High End & Sustainable in the UK

Isabelle Harrison
Sep 1
3 min read

Elegance, class and sustainability go hand in hand as fashion, food and hospitality industries intertwine climate conscious efforts into the core of their businesses. The United Kingdom is one of 193 United Nations Member states working to meet 2030 sustainability development goals, which aim to help “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The goals include improvements on climate action and responsible consumption and production. While there is still certainly plenty of room for improvement, many U.K. companies are working hard to minimize their impact on the Earth.

If you are asking yourself, “How can I use my purchasing power more sustainably?” here are our favourite high end finds that we love not only for their quality but dedication to sustainability.

Fashion: Mulberry

Mulberry is the largest manufacturer of luxury leather goods in the United Kingdom. Regarded not only for the stunningly high quality of their luxury handbags, belts and accessories, Mulberry boasts one of the industry’s most comprehensive sustainability plans. The company operates with the “5 Cs” as their guiding principles: climate, cultivation, craft, circularity and culture. Its leaders strive to drive improvements in the leather industry and source their leather from 100% environmentally accredited partners. The company is currently pioneering a hyper-local, hyper-transparent supply chain, working in partnership with industry leading tanneries to develop the world’s lowest carbon leather sourced from a network of organic and regenerative farms.

Dining: Ugly Butterfly

Just like there are no ugly butterflies, says chef Adam Handling, there’s no such thing as food waste. At Handling’s Ugly Butterfly in Cornwall, you’ll not feel enchanted by wrap-around floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Cornish coast, but a hyper-locally sourced menu that Chef describes as “extremely seasonal and focused on nature.” The trims and offcuts from the ingredients are put to use as well! They are incorporated into bar snacks and cocktails. Sustainability lies at the heart of Hardling’s culinary crafts. It is not uncommon to find him out foraging for ingredients himself alongside his team in the U.K. countryside.

Ceramics: Denby

For more than 200 years at the same site in Derbyshire, England, Denby Pottery has always subscribed to the ethos of “buy well, buy once.” Sustainability practices reign supreme in everything the company does. It is the first U.K. tableware manufacturer to be able to claim “zero to landfill” for all process waste. This means none of their process-induced waste goes to the landfill. Using minimal transportation to obtain their main raw material, Denby also recycles more than 100,000 litres of glaze each year, and areas of land from where their clay is extracted are returned to pasture and landscaped. All of the food wasted produced in their Derbyshire restaurants and staff canteens are turned into energy.

Stays: The Pig at Combe

“From plants to people, homegrown in every way,” is the mantra of The PIG at Combe - a delightfully cozy hotel in Devon that prides itself on being sociable, down-to-earth and keen on dinnertime - not unlike a pig! Always looking to minimize their impact on the environment, whatever is not grown or reared on-site is sourced within 25 miles. Staff are constantly working to improve their beekeeping and composting skills, and even bottle water right on the property. A staple of the hotel is their Kitchen Garden - “a place where everything is driven by produce from the garden and the menus change with the micro seasons.”