ROAR!

On Monday 17 March 2014 at 7pm at the Substation, 45 Armenian St, City Hall, Singapore, I will be singing with a small group of adults as part of choir. The performance also includes songs by local children, excellent soloists and a ukelele group.

All in aid of the African Children's Choir, which is a charity empowering impoverished families in Uganda. It will be a great show to celebrate the good work that they do, with songs like Let It Go from Frozen, Roar by Katy Perry and Don't You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia.

Rentez-Vous

J'adore this.

The concepts in their separate entities, i.e. clothing rental from stores, marketplaces and clothes sharing as social events, are not new.

However, peer to peer clothing rental is!

That is exactly what Rentez-Vous is all about and it has become very fashionable indeed in Paris and London no less.

The latest welcome addition to an increasing collaborative consumption movement, I hope that this will serve to demonstrate to high street and designer brands that rental and repair services are in demand and a rejig of the classic 'walk-into-a-shop-and-get-something-cheap-and-new-in-exchange-for-cash' model is fast becoming fatigued.

So, in a sexy voice (because sustainable fashion is super sexy), I say "Vivez la mode, ne la possedez pas!"

G-Star is Phar out...

No we are not in LA but we've gone plastic fantastic.

Pharrell is making the oceans happy by partnering with Dutch denim label G-Star Raw to produce a fashion collection made from recycled plastic. This puts waste to use whilst raising awareness of the plight of plastic pollution.

And thus dear Pharrell is making me happy too :)

Success!

What is the key to success?

One piece of life advice I have heard is to:

"Surround yourself with successful people, as you are the average of your five closest friends". 

I agree with this to an extent. However, I disagree if it is only used with the conventional definition of success: money and degree titles earned, job titles and promotions achieved, assets accumulated. 

Perhaps a more productive definition of success, and one that I would use, is life balance and the simultaneous creation of happiness in oneself and in others. In this sense, it certainly is fantastic to hang out with people who make you smile, make you feel that you can achieve great things and feed your energy, especially when you can do the same for them.  

It seems that many communities are recognising this too. GDP is no longer sufficient to measure the success of a country. Bhutan’s Happiness Index is one of many measures praised for acknowledging that it is the collective happiness of people that determines success. Many ‘liveable cities’ indices also use factors determining happiness in their measurement, as do measures of ‘the best companies to work for’ or ‘the best universities to go to’.

A successful, inspirational and very much loved Uncle of mine made a speech at a recent milestone birthday of his, which went something like this: "many have asked me what the secret of success is, and I tell them that it really is a simple formula: get enough sleep, eat healthily, exercise well and most importantly, spend quality time with your family and friends".

Yet another piece of advice from him is "always keep a bottle of champagne chilled in the fridge, ready to celebrate, as you never know when an occasion may occur!" 

You can decide what success looks like for you, but make sure you celebrate along the way!

Positive Luxury

Don't you just LOVE the word LUXURY?

For me it evokes images of beauty, glamour and sophistication, all three rolling around together in a vast high quality pool of bespoke comfort and exclusivity.

Well, what if feeling that good and looking that good also meant that you were doing good?

Positive Luxury is a membership organisation with an eco label called the Butterfly Mark. This mark is applied to high-end brands with a desire to make a difference in the world. With this symbol on a product, consumers can rest-assured that the company they are purchasing from is taking steps towards become more environmentally and socially sustainable.

Oooh. That sounds good to me.

Of course, The Butterfly Mark is not a 'one size fits all' stamp for eco-friendly perfection. Equally, it is not there to encourage guilt-free mass buy-outs of designer labels ('but, surely, the more I buy, the more I am saving the world?!')

Rather- and this is the part I really agree with- it is about praising companies who are not only conscious of their impacts but are making efforts to ensure that they are effectively measured and managed. I believe in this type of positive reinforcement in sustainable business, as it can also create competition.

Although many of the global affiliate brands are not making transformative (systemic or operational) sustainable change, there are also fully-fledged born-sustainable start-ups with the Butterfly Mark who can act as inspiration.

This is the part I really, really agree with: Positive luxury is supporting the ethos that living sustainably does not have to mean living in a cave and instead should and can enrich your life.

Just one more thing I like about Positive Luxury... Aussie dreamboat Adam Garcia is their Brand Ambassador...

It's as easy as ABC

Communicating sustainability is as easy as ABC.

The basic principles of how to communicate in the world of sustainable business are not rocket science. In fact, they are not dissimilar to the basic principles of how to communicate effectively in general.

I am working for Communicate Blue and have written this helpful and somewhat silly article for them. I think the principles can be applied to some situations in daily life too!

Champagne, Champagne!

Happy 2014!

How appropriate then that I have had over 14,000 page views to date. Thank you for your readership and support!

Apologies for the dead air my end- I have lately been a rolling stone gathering no moss in Australia, China, Malaysia, Singapore and now the UK (soon to be Singapore again).

My blog then did not recognise my location, nor did it recognise me (I have not changed that much, honest!) and through Holmes-level detective work I have only just managed to sign in again. So...champagne!

There is quite a backlog of exciting blog posts... I wonder what the abbreve of backlog is? I guess it would be...blog?! Or klog? There we go: my blog has a wee bit of a klog, soon to be remedied, not to worry.

In the meantime Happy New Year! May 2014 be filled with happiness, good health and hope.