Since 2019 LifestyleGarden – pioneers of sustainable material usage within the outdoor leisure sector – have been working with the Eden Project towards a common goal of promoting environmental responsibility and sustainability. As this remarkable relationship reaches its two-year milestone, we find out more about how the partnership has grown.
The partnership between LifestyleGarden and the Eden Project was a true industry first. With both organisations driven by goals of promoting environmental responsibility and sustainability, LifestyleGarden’s 2019 season furniture ranges were supported by Eden Project’s highly-recognisable branding, whilst Eden also featured LifestyleGarden’s award-winning DuraOcean chair – the first mass-market outdoor furniture made from recycled ocean plastic waste – within its Mediterranean Biome.
Fast forward two years and this partnership continues to thrive. In addition to the Eden Project branded furniture ranges, LifestyleGarden has also worked closely with the Eden team to help complete the refit of its multiple catering areas, where its Banyan Tree chairs have been joined by the DuraOcean - 2021 RHS Sustainable Product of the Year shortlisted product. Looking ahead to 2022, LifestyleGarden’s latest innovation - the Nassau chair made using Social Plastic® from Plastic Bank – will join the line up within Eden’s catering areas.
Talking about this part of the partnership, the Eden Project’s Commercial Manager Tracey Smith said: “Adding LifestyleGarden’s ranges to our catering areas felt like a natural progression of our partnership. Whilst we only partner with a few like-minded brands, we look to maximise every possible element and showcase product to our visitors in as many touchpoints as we can. In doing so, we can help increase brand awareness whilst also encouraging our visitors to ask more questions around the material innovation and environmental impact of everyday products.”
It is this concept of questioning provenance and sustainability that both LifestyleGarden and the Eden team feel is driving consumer demand. Whether it is questioning the material, packaging, manufacturing processes, recyclability, or impact of use, both parties are seeing demand continue to increase for products that deliver in functionality but do so whilst positively impacting the environment and community.
Tracey added: “Whether it’s the old mantra of ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ or ‘reuse, recycle, repurpose’ we are seeing consumers make more considered and environmentally conscious purchasing decisions. In addition, since the pandemic we are also seeing more of our visitors reach out to ask questions about how they can make a difference. Being able to work in partnership with brands such as LifestyleGarden means we can better answer these questions and point our visitors in the direction of brands that we know deliver on what they promise.
“Partnerships are also important for our internal team. As we add so few to our licensing programme – for us it is about quality, not quantity – we are constantly assessing each partner’s value and in turn, what is important to us as an organisation. In doing so, we can ensure that our mission to partner with brands that hold the same values across all elements of their business are upheld to the highest standard; a standard which we hope even more brands will strive to achieve.”
As the 2021 season comes to an end, LifestyleGarden and the Eden Project are both looking ahead to a busy and fruitful 2022 season. With outdoor living more popular than ever as we recognise the mental and physical wellbeing that comes from gardening and spending time outdoors, the expectation is that sales of outdoor living lines, particularly garden furniture, will continue to thrive. This is an especially exciting prospect when you consider that LifestyleGarden is poised to officially launch the most ground-breaking outdoor leisure range to ever hit the UK market – the Nassau chair, made from Social Plastic® from Plastic Bank.
The range boasts all the same benefits as the original Nassau collection – a stylish, vibrant set of outdoor and indoor furniture with extreme weather resistance and complete recyclability at end of life. Within this new collection, however, every Nassau chair will be made from the equivalent of 175 recycled plastic bottles, with each chair directly contributing to vulnerable communities supported by Plastic Bank.
Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in vulnerable coastal communities and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain as Social Plastic®. The company empowers disadvantaged communities and helps them to transcend inequality by providing an opportunity to collect and monetise plastic waste.
Collectors in Plastic Bank’s ecosystems receive a premium for the materials they collect, which helps them provide basic family necessities such as groceries, school tuition, internet access, health insurance, and cooking fuel. The collected plastic waste is reborn as Social Plastic® which can be easily reintegrated into products and packaging as part of a closed-loop supply chain. It is these pellets that LifestyleGarden will now use exclusively for its Nassau Collection made using Social Plastic® from Plastic Bank.
Talking about the new Social Plastic collection, Eden’s Tracey Smith said: “LifestyleGarden achieved something really unique with DuraOcean but we always knew that this would just be the start of the journey. With Social Plastic LifestyleGarden can truly demonstrate what a closed-loop economy can look like, and how such exciting and community-driven manufacturing should not be reserved for the elite but is something that can be incorporated into our everyday. Eden is fully behind the initiative and looks forward to showcasing the range to our customers and stakeholders.”
Paul Cohen, LifestyleGarden’s Sales Director said: “It has been and remains an absolute pleasure to work so closely alongside the Eden Project. Partnerships such as this are vitally important to us as a business, not only from a brand awareness perspective but more importantly, it helps us continually refocus our efforts and stay on the path we have set ourselves. We are very much looking forward to continuing to build our partnership and to bring our latest innovations to the Eden Project both here, and in new locations, as they are added.”
Find out more
To find out more about LifestyleGarden®’s market-leading ranges please visit www.lifestylegarden.com. You can also learn more about ScanCom and its commitment to a more sustainable future by visiting www.scancom.net
To learn more about the Eden Project please visit www.edenproject.com
