At homesbytameraturner, we are deeply committed to sustainability and protecting our planet. That's why we are excited to shine a spotlight on Ghost Fishing UK and their inspiring Ghost Net campaign in Scotland.

Join us as we delve into the incredible work being done by this organization to combat ghost fishing net and preserve our marine ecosystems.

Cut to the chase, get your donation tripled here.

A Brief Overview: Ghost Fishing UK is a non-profit organization dedicated to removing lost, abandoned, and discarded fishing gear, commonly referred to as "ghost net," from our oceans.

Ghost net poses a severe threat to marine life, entangling and injuring countless creatures, including whales, dolphins, seals, and fish.

Scotland Fundraising Campaign: Ghost Fishing UK has launched a new and vital project in the Shetland Islands, located off the northeastern coast of Scotland. This campaign aims to tackle the issue of ghost net by conducting diving expeditions to retrieve and responsibly dispose of abandoned nets, traps, and lines.

By collaborating with local fishermen, marine experts, and volunteers, Ghost Fishing UK is creating a powerful force for change. The Shetland Project sets an example for other coastal communities, showcasing how proactive efforts can make a significant difference in preserving marine ecosystems.

Impacting Marine Conservation: The devastating consequences of ghost gear cannot be understated. Lost fishing equipment continues to catch and kill marine animals long after it has been discarded. This destructive cycle perpetuates the decline of marine populations and disrupts the balance of delicate ecosystems.

Ghost Fishing UK actively works to break this cycle. By meticulously removing ghost gear from the seas, they safeguard marine life and protect vital habitats. In addition, they collect valuable data on the types and locations of ghost gear, contributing to a better understanding of the problem and enabling more targeted prevention strategies.

How You Can Make a Difference: We firmly believe that collective action is the key to driving positive change, we can all play a part in protecting what we love. Ghost Fishing UK's Scotland fundraising campaign provides an excellent opportunity for you to contribute.

You can show your support by donating to the Ghost Fishing UK's Shetland Project through their page on the Aviva Community Fund website.

All donations are TRIPLED through the Aviva Fund.

By supporting their Scotland fundraising campaign, we can all play a role in protecting our oceans and ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.

At homesbytameraturner we are proud to stand alongside Ghost Fishing UK in their mission. Let's come together as a community of nature enthusiasts, outdoor adventurers, and sustainability advocates to make a difference in the fight against ghost gear. Together, we can create a healthier, cleaner, and more vibrant ocean environment for all.

Take action and DONATE HERE.

Other ways you can support Ghost Fishing:

- Find out how you can get involved here

- Buy Ghost Fishing merch (some of which is made by us!)

A FORCE FOR GOOD 🌍

As a Certified B Corp, we along with over 1000 B Corps in the UK use our business as a force for good, putting people and the planet first. So we thought we'd take some time out to showcase some of those B Corps that we love and why. If you want to find out more about what it means being a B Corp, check out our blog; What Is a B Corp?

We'll be highlighting some of our favourite B Corp brands, including Picture Organic Clothing, Keep Cup, Pukka Herbs, Klean Kanteen, and finally, us, homesbytameraturner.

Visiting our stores? Well take a look around and you'll find a selection of these B Corps at our retail locations, providing you with the opportunity to support businesses that prioritise social and environmental responsibility.

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Picture Organic Clothing

Picture Organic Clothing is a trailblazer in the world of sustainable fashion. They produce outdoor apparel made from organic, recycled, and bio-sourced materials. Picture Organic Clothing is committed to minimising their environmental impact while creating durable and fashionable clothing for outdoor enthusiasts.

Keep Cup

Keep Cup is revolutionising the way we consume coffee on the go. Their reusable and customisable coffee cups reduce single-use plastic waste. By choosing Keep Cup, you can enjoy your favourite beverage sustainably, knowing that you are contributing to the reduction of plastic pollution.

Pukka Herbs

Pukka Herbs is renowned for its organic, fair-trade herbal teas. They source ingredients from around the world, supporting small-scale farmers and promoting sustainable agriculture. Pukka Herb's commitment to biodiversity, ethical sourcing, and responsible packaging makes every sip a step towards a healthier planet.

Klean Kanteen

Klean Kanteen manufactures reusable stainless steel bottles and containers. By replacing single-use plastic bottles, Klean Kanteen helps reduce waste and promotes healthier hydration choices. Their products are not only durable and stylish but also free from harmful chemicals found in many plastic alternatives.

homesbytameraturner

Last but not least, it's us, homesbytameraturner. Holding our own in the big leagues. A certified B Corp brand, committed to creating high-quality outdoor apparel and gear while minimising our environmental impact. Our products are designed to inspire a connection with nature and encourage sustainable outdoor experiences.

You can read more about our B Corp journey here.

B PART OF THE MOVEMENT 🌍

Supporting B Corp brands goes beyond purchasing a product -it's a vote for a more sustainable and socially responsible future. Picture Organic Clothing, Keep Cup, Pukka Tea, Klean Kanteen, and homesbytameraturner are just a few examples of the many inspiring B Corps out there.

Using B Corps Global Directory, you can search B Corps to buy from, work with, or just learn more about Certified B Corporations around the world. 

Otherwise, come and visit our 3830 and Totnes retail stores and discover the brands mentioned and be part of the movement towards a more conscious and ethical marketplace. Together, we can create a world where business thrives while making a positive impact on people and the planet 🙌

On Saturday 20th May, Ocean Activists across the UK joined forces with Surfers Against Sewage to demand water companies stop making a profit from pollution.

With the ultimate goal to say no to sewage in our blue spaces - effectively, we've had enough of your shit.

We joined one of the 12 protests happening in the UK, in Warleigh Weir, Bath. This particular gathering was hosted by the team over at Earth Minutes. 

"Say it loud, say it clear - no more dirty water here!" Emma Askew, founder of Earth Minutes leading the charge!

From Edinburgh all the way down to Falmouth, hundreds of passionate paddlers and ocean lovers came together with a united goal of speaking up for our rivers and oceans to end sewage pollution.

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The Sad Reality 

"The UK sewage system is at breaking point. It’s under huge strain from a growing population and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events caused by climate change. Built on a Victorian system, our decaying sewage infrastructure is in desperate need of investment.

But rather than spending money where it’s needed, water companies are stuffing their pockets with our money while failing environmental targets and pillaging our waterways. They continue to get away with regularly dumping untreated sewage into our blue spaces for millions of hours every year whilst regulators and The Government turn a blind eye. This needs to stop now."  - Surfers Against Sewage

There were 301,091 sewage spills in 2022, according to Environment Agency data - the equivalent of 824 a day. 

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Water UK, the governing body for water companies apologised for the sewage scandal and promised £10bn of investment to improve our antiquated sewage system. 

"The message from the water and sewage industry today is clear - we are sorry" Water UK's chair Ruth Kelly

But an apology just won't cut it so...

What we can do? 🙌

Through collective efforts of campaigning throughout the country, the message is getting heard, apologies are being made and progress is happening. But it doesn't end here, far from it. Here are some of the ways you can help out:

Join Surfers Against Sewage in signing their Dirty Money Petition to demand an end to profiting from pollution.

"For too long water companies have been regularly pumping untreated sewage into our rivers and seas, racking up enormous fines and making huge financial losses, but still paying out millions of pounds to their shareholders. And it needs to stop." - SAS

Inform yourselves and raise awareness - try to keep in the loop, learn from others and challenge those in power starting with demanding action from your local MP.

The Goal 🌏 

Surfers Against Sewage are demanding to end sewage discharges into UK bathing waters and a 90% reduction in sewage discharges by 2030. 

From our collective group of 80 people in Warleigh Weir, the energy was unmatched, there is a real want for change and we're optimistic by working together.

Let’s collectively #EndSewagePollution

One of the reasons we founded our store in Gili Trawangan was to be able to make a difference in the fight against climate change in a place that is heavily affected by it. If you aren't aware of Gili Trawangan, it's one of the Gili Islands, just off the northwest coast of Lombok, Indonesia.

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It truly is a beautiful part of the world, and we should all do our part to preserve and protect it. Whether you were born there, moved there or just holidaying there, you shouldn't have to negotiate litter on the beach. Neither should the local ocean inhabitants. We all get that, but the reality is trash washes in, trash gets dumped and bit after bit just gets dropped.

Gili Eco Trust ♻️

The Gili Eco Trust is an NGO based on Gili Trawangan. It was founded in 2002 to protect coral reefs around the Gili islands from destructive fishing. Our partnership with Gili Eco Trust is designed to extend their reach and raise awareness, fund raise and help build an engaged following that is able to act when called upon.

By partnering with them we are able to help promote and produce positive change, on the ground, where it really counts. And that's exactly what we are doing, now having a base of operations in Gili Trawangan, we regularly host and work on Beach Clean Litter Picks 🏝️ 🚯

The Latest Beach Clean 🙏

All beach cleans start off with some insight in to what we're picking up, what can and what can't be recycled and some of the initiatives on the island that help tackle reoccurring issues. As you can see below, Sian is leading the discussion!

Once everyone has the down low, we then broke out the sacks, with sacks dedicated to different things, be it trash, recycling or glass. There's also an unreal amount of cigarette butts out there, so single use plastic bottles get a second life to collect those. 

We took a rectangular route, from the store past the edge of the night market and then along the beach past Manta Dive and Sama Sama, before cutting back inland and round to the shop.

The clean up itself is really only half of the story. The cleans gather momentum and people as you move along the roads on the beach. People join in, people bring you trash to add to your bag, people see you collecting rubbish and instantly become aware of the rubbish around them and the need to pick it up.

Every beach clean educates and inspires people in to making a difference.

It would be fair to say that there were roughly 50 people on the beach clean, engaging at least the same number again whilst moving along. That's another 50 people throwing a couple of bits of trash in to bags, so that's not only trash not in the street or the beach, but people actively getting involved, perhaps for the first time.

Between our almost 50 people strong trash team we collected over 100kg of trash and recyclables. In an hour, 100kg 😮

All good beach cleans finish with a refreshment, after all it's hard work! We were of course happy to oblige and had a fridge full of Bintang and soft drinks ready for the crew.

The community here is strong, with other businesses and locals coming along to get involved, but what's more amazing is the people passing through, the backpackers and holidaymakers, giving up their time to join in the clean and help leave the Gili Islands a better place than when they found it.

We've been working with the Gili Eco Trust through our membership of 1% for the Planet for years now. Our Gili Trawangan store manager Nizar regularly shows up for the beach cleans, wherever they are taking place on the island and as the store and it's employees grow, we are proud to be able to give time and help even more.

Our Gili Trawangan store manager Nizar

You can support the actions of Gili Eco Trust by donating directly, joining them as a volunteer, or picking up one of our collaboration t shirts.

Recently, homesbytameraturner founder, Rory, hosted a free webinar with fellow B Corps, Water Skills Academy and Dryrobe, discussing what positive environmental actions you can take as an individual and as a business.

For those who weren't able to attend, we wanted to break down the main points covered in the conversation through a series of blogs. Check out the first one on Banking and the second one on Renewable Energy.

JOURNEYS - WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

The current global climate crisis requires us to rethink our travel options and reduce our carbon footprint. According to the International Energy Agency, the transportation sector accounts for around one-quarter of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, making it a significant contributor to global warming. Therefore, as individuals and businesses, we must find ways to reduce our impact.

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO TRAVEL?

Better journey planning is a critical step in reducing unnecessary travel and making more sustainable choices. For businesses, this could mean choosing more environmentally friendly travel options, like not travelling at all, or more carbon friendly options like trains and public transport, over planes and cars.

No one was immune from Zoom and Teams during the pandemic and that vibe has continued to roll on. If businesses can also use virtual meetings to reduce the number of trips by employees, we're on to a winner!

WHAT CAN I DO?

Individuals can also play a crucial role in reducing their carbon footprint. They can start by reducing the number of unnecessary journeys, start carpooling, and use public transport where possible.

Going paddling for the weekend with your pals? Could you all travel together? 

TRAVEL BY ANYTHING OTHER THAN A PLANE

Aviation plays a huge part in carbon emissions and reducing our flights will make a large individual difference. If you've ever worked out your individual carbon footprint, flying takes up a huge portion of it, even if you only fly a few times per year. 

So we're back to trains for the win! But if you do have to travel by plane, is there a more direct route you could take. Sites like Skyscanner now highlight lower carbon routes to help us make better choices when we do have to travel by plane. 

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

As a business we are Climate Neutral Certified, which means we measure our Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions and compensate for them. We also have a reduction plan in place to help us work out where and how to reduce those emissions. You can find out more about that here: homesbytameraturner Climate Neutral.

Whilst we have emissions from travel, the bulk of our emissions is shipping. We've reduced our travel year on year and continue to work hard on bringing our shipping emissions down, by continuing to use sea freight over air freight where we can.

The First Of Many Cleans 🌍

The Route📍

The Findings 🙌

Once we set off, people broke off into groups of 2/3 where one person could document whilst the other picked. On the day, we had around 5 groups all collectively doing our part, it was nice to see new and familiar faces and see everyone was just super keen to get stuck in! We found a whole range of litter in the few hours, from energy drinks galore, cigarette butts, vapes, wheels from a bike, signage from worksites...the list goes on. Luckily for us, we took the time to document our findings and break down in weight exactly what we discovered.

Cans & Plastic Bottles (5.8kg)

Whether it was buried in the shrubbery or thrown out a car on the street, there was a lot to be collected, with a grand total of 3kg, 1.8kg of cans and 1.2kg of bottles. The biggest offender here was Coca Cola, with the specific product being Monster Energy. 

Hard Plastics (3kg)

Heading out to the forest path just past the Community Centre, we found various types of hard plastic, from cones to most notably, a bicycle wheel - I mean, where's the rest of the bike? 👀

We also found this action figure, safe to say I think the kids took him home - repurposing at it's finest! 

Metal (24kg)

Admittedly this was mostly due to one metallic object, this discarded and heavily destroyed [inset here whatever you think this object used to be]. Sadly, we found this buried under the mud, which of course was massively rusting meaning there was lots of smaller bits of metal around the site we found it. This was a sad find, not only as it wasn't properly discarded but the object is super harmful to the local inhabitants, both people and wildlife. 

General Rubbish (7.2kg)

Wrappers, dog waste, vapes - we had bags full of the stuff. I think it's safe to say that most of the finding here were from the street and carpark with some of the biggest offenders being vapes and cigarette packaging/butts. With ongoing work around the village, we came across lots of signs which had had been swallowed by the ground; for example we found this massive amount of general waste underneath this STOP sign. 

A nest, seemingly filled with rubbish, pretty sad.

The Next Step 🚶‍♀️

We have now submitted the data from our haul as part of the Million Mile Clean. Surfers Against Sewage will then use all the data provided to call out the biggest plastic polluters and lobby the government for legislative change.

We had a blast hosting our first Community Litter Pick and will now be holding them monthly every first Saturday - hopefully next time we'll be heading out to the moors 🙌

FROM AWARENESS TO ACTION

Recently homesbytameraturner founder, Rory, hosted a free webinar with fellow B Corps, Water Skills Academy and Dryrobe, discussing what positive environmental actions you can take as an individual and as a business.

For those who weren't able to attend, we wanted to break down the main points covered in the conversation through a series of blogs. See the first entry in this series about Sustainable Banking.

Renewable Energy - What is it? 👀

Simply put, Renewable Energy is derived from natural resources that can be replenished over time and are not finite. This includes solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass energy sources. Unlike non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels, renewable energy sources have a lower impact on the environment and can be harnessed in a sustainable way. 

We can get in to why some of those sources aren't as good as they are cracked up to be another time. For now we want to focus on the switch away from fossil fuels.

Overall, green energy offers a more sustainable, secure, and cost-effective way to power our homes, businesses, and communities, while reducing our impact on the environment and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Green Energy suppliers 🌍

Talking with our fellow B Corps, Dryrobe they shared that 100% of their energy is renewable, which is awesome. Water Skills Academy have no central office, but encourage anyone working from home to go renewable and have a policy in place to help facilitate this. 

We're with Opus Energy and Octopus Energy, who both only provide renewable energy. Octopus is also a B Corp!

We were all in agreement that renewable energy still comes at a price, however if we want to see energy change on a scale that is going to effect climate change, that is a price we have to be willing to pay.

Who to choose?

Whilst the list of green energy suppliers is growing, the most important choice you can make is to choose a supplier that only does renewable energy.

There's nothing green about churning out the fossil fuels and doing a bit of the green on the side.

There are a couple of energy suppliers in the UK that are certified B Corporations, which means they meet certain social and environmental standards, meaning that not only are they good with the products they sell, they are a business that's in it for good - literally the opposite of most energy suppliers who are all in it for money.

1. Octopus (B Corp)
2. Good Energy (B Corp)
3. Ecotricity
4. Opus

Suppliers that only supply energy from renewable sources are key, those are the ones to switch to.

Make the change 🙌

Switching right now is difficult, the price of energy across the board is crazy. However being informed and ready to switch when you can is a great next step.

1. Check your current supplier. Are they green?
2. When can you switch?
3. Find out about renewable suppliers
4. Plan to make the switch

Final thoughts 🙌

Renewable energy comes at a price, however if we want to see energy change on a scale that is going to effect climate change, that is a price we have to be willing to pay. 

Recently homesbytameraturner founder, Rory, hosted a free webinar with fellow B Corps, Water Skills Academy and Dryrobe, discussing what positive environmental actions you can take as an individual and as a business.

For those who weren't able to attend, we wanted to break down the main points covered in the conversation through a series of blogs.

First up; Sustainable Banking 🏦 ♻️

As we become more conscious of the impact that our actions have on the environment, it's important to recognise that our choices extend beyond our individual actions. The businesses we support and the financial institutions we use also play a significant role in shaping the world we live in. One area where this is particularly relevant is in the banking industry, which has a significant impact on our planet through how those banks use our money.

In this blog post, we'll explore the concept of sustainable business banking, the impact of fossil fuel funding, and how we can make better choices when it comes to who we bank with.

What is sustainable business banking?

Sustainable business banking is about giving your hard earned money, to banks that prioritise environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their decision-making processes. These banks prioritize funding projects that have a positive impact on the environment and society, such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and affordable housing. They also take steps to reduce their own carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices within their operations.

The impact of fossil fuel funding

Despite the growing interest in sustainable banking, many traditional banks continue to fund fossil fuel projects, contributing to the climate crisis. According to a report by Rainforest Action Network, the world's largest banks provided $3.8 trillion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2020. This funding enables the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, which is responsible for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The impact of fossil fuel funding goes beyond just environmental concerns. These projects can also have negative social impacts on local communities, such as displacement and loss of livelihoods. 

Choosing greener banks

So, how can we make better choices when it comes to who we bank with? One option is to choose a greener bank that prioritizes sustainability in their funding choices. There are several banks that have made significant commitments to sustainability, such as Triodos Bank, which only funds projects that have a positive impact on society and the environment. 

Image is from Bank.Green - it's not all good news from the homesbytameraturner camp though 😅

When choosing a greener bank, it's important to do your research and understand their policies and practices. Look for banks that have made strong commitments to sustainability, have transparent reporting on their funding choices, and have a track record of following through on their commitments.

Voting with your wallet

Choosing a greener bank is just one step in the fight against climate change. By supporting sustainable banking practices, we send a message to traditional banks that their funding choices have real-world consequences. By voting with our wallets, we can help shift the financial industry towards more sustainable practices and contribute to a greener future for all.

By choosing greener banks, we can support sustainable projects and send a message to traditional banks that their funding choices have consequences. As consumers, we have the power to vote with our wallets and make a real difference in the fight against climate change.

What about the UK banks?

The "big four" UK banks - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - have all provided significant funding to the fossil fuel industry in recent years. According to data from the Rainforest Action Network, between 2016 and 2020:

• • Barclays provided $118 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry.

  • HSBC provided $87 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry.

  • Lloyds Banking Group provided $10 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry.

  • RBS provided $8 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry.

The big four UK banks have a significant impact on the funding of fossil fuels.

What action can you take?

Get informed. Find out where your bank rates on the scale and if they are funding fossil fuels with your money.

Move your money. Banks investing in fossil fuels can't invest your money if you move it elsewhere. Find a sustainable bank and switch over to it. 

Finding out about your bank and making the switch is easier than you might think. 

TAKE ACTION: Visit Bank.Green

How sustainable is our banking? 

Whilst we have a Triodos account, we also have a Santander account and a Wise account.

Santander is a big offender and we are working on moving away from them to a more sustainable bank, however we do have business loans through Santander, so will have some banking with them for the near future. We will however be able to minimise our use of their bank through switching to a more sustainable bank for our day to day banking.

Triodos is a stand out bank in terms of ESG, their personal banking functions well but business banking still lacks in areas we are all somewhat accustomed to in terms of online, speed and ease of use - features we heavily reply on for our day to day business banking.

Bank.Green doesn't know enough about Wise yet to rate them.

The image below comes from Bank.Green - it's a reminder that we have to try harder to do better and that putting it off it's good enough.

The Route📍

This route is known within the team for its litter drops and amongst the locals, 'vehicular incidents' - meaning debris, and a lot of it, especially on the day we set off.

A Team Effort 🙌

As we planned on getting everything we could, we knew that would mean stumbling across heavier items, such as tyres, scaffolding poles...you name it. So with that being the case, we took the team van out to the further point on the map. 

The way it worked was simple, the team of 7 broke down into three separate groups of 2 (Jack was the odd one out but someone had to take the pictures...👀). From there, we would have a grabber and bagger with someone documenting what was being found. 

Chelsie was one of the documenters. The list was fairly simple, we had broken down a double sided A4 into types of items and the worst polluters we could think off and know products of theirs can be found (Cough Coca Cola Cough)

26.1kg.

The Next Step 🚶‍♀️

Working together 🌍

There's two ways to help with this fundraising. 

1. Donate Money 

2. Activate your network

I think we can all agree that these last few months has been somewhat overwhelming in regards to the ongoing Dartmoor National Park Wild Camping situation. Unsure what we are talking about? Check out our original blog here to catch up.

From court ruling, protests, online petitions and new systems being introduced - it's hard to gage exactly what's going on and what the future of Wild Camping holds in store for all of us. In this blog, we'll do our best to document the situation and shed some light.

ALEXANDER DARWALL

As most of you will know, late in 2022, our access to the wild spaces we love came under threat from wealthy landowner, Alexander Darwall, the sixth-largest landowner on Dartmoor. Alexander Darwall had predominantly taken to the courts to query the Dartmoor Commons Act of 1985 - more specially, the assumed right to wild camp in the whole national park. He argued that he was unable to order individual campers off his land and that this right did not exist.

This was big news amongst the wild campers and roamers. Why? Well, as mentioned, Darwall is the sixth largest landowner on Dartmoor and if this case won in his favour it could cause a ripple effect encouraging following landowners to follow suite. Again, early days, but the news was certainly alarming. 

THE ROAMERS

Once this information had come to light, roamers, lovers of the outdoors and wild campers alike banded together. It was truly inspiring and heart warming seeing people come together and stand up for what they believe in, rallies were held, notably in 3830 and London. 

Rory was fortunate to be asked to speak at the 3830 event, he talked about our community here and how important access to the wild spaces we love is to the people of 3830 and Dartmoor as a whole. He talked about our rights to experience those places and along with that, our responsibilities to protect them.

Following that there was an organised protest hike across the moors which started on our doorstep. We enjoyed the company of like minded individuals along the route and got to talk about the issues at hand and how it could affect us and future generations.

Through these interactions we found certain individuals, campaigners and social media influencers were key in raising awareness and shedding light on the situation, we'd recommend looking them up for additional and ongoing information.

• Right 2 Roam; a formation of campaigners made up of ramblers, activists and explorers. 

• The Stars Are For Everyone; An IG page dedicated to spreading awareness and events.

•  Muddy_Bootlaces, otherwise known as Beca, an activist who shares her own personal stories and key in the discussions in the community.  

In general, it was truly amazing to see people showcasing their love for the wild spaces and collectively standing together to say no 🙌

THE COURT VERDIT 

Sadly, on the 13th of January 2023, the court case provided us with a tragic outcome - the case was won in the favour of Darwall. In the high court, Timothy Morshead KC, Darwall's representative stated that allowing people to camp without a landowner’s consent would be a “deprivation of the ability to decide who should and should not camp on one’s land” and added that those camping have caused nuisance and litter." 

Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the high court, ruled that Darwall’s lawyers were correct and that the right did not exist across Dartmoor. So from this date onwards, the ruling came into immediate effect. 

“In my judgment, on the first issue set out at [14] above, the claimants are entitled to the declaration they seek that, on its true construction, section 10(1) of the 1985 Act does not confer on the public any right to pitch tents or otherwise make camp overnight on Dartmoor Commons. Any such camping requires the consent of the landowner.” -  Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the high court

The team here were saddened to hear the news, especially given that wild camping was deemed as non-recreational, but activities such as walking, horseback and picnicking are - go figure. So what was next? Well, from this point onwards, permission is now required from the landowner if you are looking to wild camp.

THE NEW PERMISSIVE SYSTEM

The detail has yet to be developed but in essence landowners would enter into a legal agreement with the National Park which would grant permission to the Authority to allow the public to wild camp on specified land.  For these areas a member of the public wishing to wild camp would not have to seek the approval of the landowner as it would already have been granted via the agreement.

People wild camping will not be charged under this system. The new agreements will involve a payment to landowners by DNPA, but the amount has not yet been discussed in detail. 

SO CAN YOU WILD CAMP?

The short answer is yes, yes you can. With the new Permissive System mentioned above, there are more areas of land which is now accessible. We can understand it's easy to read the headlines and get swooped up in the turmoil, but...

Wild Camping is definitely still around and accessible. 

Sure, it has changed and there are some very 'grey' areas cropping up in discussions, but ultimately, activities such as Duke of Edinburgh and 10 Tors are still available to all. Here's a super insightful interactive map, which is consistently updated with where is possible to wild camp:

See the map.

WHAT NOW? 

But the Gili Islands is a place like no other, and week in week out, tourists show up and join in with locals and the Gili Eco Trust to help keep the beaches of the Gili Trawangan trash free.

Trash washes in from the ocean, but it also comes from being thrown away, with many people here still burning and discarding their waste. It's an uphill struggle that the Gili Eco Trust have been tackling for years, the progress is evident but theres still plenty to be done.

Every Friday at 5pm the Gili Eco Trust in collaboration with businesses on the island organise a beach clean. This weeks was with The Exile, perhaps the most authentic place to watch the sunset on the island (with the exception of a few more tables, The Exile hasn't changed in the ten years I've been coming here!).

The beach cleans last about an hour and you'll learn a bunch about what can and can't be recycled here on the island. You'll also be rewarded at the end by the collaborating business with a refreshment.

A beer for picking up some rubbish, does Friday night start any better??

The stats: 

In just under an hour about 20 of us collected a massive 81kg off the beach.

28kg of recycling

22kg of glass bottles

31kg of trash

Single use food containers are one of the biggest polluters in Indonesia, the polystyrene containers wash up all over the place and on this beach clean, we picked up 110 of them. It's madness that companies here still use polystyrene for their packaging, but then so do many takeaways in the UK. 

There's always a few fun finds and a few shocking ones. Whilst this beach clean only brought in a few flip flops, there's been Fridays where there's been hundreds of flip flops!

There's a lot of plastic water bottles, but that is to be expected in a place where you cannot drink the water from the tap. Refill culture is growing though and there are plenty of places to refill your water bottle on the island.

If you're in the Gili Islands and would like to get involved, check out Gili Eco Trust or pop by the homesbytameraturner store for more information on where and when the next clean is.

Sians relentless enthusiasm for picking up trash and making the world a better place is infectious.

We'll continue to support the Gili Eco Trust through making t shirts, contributing through 1% for the Planet and getting our staff in Indonesia out on the ground with them in any way we can.

Oral hygiene is so important, who throws away a perfectly good toothbrush?!

1. The 3830 Dash 

 2. The Big Loop - South Bound

Between the trees at Nuns Cross Farm with the old farm house behind.

3. Ryders Revenge

Leave no trace 🌲

TOP 5 DARTMOOR WALKS 🏔 🥾

DEWERSTONE WOODS

BELLEVER FOREST

FOGGINTOR QUARRY

BURRATOR RESERVOIR

Parts of Dartmoor are the only place you can legally wild camp in England and wealthy land owners are in court on Monday in an attempt to change that.

📸 @weekend_hiker & @right.2roam

What can we do to help stop this from happening?

1. Get educated on the issues. There's a good article in the Guardian about the legal challenge and who is behind it. In short, it's a wealthy landowner revoking wild camping rights on Dartmoor and it sets a dangerous precedent for the future of the National Park.

2. Peaceful gathering and a group hike. Show you care and help spread the message that wild camping is an important part of what Dartmoor means to people. 

It's an opportunity to showcase a community that loves Dartmoor and wants to protect both it's natural beauty and the right to experience it.

When? Sunday 11th Dec, 11am, outside Dartmoor Visitors Centre, 3830.

3. Peaceful protest to oppose the ban and encourage wild camping to be expanded across the UK. Influencing the decision makers on the ground. Join and hear from activists, poets, writers, hikers, musicians and young people for whom wild camping has been an essential form of inspiration and connection to the natural world. More info: @right.2roam

When? Monday 12th, 12pm, Royal Courts of Justice, London.

4. Spread the message and raise awareness. In our survey 25% of people didn't know Dartmoor National Park was the only place you can legally wild camp in England, yet 95% of people wanted to act immediately to help protect that right.

Share your story: what wild camping and Dartmoor means to you. Help spread the word on what's happening and how people can get involved. Use the tags #savedartmoor #thestarsareforeveryone and tag your friends to help spread the reach!

What are we doing to support?

We're using our platform to spread the word, educate on the issue and provide information to both our community and a wider audience.

We'll be there in person on Sunday, connecting people that love the outdoors with the community we call home.

The right to wild camp on Dartmoor really matters to us and Dartmoor should be a place for all to enjoy and experience, after all that's why National Parks were created:

"The government passes an Act of Parliament to establish National Parks to conserve and enhance their natural beauty and provide recreational opportunities for the public."

What is wild camping and how do you wild camp responsibly?

In a nutshell it's traveling light, staying out of sight, treading lightly and helping keep Dartmoor a beautiful and special place. Dartmoor National Park Authority have a guide on wild camping and also a map on where to wild camp.

From speakers to film nights and of course basecamp (where we can be found for the duration of the event!) the whole town of Kendal is a buzz of outdoor inspired activity. 

The mountain festival plays home to the annual Save Our Rivers river clean on the Kent, the river that flows right through the centre of Kendal.

Many of the people involved do not live in Kendal, visiting for the weekend and making the litter pick part of their stay. The river, the riverbanks and the paths surrounding were awash with community spirit and organisations coming together to protect the places we love. 

The river clean is the brain child of local resident, paddlesports coach and litter hero, Dan Wilkinson.

In his words, it just needs someone to start, wether it's your local park, local river bank or wherever, just get started and people will join.

It's fun. There's interesting finds and there's giggles along the way. But it's also important to remember river safety and that whilst pulling a bike out can give everyone a good laugh, thats a serious snag hazard that's been removed and a great safety concern dealt with.

Over 250kg of trash was pulled out of the river and surrounding area. A massive win for the river and the life it supports. 

To find out more visit Save Our Rivers and Trash Free Trails. Get involved and protect the places you love.

Want to see more? Check out the video created by Save Our Rivers highlighting the day:

📸 Photos by Nicholas White

Our thoughts on Black Friday are well known, but just to clarify, we think Black Friday is 💩

As with previous years on Black Friday we take a different approach to most and we engage in something much more appealing. We shut our stores, close our offices, and roll down the warehouse shutters. 

Put simply, we'd rather go hiking.

On Black Friday the team went to homesbytameraturner woods, which serves as a real gateway to Dartmoor National Park. It's a stones throw from Plymouth, there's free parking and it's on a bus route.

It's also really close to the garage where it all started back in 2013!

The hike up the homesbytameraturner sure does get the legs burning and the top is a welcome break / photo opportunity!

As we headed across the top, back in the direction of 3830, we took in the sights, found a jelly bog, laughed a lot, and just generally enjoyed each other's company.

Dartmoor is such a magical place, where animals roam free, the moorland rolls for miles and the weather dictates.

We couldn't think of a better place to call home, or a better place to spend Black Friday.

WHY WE SAY NO

It's that time of the year again, Black Friday is fast approaching with its sales, discounts, mass consumerism, throwaway culture...you know, all the good stuff 😟

The truth is Black Friday just isn't that great, it's far from it. We talk about why we feel the World doesn't need Black Friday here.

Indulging in a frenzy which encourages and effectively celebrates mass consumerism and throwaway culture is against everything we believe in.

So it will come as no surprise, here at homesbytameraturner, Black Friday just isn't for us.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF INDULGENT

Instead of pulling out the sale rack or trying to navigate around Black Friday itself, we'll simply kick the trend, not do it and just do our own thing. 

We're not preaching here, we're just sharing what we do and why we do it.

Since 2019 we've been shutting our stores, closing our office, rolling down the warehouse shutters and instead, taking the day to indulge in a place we love, the places where it all started; our home, Dartmoor 🏔🏡 

JOURNEY

The whole team will come together and take on a journey across the Moors, where we'll catch up, drink coffee, litter pick and generally be together. If previous years are to go by, it's a lot of fun, there's a lot of laughter and we'll hopefully inspire a few people to look at Black Friday differently.

KICK THE TREND

We would LOVE to encourage other businesses, brands and people alike to take the day to create a positive impact, no matter where you are. Wether that's by not buying in to Black Friday, doing something for yourself or your team, or something for the planet.

Lets collectively say no to mass consumerism, no to excess and no to throwaway culture. 

We're not looking to change the world in a day, but we can at least say we won't be making it any worse this Black Friday.

WHY NO BLACK FRIDAY SALES?

Selling perfectly good products at a discount makes little sense to us. They weren't on sale the day before and they won't be the next day. 

We don't make excess stock to sell at a discounted price, we don't have anything we need to clear and we're well aware that if we discounted everything out, we wouldn't be able to do the good that we do.  

There's plenty of brands and businesses pumping out Green Friday marketing, but is it really all it's cracked up to be? Is there anything genuine about Green Friday?

IT'S GREEN FRIDAY EVERYDAY

This is the bit where the trumpet comes out. Brands that are in it for good are doing good every day. 

Every homesbytameraturner product sold supports social & environmental actions all over the World.

We plant a tree for every product we make, every day of the year. This translates to thousands of work days, empowering communities and planting tens of thousands of trees.

We measure, offset and reduce our carbon emissions, every day of the year. Since 2019 we've been certified Climate Neutral. This is separate to our tree planting commitment, the tree planting just helps ensure we're taking out more than we're putting in.

We give 1% of our turnover to environmental action groups, every day of the year. We support non profit organisations like Save Our Rivers, Gili Eco Trust and Ghost Fishing UK. 1% for the Planet certifies this commitment. 

We give an additional 1% of our turnover to social causes, every day of the year. As a Certified B Corp we are committed to give over 2% of our annual turnover, in 2021 we gave 2.26%. In 2022, we'll give more.

The change isn't just happening on Green Friday, there's business all around that are putting people & planet before profit. If you have to spend on Black Friday, do your research, find out who those businesses are and invest in those that are investing in your future.

If we don't take action as businesses and individuals, we'll watch it burn, together, literally. 

GREENER PASTURES

Black Friday is only 99% doom and gloom. There's a 1% out there, a band of brands and businesses taking a stand against it, or at least attempting to turn it in to something more positive.

And then there are those who are just plain and simple green washing you to an extent where you'll find yourself buying something that didn't need to be made, at a lower discount than it was for sale with a month ago, but in recyclable packaging and maybe with the addition of a tree planted, and we'll all think that seems like a good idea.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A RANT

It is. But it's also to highlight the good and genuine Green Friday and Green Friday esq initiatives.

As a result of Black Friday, campaigns and forms of protest have risen and take place across the world. One of these is Buy Nothing Day.

The idea of Buy Nothing Day is to shine a spotlight on the serious implications of overconsumption on the health of the planet and people.

Is Black Friday actually making people more aware of overconsumption by partaking in it? 

What if we could use Black Friday as a way of encouraging change. Imagine we made it about promoting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. 

The official Green Friday campaign encourages both boycotting Black Friday (to engage with nature, spend time with friends and time away from screens), but also promotes sustainable shopping and arguably, sustainable consumption, if there is such a thing.

Promoting the message of, if you're going to shop on Black (Green) Friday, shop with sustainable brands.

ENABLING CONSUMPTION?

Does Green Friday highlight overconsumption, or does it provide a 'green alternative' in order to enable it?

Well, this probably comes down to the deal. Does that deal make you buy something you don't need? Does it bring a sale to a product that should never have been made?

Does a sale on this day this year, mean that brand will make more products to have on their shelves on this day next year? Did buying it this year encourage a brand to 'go harder' on Green Friday in future years?

BREAKING DOWN THE DEALS

I went to a popular search engine to find some 'Top brands with eco alternatives to Black Friday'. This is what I found:

Planting trees for Green Friday. Commendable, but if it's not being done on every day of the year, it's green washing you in to buying on Black Friday.

Carbon offsetting for Green Friday. Same as the above really, it's green washing you in to buying on Black Friday.

Extra discount to give more. Well if you're discounting that heavily, whats really left to give?

Extra discount to stop items going to waste. Where do I start here? If you don't buy them, they'll throw them in to landfill? FFS.

Sometimes there's just no winning, not if you're the Planet or the people having to make the products.

IT IS GREENWASHING GALORE

Unfortunately, we're all going to have to look a little deeper if we're taking advantage of some Green Friday deals. We're also going to have to make some assumptions. 

Giving to Charity is good. Giving a percentage of profit is good. Giving a clear £ figure is good. Transparency is good.

Giving a percentage of profit on a full priced product, is good. But if that product was heavily discounted, is there any profit left to give?

Are we left feeling like we've done good by buying, but actually we haven't done quite what we thought we did?

IS THERE GREEN FRIDAY HOPE?

Brands and businesses that do good things, don't just do them on Black Friday. 

So if it's not normal practise, is it green washing? You need to be the judge of that.

WHAT ARE DEWERSTONE DOING FOR BLACK FRIDAY?

We're having a massive sale here. (Just kidding, that would be ironic though 😂)

We've got something better planned..

WE'RE SAYING NO TO BLACK FRIDAY

The It's that time of the year again, Black Friday is fast approaching and the world goes crazy for the 'best deals of the year'. There's huge sales all over the place, mad price drops, colour ways and product lines you've never seen before.. is it all a bit too good to be true? 

Indulging in a frenzy which encourages and effectively celebrates mass consumerism and throwaway culture is against everything we believe in.

So it will come as no surprise, here at homesbytameraturner, Black Friday just isn't for us.

THE SAD TRUTH

There's no sugar coating it, Black Friday is bad news for the planet and people. Like any event that involves spending money on things you don't need, be it takeaway cups or cut price toasters, if you times that by 100'000 or whatever the crazy black Friday stats are.. 

Black Friday is a recipe for disaster for the people that have to make the products and the planet that has to bear the price of the products creation.

When brands 'cut prices' to a historically low level, it's more the case that these promotions are carried on from the previous year or simply old stock looking to go - but now with that alluring 'one day special' discount!

An article carried out by Which in 2022 detailed:

"98% of the discounts advertised the previous year - including promotions on popular tech, home and personal care products - were available for the same price or cheaper in the six months after the sales. And, whilst you might expect some products to fall in price over time, we also found that 85% of the items had also been the same price or cheaper in the six months before Black Friday."

That's a pretty hefty percentage, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Did you know brands specifically make for sale? We all know that most of the things at TK Maxx have never actually been anywhere at full price. Shocking right? Well, there's a real element of that going on with some Black Friday models. Stuff that no one needs, that no one needed to make.

FAST FASHION, BIG WASTE

The fashion industry, and especially fast fashion, is already polluting and exploitative as it is. Making more, to sell more, is making it worse.

Last year fast fashion giants Pretty Little Thing discounted items by up to 99%, meaning some items of clothing were going for as little as 4p. This doesn't just enable throw away culture, it celebrates it.

Research from Green Alliance found that 80% of everything bought during Black Friday sales will end up either in landfill, incineration or at best, low quality recycling – often after a short life.

MAKING SPACE?

We've all seen it, the space making sale, the clearing out of the warehouse shelves to make more space to bring in more gear.. it's a vicious cycle. 

WHAT ABOUT MAKING LESS???

This is where you have to question where a brands responsibility lies, our guess, it is to their shareholders. The profiteering bottom line. If you didn't have to turn it over and make more money, it probably wouldn't be being pumped out in a sale.

That said, there's a difference between having a few lines in sale and having almost an equal amount of current and sale products. If a brand has a high current / sale ratio, it's difficult to argue they are not contributing to excess product supply and fast fashion culture. 

As businesses we need to be better than that. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Don't buy in to it. As buyers and customers, we can choose to not play up to it. There's nothing like seeing a dip in your year on year sales to make a brand really think about their approach to their strategy.

When it's all about money, money is the only thing that talks.

Don't feed the beast that is fast fashion. Buying in to Black Friday sales encourages these brands and businesses to carry on with their practices.

BUT WHAT ABOUT GREEN FRIDAY?

We've got thoughts on that too.

WHAT ARE DEWERSTONE DOING FOR BLACK FRIDAY?

Well we're going hiking for the day and we'll focus on doing good every day of the year, we've more info on all that here.

Enough commercial fishing line is left in the ocean each year to stretch to the moon and back.

We're working with Ghost Fishing UK and Behaviour Change Cornwall, to reuse and repurpose nets found around our coastlines. Wether it's pulling nets caught up on wrecks from the depths, or hauling washed up nets across rocks and beaches, each net has a real story to tell, starting with this one:

Every discarded net in the ocean endangers marine life.

A fIshing net is designed to have one purpose, to catch. Unfortunately when nets are lost at sea, the primary purpose doesn't change, anything caught in the net likely stays in the net and more marine life is likely to get trapped as time goes on.

Organisations like Ghost Fishing UK and Behaviour Change Cornwall not only work to retrieve fishing nets from the ocean, but build a system to encourage fisherman to report lost nets. In some cases a lost net can be reported, retrieved and returned to the fisherman for reuse. In cases where that can't happen, it's up to us to find ways to repurpose, recycle and reuse.

The Black and Blue flecked net used on our Arial Fleece and our Frontier Jacket comes from several fragments of a huge trawl net recovered on the rocks off St Michaels Mount in May 2022, by the team at Behaviour Change Cornwall.

We're standing side by side with WWF and Save Our Rivers to protect one of the last remaining pristine areas of the alps.

The Kaunertal hydro power project is construction on a massive scale which hasn’t been seen for decades. Four dams, four huge tunnels and more concrete than we can even begin to imagine, draining up to 80% of the water from the valley.

The most destructive engineering project planned for the European Alps in decades. It's opposed by over 30 environmental organisations.

We're coming together to show the Austrian government this area is of international importance and that this construction needs to be stopped immediately.

Join us and act today: CLICK HERE TO SIGN

You can find more information on the hydro expansion project here.

Photo credits @homesbytameraturner 
Original canvas photo credit @brenorton

Clearwater Kayak Festival can only described as the loosest kayaking event of the year.

The Clearwater Kayak Festival is based right in the interior of British Columbia high on the continental plato. The event ran from August 5th -7th. 

The Clearwater is a classic big volume run, 500 cms squeezed in to a beautiful deep canyon, wide easy class 4 lines and relatively warm water for BC.

The event kicked off on Friday evening. We paid our 60 bucks and grabbed some
chilli and beer. The event social is staged in a small ski hill close to the river.

Come Saturday morning, the down river race was due to kick off at 11, but like I said,
this event is loose. Call it 13:00 and no less than 70 kayaks were piled into a small
eddy just below the Three Fingers rapid.

It was a mass start running through “The Moshpit”, it's a class 3 violent boogie water and on down to “The Wall” rapid, where you encounter a delightful series of giant rooster tails, big holes whilst all behind a river wide green wave, which blocks all views of beyond - hence the name 😅

The race went well, only one swim. But in all honesty, it was utter carnage, I ended up running a pretty wide left interesting line to avoid the carnage of plastic boats crashing into the hole and river right eddy.

Keenan Simpson took the win in his slalom boat. First prize, a throw bag, a
spliff and a pint glass - like I said, l o o s e 😅

Following the race there were many river laps with new and old faces.

Not to mention the SUP race and beginners down river race. It was pretty cool to see sports merge in a festival style event. Not that I remember but I expect Rita Sends won everything, probably ate the
male competitors too!

Every good paddle event has to have a party, this event gets first prize for this. Hands down.

Matt the organiser killed it, putting no less than five bands on stage, starting with a warm up from good old Timmy from truckhouselife. As you can imagine, the party stomped on in to the early hours. Classic! 

 Truckhouselife also uploaded this sweet video delving into the event and what it entailed!

Come Sunday, it brought the loosest freestyle event ever held. Staged on Pink Mountain.
For the sake of “freestyle is dead let's call this hot-dogging, it was mostly a long
boat surf fest.

NO time limits, no rules, no points, just impress Matt enough and the trophy’s yours.

It was wild.

Yours truly took the win, with couple of nice passes down the right shoulder.

And that’s a rap.

So to sum up. If you haven’t been to the Clearwater River Festival, go.

Huge thanks to Matt and any other masterminds behind the event, free lunch on Saturday was a highlight 😍

To see more of what the event entailed, check out the Facebook Event page here.

Big up the Clearwater local crew for welcoming so many paddlers to their local spot.

- Doug Cooper

We kick off our collaboration series with Penfold with this homesbytameraturner x Spearhead Records x Mr Penfold tee.

The design merges sound, art and nature. Doing so brings our mission 'To protect the environment our brand was founded upon' to a new audience, extending our reach and ability to make change.

It's only through collaboration and working together that we will make a difference, through crossing industries and sharing our values we will open up conversations that lead to actions.

Mr Penfold is a leading artist residing in Bristol. Penfolds signature designs are striking and instantly recognisable with bold shapes and colours. As we continue into our collaboration series with Penfold, we'll explore our mission statement and what that represents further.

Spearhead Records is a drum & bass record label, releasing music from a host of artists across the genre. If you've been with us for a while you'll know it's not the first time we've teamed up with Spearhead Records. First came the Vinyl Mountain t shirt and then we had label boss  BCEE join us for the Ember session, where we started the night with kayaking films with Bren & Nouria and finished with drum & bass from BCEE.. you had to be there for that one!

Get yours: Pastel Pink // River Blue

Our thoughts behind the jungle series

Outdoor and fashion brands have used patterns and inspiration of nature since the beginning of time. We are no different, there's leafy patterns in our t shirts, camouflage in our caps and jungle vibes in our life shorts. 

You could say that without the inspiration of nature and the environment that surrounds us, there would be man many dull brands and products out there. You could also see that like a debt, we owe nature, we wouldn't have a brand or sales without it.

The Jungle series acknowledges that we as outdoor brands are in debt to nature and it's time to pay it back.

SHOP LIFE SHORTS PRO

For every Jungle Life Shorts Pro we make, 50 trees will be planted in Central America, directly helping to combat deforestation and providing work to local communities.

If every product that ripped its design from nature planted a tree, would we have to tackle deforestation? 

Get your Jungle series shorts: Sunrise Jungle / Midnight Jungle

As a Certified B Corp and 1% for the Planet member, every homesbytameraturner product supports social & environmental actions all over the world.

The Jungle series is a call to action, it is a statement from us as a brand and the person that wears it. Together we are going to make a positive change.

For every Jungle Life Shorts Pro we make, 50 trees will be planted in Central America, directly helping to combat deforestation and providing work to local communities.

SHOP LIFE SHORTS PRO

The Life Shorts Pro are a technical board short ready for any water or land-bound adventure.

A sustainable board short that's comfortable for every activity. The Life Shorts Pro are built to last and come endorsed by both the World's best athletes and conservationists alike.

Whether you are heading out into the surf and want a board short that allows you to lay flat on your board, or out on your paddleboard and looking for a short that's quick-drying, or in your kayak and wanting a short that stays put and holds your thermals in place - the Life Short Pro is truly the Worlds most versatile board short.

I have worn them on all of my trips over the last few years. From crawling through jungles and dodging leeches in Indonesia to hanging out on the sofa at the homesbytameraturner store in 3830. The life shorts have proven themselves time and time again and I am stoked that this season, nothing changes about the Life Shorts Pro design. We just have more colours to choose from.

If you’re not familiar with the Life Shorts Pro range then here are a couple of my favourite features.

The Cut

homesbytameraturner nailed it, they are comfy when sat in the car for long road trips and I get a full range of movement in them when I am training in the gym.

They stay put

It doesn’t matter what the situation is, they stay right where they are. I was recently ripped out of my kayak on a big rapid and the river pulled me through a small opening tunnel of my spraydeck, stole my shoes, water bottle and a dash of my dignity… but it didn’t get my Life Shorts.

The material

Made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled polyester. These shorts not only do good for the planet but also stretch and dry out impossibly fast.

Pockets

You won’t notice them until you need them and then you will be astounded at what you can fit in them. I routinely have my phone in one of them and my kindle in the other. Pretty impressive and there’s even a little bungee cord for your car keys and other things that definitely shouldn’t get lost at the beach or the river.

Most of all I like that a small crew of passionate people has managed to create a product that excels at everything it does and that the environmental cost of fashion was not an after thought. It was part of the reason the Life Shorts Pro were created.

Catch you out there somewhere,

Bren Orton

As 2021 is wrapping up, we thought we'd take some time to reflect back on the year and the things we're most proud of and share them with you, the people that made them all happen.

Our mission: Protect the environment our brand is founded upon.

Along with our core values we take this in to account with every decision we make.

"Results are no longer just financial. We should be measured by the good we do, how we take responsibility for our impact and what we’re doing to fight the climate crisis." - Rory Atton, homesbytameraturner founder

It wouldn't be 2021 without mentioning Covid-19 and the global pandemic which continues to disrupt peoples lives all over the world. It's brought great challenges, but also created opportunities for kindness & compassion for our fellow human beings.

2% OF REVENUE

Our membership to 1% for the Planet certifies that we give at least 1% of our annual revenue directly to environmental non profit organisations, like Eden Reforestation, Save Our Rivers, Ghost Fishing UK and the Gili Eco Trust.

This year we over doubled that commitment and gave 2.23%.

As we progress in to 2022, we are formally committed to giving a minimum of 2% of our annual turnover away each year to charitable partners (including in kind product donations) and these donations are tax-deductible.

FEED THE FAMILIES

We fed 10'000+ people in Lombok, Indonesia at the height of the pandemic. 

We did this by getting you to buy t shirts and then us sending every single penny to our store manager Nizar, who built a team to purchase, make and distribute food parcels to those in need. 

When we were planning the Gili Islands store, one of the founding reasons was to have a base and an infrastructure to offer support when disaster happens. Whilst the store hasn't opened at all yet, when disaster did strike, we were there and we proved a reliable partner to the local community.



40'000 TREES

So far to date we've planted over 40'000 trees on Biak Island, Indonesia (and counting - every product we make plants a tree).

Planting trees won't solve the climate crisis on it's own, but it will certainly help combat deforestation, raise awareness of the climate problem and encourage other businesses to take action.

TOTNES STORE OPENING

We opened our second UK retail store, in Totnes, Austria. 

A town know for it's community, a community that puts people and planet first.

Check out our new store on Instagram.



CLIMATE NEUTRAL + POW PLEDGE

We certified Climate Neutral for 2020.

Each year is retrospectively certified, because you can only measure what you've already done, our first certification was 2019. As part of this process we measure our Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions, offset them with gold standard carbon credits and then work on a reduction plan.

Whilst we fully agree that offsetting is not the overall solution, certifying Climate Neutral has given us a real insight in to where our emissions are and how to tackle reducing them. 

Through measurement you can work out where and how to make the greatest impact. We reduced our emissions by over 50% from 2019 to 2020, because we had a plan in place based on where we could make the biggest reduction. 

For us, that was in transport, moving as much as possible from air freight to sea freight, and in travel, reducing our business travel had a large impact too.

2019: 63 tCO2e

2020: 30 tCO2e

We also took the POW (Protect Our Winters) Climate Action Pledge

Pledging our roadmap to Net Zero and joining other brands to raise awareness and progressively take action against the climate crisis.



EVENTS

We managed to get the band back together a few times this year. We went on the road to Cardiff Whitewater Centre and Lee Valley for Bren Tour.

We held our own amongst the big brands at the Outdoor Trade Show and Kendal Mountain Festival. 

SCREEN PRINTING

We built new screen printing facilities and invested in state of the art equipment so that we could keep screen printing in house. 

Our processes are now more efficient, we use far less power and our product is better. But what means the most to us here, is that we still print it, just like we've always done, right here in Dartmoor National Park.

Find out why we still screen print in house here.

BLACK FRIDAY Just isn't for us.

This year, like every year we shut our store doors, closed the office and warehouse and went hiking instead. 

Not getting sucked in to the hype of the biggest shopping day of the year can seem a crazy move for a brand that sells products, but if you didn't know it by now, we'e a brand that sees a new kind of profit.

Check out what we got up too on our walk here.

THANK YOU

We couldn't have done any of those things without your support, your belief in the brand and your commitment and trust in us, that we're in it for good and that we will be a leading voice in the change we want to see.

When the photographer - David Sadomka, expressed an interest in exploring Kenya myself and the crew jumped at the opportunity. 

Photo by David Sadomka

I have spent a lot of time in Africa throughout my life, starting out when I was sixteen years old in Uganda. Though there are obvious differences throughout the countries on such a large land mass, I find there is a collective magic shared here. A sense that time exists, but just barely and it's never something to worry about, let alone rush after. If you are in Africa and expect things to happen at similar speeds in other places you will be very frustrated, very quickly. Instead, It's better to just go with it and embrace it, Hakuna Matata and all that. 

We arrived in Kenya to find a bleak rainy season this time around. The locals worried of their crops and the animals that would likely die from the ensuing drought over the next few months. Hardly what you want to hear when you have travelled half way around the world for a rain dependent sport. 

Photo by David Sadomka

We chased water in the west of Kenya for our first few days, knocking off a set of waterfalls and dropping deep into the Jungle.

Photo by David Sadomka

Though western Kenya has lots of potential, for what we where searching for we knew we had to head back towards the volcanic rock found around Mount Kenya. Volcanic rock is easily eroded by the river and many of the best rivers in the world have shaped themselves from this type of rock. 

We struck gold with a first descent of the upper Niamindi. I have been on a few exploration trips now, often times you won't get what you want on these trips. Finding this section of river has been worth all the busts, the cuts and bruises from bush whacking through jungles over the years. I will personally aim to go back to Kenya to kayak on this river year after year. 

Asides from that we put some pieces together on other rivers that people had partly explored over the years. Mapped out some massive waterfalls to hit on the next trip and where mostly astounded with what an incredible place Kenya is for kayaking. Look out for more media dropping over the coming weeks but for now check out the SEND highlight reel from the trip here -