Changing the Rules on Ethical
In order for our small ethical business to keep up with the big guys who are cutting corners, we are doing things differently. Our boldly different approach originates from our moral choice to say no to unethical production and materials.
Here’s what we are doing differently:
Our products are different, we don’t believe in doing what everyone else is and just sticking our brand on. Moral Origin are about intelligent innovative designs that dare to be different.
We don’t do fancy packaging, we do the most minimal no thrills packaging there is. Apart from the small thrill of our packaging being 100% recycled, we really just let our products do the talking.
Our production is boldly different, in the sense that we don’t really have one. With the impossible choice between unethical or unaffordable we decided we didn’t want either and made the bold choice to cleverly design our products so they can be easily assembled by you the customer, or ethically assembled by us for you. This drastically different approach to production saves time energy and resources , greatly reduces the carbon footprint of transport, allows us to put more energy into sourcing high quality ethical materials and gives us all ethical peace of mind.
We look to source materials that are both ethical and functional; while we are currently focused on cork and its many great qualities, we are looking to branch out to other ethical materials in the future.
We chose cork leather for its unique aesthetic and functional properties:
While leather has good functional properties, it comes with the obvious attachment to animal slaughter and also involves the not so obvious use of highly hazardous chemicals that are harming the planet and often harming the people and communities that are involved in this process.
There are a lot of plastic based faux leathers out there that are low cost, have great functional properties and are animal free, but their production also often involves the use of hazardous chemicals that are harmful to the planet.
As well as a long list of functional properties, cork material has an even longer list of ethical properties:
Cork is harvested by shaving off the bark of a Cork Oak tree, the tree is then left to re-grow this cork layer to be harvested again.
This means no trees are being cut down, so the area is a complete oasis for the wildlife and is great for supporting endangered species.
In addition Cork Oak trees absorb up to 5 times more carbon dioxide than other trees when re-growing their bark, so are an amazing asset in fighting global warming.
We look to source materials that are both ethical and functional; while we are currently focused on cork and its many great qualities, we are looking to branch out to other ethical materials in the future.
Moral Origin grew from a love of clever design, a need to question convention and a hope for a future where ethical is the norm.
A few years ago I started an ethical business selling products made from recycled materials; as the success of the business grew, traditional structure and production methods meant that the original ethical principles slowly diminished. The endless difficulties I faced when trying to keep business morally ethical led me to re-think the modern day structure of business and production.
I started Moral Origin to challenge the norm and to show that there is a different way of doing things; business can be ethical and affordable.
John is a 26 year old Astrophysics graduate, keen cyclist and climber from Shropshire, England.
After designing and developing a number of unique products, John built Moral Origin into a small dedicated team of people who are all passionate about moulding business with ethics.