Organic cotton hemp bag £14.99

We are all encouraged to re-use our bags over and over again. Rightly so. Acceptable hemp bags in that non-descript beige colour are, thankfully, seen more and more up and down the high street. But what if you could have a beautiful reusable bag, that is so pretty, you will want to carry it around with you at all times?

Faith Simpson, Director of Bags of Change, came up with such an innovative idea that one of her friends became her business partner. A dance teacher by trade, Faith was involved in delivering themed, dance workshops with children in school, in the late 80s. Those themes were simple; environmental and social issues expressed through movement. Collecting quotes from organisations including Friends of the Earth, these simple statements provided the basis for collaborative discussion and expression.

Like many of us, Faith travelled extensively in the early 90s, but was lucky enough to join Greenpeace in Australia on a three month sabbatical. For 16 years, on and off, Faith passionately taught her students to dance. But then she decided that she had ‘had enough’ and wanted a different direction. Always refusing to use carrier bags, Faith used a bag from the front of a magazine (don’t we all have one of those?). This was her inspiration for Bags of Change.

I always carried this bag around with me to make sure I didn’t get caught out. I decided I wanted to design a bag that people would love to carry, simply because it was a lovely bag. The hardest part was developing a scheme to incentivise people to remember to carry it with them all the time. The concept of making the bag a discount card was conceived. We hand pick small ethical shop keepers, who sell the bags and then offer their customers a discount of up to 10 per cent every time they reuse the bag.

Great idea. But what I asked, do the small business gain by offering discount repeatedly to those customers?

On the whole, people realised that to build loyalty, you have to give something to customers. The bags encourage people to return to the store, are a great talking point between the owner and the customer, and between the customers themselves. The perception of ethical and organic shopping is that it is more expensive. And certainly it can be if making a comparison to a local supermarket. By offering a discount to return to these shops, the customer is getting something back. And a lovely bag!

Last year, Bags of Change won the Green England Awards for the Most Innovative Green Product an amazing achievement and recognition of the work that the company does. There are two bags in the range. The original is organic cotton and hemp with perfect coconut shell buttons, so the bags can expand and fit more in them. The new bag is fairly traded and made from sustainably tapped rubber produced by a cooperative in the Amazon. To find out more about Bags of Change and the shops affilitated with the scheme visit bagsofchange.co.uk