A Good Week

Start are a sustainable living initiative from HRH The Prince of Wales and part of Business in the Community. They have also been a Good Ambassador during A Good Week. Joey Tabone, director of Start, penned this guest blog for us...
I’ve been involved with Start since the idea was born, and worked with the Prince’s Charities Foundation to bring together a group of big companies to help launch it and support it. HRH The Prince of Wales has long been an environmental champion, seeking to understand our relationship with the planet. Although much has been achieved, there are still, as we all know, many challenges in protecting the environment. Recognising this, HRH felt there was a need to frame sustainability in positive terms, so it becomes something compelling and aspirational that inspires people to start engaging with the issues.
So, Start was launched in 2010 with a simultaneous 12 day festival and 9 day business summit, and was tasked with presenting an inspiring picture of a sustainable future. How? By highlighting the very best examples of sustainable practice in the UK, and showing how we can all make positive changes right now.
Like A Good Week, Start is about celebrating all the good things that are going on around us. While recognising the scale of the damage we are doing to our planet, we believe that it’s very important that people see and hear about the ideas, products, services, businesses, people, inventors, artists, students… everyone and anyone doing good to change the trajectory. We need to know about them so we can feel inspired by them! And support them too.

To me, Good is about simplicity. It’s about appreciating and taking care of the people in your life, the things you have and the world you live in. I think that’s true for a lot of sustainability, actually. Many people still feel that acting environmentally is complicated and difficult, when in fact it’s really about simplifying. And once you start to simplify, you can see all the good in your life so much more easily!
At Start, when looking at what to share with our audiences we always ask – is it simple? Not because we don’t think people are capable of anything complex, but because we want to stay true to the ethos of simplicity.  And while at first it might seem more complicated to grow you own tomatoes instead of just going to the supermarket – actually the simplicity is right there. Instead of a complicated supply chain of farm, factory, distribution etc, in your garden or pot the seed was planted, you nurtured it, you picked it and then you ate it. Simple!
There are loads of great ideas on how to lead a simpler, more sustainable life on the website at www.startuk.org. You can also sign up to receive Start’s top five sustainable living ideas each month, smashing.