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Message Sustainable living encompassescaring for our beaches andwater!Welcome to this month’scommunity newsletter! Iam thrilled to share thesecond edition ofSustain(able), a monthlyedition that showcasesbusinesses and news inthe sustainability space. Firstly, I would like toexpress my gratitude toall those who havesupported the idea of amonthly LinkedInnewsletter. The response to the firstissue was encouraging. Itjust reiterates the factthat my intent ofbringing together like-minded people has hadthe right effect. So, Icontinue to inviteeveryone to participate inthe collective goal ofsustainable lifestyle andconsumption practices;by supporting the spreadof the newsletter. My interest insustainability has grownsince I came to Brighton& Hove in September2022. While I came tostudy a master's degree,my chance encounterswith entrepreneurschampioningsustainability, made meexperience a passion andcommitment unmatchedto anyone else. Theirproducts and servicesspeak volumes about thiscommitment. It brings to focus a factthat sustainability is ahuge topic to discuss. A very vibrant designer,dancer- friend once saidto me that, to her“Sustainability is far morethan just consumptionchoices we make. It iscultivating the mind-setof accountability,commitment tocherishing andmaintaining the limitednatural resources,whether tangible orintangible. It is also a self-discipline to practiseminimalism andfulfillment.” This newsletter is ahumble effort to sharesome stories ofbusinesses that aremaking an impact andcan largely grow withcollective communitysupport. This issue is all aboutrespecting marine life, thebeaches of Brighton &Hove we adore and howto make consciousconsumption choice tosupport Sustainability. Aspecial thanks to marinebiologist and scuba diverinstructor Cristina Zenatowho demystified themisunderstood and muchfeared marine creatures,Sharks. Look out for ourinteresting conversationin the next issue. Meanwhile, enjoy thismonth’s newsletter! Iwould love to hear yoursuggestions andfeedback, because thatonly helps me do thisbetter! BeauBottletops-artistic way to reusingbottle capsMindful cleaningregime- BubbleLife MonthlyNewsletterSUSTAIN(ABLE)Nov-Dec 2024In thiseditionyou canexpect:ISSUE #02EDITOR IN CHIE F - UTTA RA J MAL HOTR AUttara MalhotraPhoto is AI generated and for representation purpose only

Glass bottle tops from Brighton beaches and afarhave found a new lease of life, repurposed andcreatively used in Jessie Marie’s incredible artwork...Bottle tops, repurposed tomake the most unimaginablybeautiful pieces of art- indeedupcycling never looked sogood. For Brighton & Hove, themetal bottle tops have a newlease of life in Jessie Marie’screative art studio. “I now believe art andpsychology go hand-in-hand.Having matured too quickly, Ibattled trauma too soon.Being good in academics, Ipicked up psychology as mymain subject of study. I thenworked for 10 years in mentalhealth work as a mentalhealth worker. But I felt anadverse effect on own mentalhealth.” Till date,governmental rules do not provide adequate support tomental health patients, leavealone mental healthworkers. “In art, I found away to heal and recuperate,”shares Jessie Marie, a socialworker turned artist, whoalso believes that art andcreativity comes naturally toeveryone. “Everyone is creative in theirown way. My creativity foundan outlet as a method toheal trauma and self-exploration. I had reached apoint where I didn’t want tospend time working and wasfeeling unhappy. Now, I feelthe excitement to createand spread the joy, eachday,” shares the founder ofBeau Bottles and Beauevents. Art, Lost and FoundFrom broken jewellery pieces toold magazines (NationalGeographics and Vogues left onthe side of bins are usefuladditions), to damaged artdonated to charities or even thoselying around the garbage bins,Jesse’s artworks are a stunningamalgamation of everything thatwas once broken and unusable.‘There is life in everything till itslast molecule’, is an interestingvalue creating and positive way tolook at how we can repurposethings that are cracked, broken,chipped, out of fashion or simplyold. Discarded materials that wouldmake it to landfills, find value inJesse’s art works. She feels a sense BottletopsReimaginedPhoto credit: beaubottletops

of joy every time she makesuse of such materials. Butcutting them to fit the story ofthe layout, stencilled and thenstuck with resin, she ensuresthe longevity of the art piece.Art Runs In TheFamily As someone who wasn’t takenseriously for what she wasdoing, to someone who is the‘go-to’ person for manysmaller entrepreneur artists,Jesse has become an eventfacilitator who everyone lovesand rallies around. With an artist mother on herside, the courage to go solomade sense. Art has beenseen as a hugely therapeuticactivity for many, especiallypost Covid times. Jesse’s art isrooted in using materialseasily available. Brighton’s beaches have amounting problem of garbageand litter. At times, Jesse hasbeen able to collect hugenumber of bottle tops fromthe Brighton beach itself. “It has been terrible to seehow visitors leave their trasharound the beach,endangering marine life.Looking at her art pieces, a lotof people now prefer to sendbottle tops in mail. Jesse isnever short of raw material, “Iam happy that we can put thebottle tops to good use,” adds.Jesse. ChallengingTimesFrom 2019 onwards, Jessestarted selling her art ontrading events; andsubsequently decided to hostevents to support smallerartists who were unable toexhibit due to financialconstraints. “I like to make my events amemorable experience foreveryone. Today, they are a gathering of like-mindedindividuals that celebratecreativity. We are nevercompeting, but busycelebrating each other’ssuccesses,” explains Jesse whoensures that returns on salesgoes back to the artist. “When I started selling my art togalleries, they wanted me todouble my prices. They wouldtake away 50 percent of theearnings. I didn’t want to do this,and I would usually land upbroke after a show. Renting orexhibiting was becomingunaffordable,” shared Jesse, whoprices her creations in a way itremains affordable for art lovers. Jesse sells her art piecesanywhere between £25-£80 andjewellery creations between £5-£30. “People love to buy Art, butnot all art is affordable. Theintent of organizing events hashelped like-minded artists havethe opportunity to sell their artat fair prices,” adds Jesse who isnow working on larger‘impactful’ wall size pieces of artthat go upto £400. So, if you have bottle tops,vintage pieces of jewellery,

magazines, vinyl tapes, newspaper, buttons,broken of damaged paintings, frames, bringit to Jesse and let her do her magic thattransforms everything to a thing of beauty.Art speaks to us; but if its worth £3000, itssad when someone can’t buy it. “I want tokeep my work accessible to everyone. Ifsomeone was to fall in love with it, it shouldbe affordable”, informs Jesse. Go and buyart in Brightonat theseforthcomingevents... 7th Dec at BrightonUnitarian Church 14th Dec at JubileeSquare BrightonCovid-19 changed things dramatically forher business. “ I sold more in Covid times.Having time to be online, I could showcasemore work through social media, though Ihate to get on there. Also, the pandemichas changed the way people are reacting toart now. While it has always been a luxury,people aren’t able to spend that much on it,hugely because of the cost-of-living crises.But we are hoping 2025 will be better,”exclaims Jesse. Photo credit: Jessie MarieThank you for reading!Art gives joy,it’s animportant partof society andshould beaffordable

Bubble Life, as the brand’sname suggests cares is aninnovative way to the dailycleansing routine while caringfor the environment. With itsunique casing that holds aspecially formulated cleansingliquid that disintegrate onlywhen coming in contact withwater, the bauble is one-of-a-kind addition to one’s dailybath. The brainchild of JonMcGlashan and CarolinaAvellaneda, the product haseliminated plastic use, reducingthe ‘number of bottles’ youmight hold in your washroom.For Carolina Avellaneda, the co-inventor of the Bubbles forBubble Life who had justarrived from Columbia toBrighton, the real culturalshock was to see multipleplastic cleansing formulasconsumed by a singleindividual. Ground reality was completelydifferent from talks going aroundsustainability. There was acontradiction between realconsumption and the will andadvocacy for environmentalconcerns,” said Carolina. Severalstudies have already proven theenvironmental concerns aroundliquid soap, shampoo and bodywash compositions leave alonethe massive increase in disposedplastic bottles. The invention of Bubbles comesfrom this realisation and fromCarolina’s experience of using asingle bar of soap as a generalhead-to-toe cleansing formula,without any damage to hair orskin. Her experience as aBiologist and exposure to theEnvironment Development andPolicy degree programme atUniversity of Sussex as well asknowledge of administration andManagement of Quality Systemshas indeed contributed tocreating a compostablebiodegradable membranetechnology used in Bubbles. Can you imagine these little bobbles to break intoyour hand as overall body and hair cleansers leavingzero trace of plastic?The liquid inside also ensuresit does not strip the skin ofnatural moisturizing andcomes in four distinctfragrances. Sustainable AtHeart With a strong entrepreneurialand managementbackground, Jon teamed upwith Carolina in 2018 whenthey both met at theUniversity of Sussex whilepursuing their respectivestudy programmes. Under the university’s specialsupport to start-up ecosystem,they both won recognition fortheir idea that was tocontribute to sustainabilityand business, for social impact. “This was really encouraging.Now, Carolina could stay backin the UK and work ondeveloping the prototype, and Cleanse& Care

Stories of impact: This month’s story featuresorganically developed cleansing baubles that workhead-to-toe and are gender neutral I could contribute to wholebusiness through the SocialImpact award that supportsentrepreneurial business for asocial purpose,” said Jon. The duo initially used theirown kitchen forexperimentation, till Carolinacould came up with theprototype that won in theSussex Startup competition. AlteringConsumptionPerceptionsWhile researchingconsumption patterns in theUK, Jon and Carolinadiscovered that there is aparticular preference forliquid soap over soap bar. Though there are nowsustainable advocacy brandsthat are selling soap bars thatpresent a moreenvironmentally friendlycleaning option, they aren’t apopular buy. “For student population forexample, it isn’t convenient tocarry your soap with you everytime you use a shared toilet.But a liquid bottle is handier,”shared Carolina. The invention of thebiodegradable membranecame from this understandingthat, “we needed to satisfy theconsumer’s preference forliquid soaps but do away withthe plastic waste.” WithBubbles, there is zero plasticwaste, and huge benefits tothe ecosystem. Put in your compost, themembrane and liquid bothbiodegrade coming intocontact with organisms andfastens the decomposition; inthe drain, it naturallydecomposes coming intocontact with other organisms;and if for any reason, it did come in contact with a landfill, itwill still biodegrade. Instead, thecomposition will contribute toprovide nutrients and nourish,whichever environment it comesin contact with.With the introduction of Bubbles,the priority to reduce plasticconsumption is real. A 5ml bauble satiates the desireto lather loofah and have aluxurious bath or wash hair andfeel fresh. So, the misconceptionthat good cleansing happensonly with a lot of lather or liquidproduct is eliminated too. Genderneutral, Bubbles, is good to go inany fragrance and thereforecustomizable in larger quantities. This is one reason that Jon feels“places where there is hugeconsumption of liquid soaps canreally make use of thisbiodegradable cleansing option.”SUSTAIN(ABLE)07541-565-238www.uttarajmalhotra.comBrunswick Place, Hove BN3 1NA“A lot of lather does not mean proper cleansing- that is amisconception”- Carolina Avellandena

Business for Social Impact: With consistentfunding support, we hope to make Bubbles apreferred cleansing alternative that cares forthe environmentWhere Are We NowConsumption might be easy, butsustainability isn’t; and innovation neverwas. It takes persistence, courage, fightagainst rejections and above all,constant need for funds. Brighton andHove provide an ecosystem whereinnovation is being funded throughvarious grants. The idea got its initial thrust in 2019 withSussex University awarding BubbleLifethe Start-up Sussex Social Impact prize. The product has now reached itsdeployment stage. When Carolina wasawarded the Innovate UK Women inInnovation award (2021-22), capitalisingfunds for the company was madepossible. This has moved the companyfrom Technology Readiness Level 2 toLevel 5. The next step is to ‘secure funding forIntellectual Property rights’ for the membrane technology to be put in place. Jonexplains how they are already in conversationwith hospitality partners to do active testing. “We have not started selling inthe open market. But we do seethat happening. We are notgetting ahead of ourselves rightnow,” adds the duo who areconsistently working onintroducing the product thatpromises to replace the use ofliquid soap packaging, once forall. The outer covering of‘Bubbles’ is made of aseaweed-basedpackaging solution CMT(CompostableMembrane Technology)that disintegrates onlyafter coming in contactwith micro-organismsand is stable in extremetemperatures too!

A Few Notes ToRememberAll the images aresourced withpermission.All rights are reservedto the brandSustain(able).No portion of thisnewsletter should bereplicated or copiedwithout duepermission of theEditor. Your suggestions andfeedback only makesthis endeavor moreimpactful. Write to us...Sustain(able)Photo is AI generated version of Brighton & Hove and for representation purpose onlyAnything and everything thatspreads the light of sustainableliving, has a story to tell.... if youwish to share a new initiative, anevent, a product, a networkingday or evening, feel free to dropme a line onuttarajindal@gmail.com or pingme on LinkedIn. I would behappy to celebrate yoursustainable journey with you....