea, coffee, and chocolate – what a trinity. Switching to fairly traded products is probably the easiest way to start making a shift towards “conscious and conscience” shopping – and this is no more easily done than by ensuring your tea, coffee, and chocolate are all traded fairly and come from organic estates where possible. As I said in the Conscious and Conscience podcast: my desire for a chocolate bar is not more valuable than the lives of those who’ve made it.

For absolutely incredible chocolate, check out Montezuma's – I honestly go wild for their bags of chocolate buttons! And for something that is a little more accessible on the High Street, then the Co-Op also have an excellent range of fairly traded chocolate – including a delicious 85% cocoa option.

As I mentioned in the Conscious and Conscience podcast, we’re big fans of Pact – a coffee subscription service that works with farmers and estates to produce some of the best coffee I’ve tasted and delivers it directly to your door on a schedule that works for you. It’s flexible and can be easily altered, if you need to increase or decrease your intake…!

Who said shopping sustainably had to leave you feeling flat?!

Do you have your favourite brands who challenge mindless consumerism and encourage you to act consciously and with a good conscience? What are your must haves that I ought to know about?! Let me know!

And check out @locomotionluka on Instagram for links to the accounts of those mentioned here, as well as more of adventures both on and off the road!