Ethics & Sustainability
At Kent Coast Ghosts, we care about our planet! The art industry is rife with sustainability problems, but we decided from the very beginning that we would be open and honest about our efforts to reduce our impact on the planet. There is absolutely no greenwashing here - we're just proud that we're always finding new ways to improve our carbon footprint, and will continue to do so.
Every month we plant trees with Ecologi to help reduce carbon and help forest restoration projects around the world. You can view our forest, The Screaming Woods, via our Ecologi profile, and check out where our latest trees have been planted.
We pride ourselves on our transparency, and being a small business we can do so much, (and so much more!) to reduce the impact we have, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to message us - we're always grateful to hear your suggestions!
Materialsaterials
Paints and Inks: Our paints are usually water-based acrylics or watercolours, and these are Crawford and Black or Windsor and Newton, (except Payne's Grey and Ivory Black), together with Boldmere brushes. All of these are recommended by vegomm as being vegan friendly brands. For lino printing, we use Essdee inks which are water-based and certified as vegan friendly.
Tools: All of our tools have either been passed down through Victoria's family, rescued from our local Freecycle site, or are sourced at charity shops or via small businesses based in the UK.
Packaging
We currently use as much recyclable, repurposed and reused packaging as we can, but we know that we can do more!
Our boxes are all recyclable and we use paper tape sourced in the UK to seal them. Our internal packaging consists of acid-free tissue paper which can either be recycled as is, or reused for your own gifts!
We also include a small 'thank you' card, with business card and a sticker - all of these are made from Kraft paper and can easily be recycled with your usual paper recycling. We are using up our current supply of business cards and making them even more sustainable by changing over to seed paper with our next batch. This is handmade in the UK and sourced from Etsy. You will be able to plant it straight in your garden to produce wild flowers for bees! Our tags are also made from Kraft paper and attached with natural twine, but these will also be made from seed paper in the future.
We do not include a printed invoice with your order. This is because we feel that it is a substantial waste of paper as you have access to your order details on your account and via the confirmation of purchase email. If you need a paper invoice please let us know and we'll be happy to add one for you!
Over the festive period we were aware that packages were being left outside in the rain - not a good combination with biodegradable tape and packaging! We bought a small amount of plastic postal bags which we are currently in the process of using up. These will be replaced with biodegradable postal bags for our larger orders.
Our Vegan Promise
The majority of our creations are vegan friendly, however if we're not sure, we'll list it in the description.
Victoria is a vegetarian with a big conscience! She has been a campaigner for animal welfare and environmental issues since the 1990s, including protesting at Huntingdon Life Sciences in the mid-to-late 90s, and receiving responses from Downing Street and Buckingham Palace in response to letters petitioning for better animal welfare. Ensuring her creations are as ethical as possible has been her main aim since before 'going green' was trendy!