profile
Kelli Donovan, Pure Pod’s founder and head designer, has more than twenty years of experience in Australia’s fashion and textiles industry. Her increasing interest in sustainability led to a tree-change in 2005, swapping the high street of Melbourne’s fashion district for a quiet main street in the lush sub tropical hinterland of Byron Bay shire.
With time to contemplate how best to utilise her experiences in the world of fashion, Kelli completed a yoga teacher training and went to work on bringing Pure Pod into being.
In less than five years Kelli, with the strong support of partner and photographer Sean Watson, has grown Pure Pod to become one of the largest dedicated ethical fashion labels in Australia, with clients throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Asia.
Carbon Neutral
Pure Pod is not registered with any Carbon Neutral business. At Pure Pod, we believe that it is up to each individual business to understand, change, and put in place effective measures to minimise one’s “Carbon Footprint”. We believe that the first step toward a sustainable business is sustainable business practice. Paying for carbon credits should be the last resort for minimizing the environmental footprint.
Green Energy
We run our studio on “Green Energy”, supplied by Country Energy which is generated from solar, wind and hydro sources.
Our studio recycles all paper, glass, cans and plastic
In the day-to-day running of our office and production studio, we recycle all paper products, plastic & glass. Most importantly, we re-use whatever we can – we recycle packaging boxes from the local supermarket, all our material scraps are saved and made into “One Off” designs, used for mattress stuffing or given to local schools for craft projects.
We use Eco-Products
We use a combination of 100% post-consumer recycled paper and partially post-consumer recycled paper for our office printing and we use a combination of soy-based ink with waterless printing and just-in-time digital printing for our swing tags. We are conscious to use minimal packing supplies and whenever possible we will reuse supplier boxes for freight. In terms of general consumables, we use recycled toilet paper, compact fluorescent light bulbs, re-manufactured printer cartridges (when appropriate to our needs) and eco-friendly cleaning products. We also use human powered transportation to the studio as much as possible – walking or riding our bikes.
We buy Australian made
We try to buy locally wherever possible to limit the emissions given out by travel and freight. We also use, where feasible, local business’s for all our needs, such as screen printing, pattern making, pattern cutting, sample making, admin services and mentoring, thus supporting the local economy.
