Terrariums. Mindfully made.
Our mission is to produce terrariums of exceptional quality, assembled with minimal environmental impact, and provided in partnership with independent businesses with owners from underrepresented groups. We want to unite everyone in appreciation of nature, reduce economic barriers to horticulture and to make every purchase from Terrapy a vote for a socially equitable future in a stable global climate.
Our Commitments
We want to place the positive impact we have on our planet and society at the top of our agenda. In pursuit of this goal, we make the following commitments:
5% for the planet. 5% for people.
We will donate 5% of our annual profits to the most effective charities and groups we can find in the fight against climate change.
We will donate a further 5% of our annual profits to the most effective charities and groups we can find in the fight for social equity and coalition.
These two issues are deeply intertwined, neither will be resolved without action on the other, so they both sit at the core of what we do. By committing a percentage of our annual profits to addressing them, our efforts in this sphere will grow as we do. It can take time for a business to reach profit, and ours is no different, so while we work up to this we have other charitable initiatives in place to ensure we are still benefitting these causes (see Supporting Good Organisations below).
An Equity Driven, Small Business Focus.
We will partner with small independent businesses wherever possible in the development of products and delivery of services. Currently, our entire network of workshop venues and stockists are individual small businesses which form the fabric of our regional community.
We prioritise partnerships with businesses at least 50% owned and run by individuals from underrepresented or marginalised groups, including:
- People of Colour and under-represented ethnicities
- Women or female-identified
- People with disabilities
- LGBTQ+
Low Impact.
We will continually review our environmental impact and pursue mitigating strategies to shrink it as far as we can.
The carbon impact we cannot mitigate is offset with Tradewater at a significantly excessive rate of 20kg Co2e per terrarium we produce. Though we do not yet have sufficient data to confirm precisely how excessive this is versus our impact, over 90% of our terrariums weigh less than 4kg, and most of that weight comes from domestically sourced aggregates which typically have a very low carbon footprint, with even high impact marine aggregate only incurring a carbon cost of 10kg/tonne. Our current very safe estimate is that the offset is at least 1.5x the carbon footprint, though it is likely far more.
Our approach currently places Terrapy as the leading member of Tradewater’s Carbon Neutral Collective, offsetting 381% of our impact at time of writing (June ‘24). Tradewater is recommended by Giving Green as the most effective emission avoidance based offsetting organisation in the market (they secure and destroy highly potent refrigerant GHGs that would otherwise be released). Our offsetting is additional to our 5% for the planet commitment.
Good Materials. Minimal Waste.
We will use recycled or reclaimed materials in our products wherever feasible while maintaining access to our services, and will avoid the use of single use materials wherever possible.
We are a zero landfill business. We mitigate wastage by reviewing supplier packaging at the acquisition stage and making this part of purchasing decisions. We also re-use, donate, or recycle as appropriate for all other waste and promote responsible treatment of our products through their full life cycle. Re-use defined our efforts in 2024; we eradicated 100% of our clean cardboard waste by machining it for re-use as a sustainable bubble wrap alternative. We also donated used plastic punnets and pots to individuals, community groups and charities who would otherwise have bought them. Plants were periodically given to the local community for free where they were not suitable for our application.
Certified & Accountable.
We are pleased to have been awarded the ESGmark® certification in recognition of our efforts. Find us on the ESGMark® website here.
Following their assessment, we have demonstrated a high level of performance against Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles and an ongoing commitment to positive change.
We are a member organisation of Amplifi in Tunbridge Wells which aims to accelerate progress towards net zero in the local business community through knowledge sharing and collaborative work.
But it doesn’t end there, we have big aspirations for Terrapy’s positive impact and plan to go further and faster in pursuit of this as we grow. Watch this space!
Supporting Good Organisations.
Beyond our profit-linked charitable commitments, we will continue to run other initiatives to benefit charities at the local and national level. Our current initiatives include:
Free workshops for registered charities operating in underprivileged communities, with materials funded by our Pay it Forward Scheme to increase access to horticulture for charitable beneficiaries. Please contact us at hello@terrapy.uk if your charity is interested in participating. We also offer discounts to charities for staff wellbeing events.
TER-WHERE-IUM? A monthly game in which a terrarium is donated to a charity shop in the South East of England, clues are shared on social media, and it is up to members of the public to find it. This terrarium is offered at a discounted, very accessible price, and all proceeds go to the charity concerned. Aside from raising money, our hope is that this initiative will raise community awareness of local charities, and help to drive increased footfall in their shops in the future.
A little hello from me…
Hi, I’m Seb. I started Terrapy to share my love for terrariums with others, and to do something about the challenges we face as a society; chiefly the mental health and social equity issues arising from limited access to horticulture.
Our workshops and products aim to support wellbeing and, as you can see from the commitments above, use our operations and revenues as a catalyst for positive change. We will make Terrapy’s commitments even more ambitious in time and have lots of exciting projects in the works! Follow our progress on social media and I look forward to meeting you at one of our classes soon!
I would also like to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported me in growing Terrapy so far: the Catchpoles who hosted my first session on their dining room table, Jen, Lucy, Vic and Maddy for being the emotional support I couldn’t have managed without, all of my wonderful city friends, notably Indhu, Lauren, Rudi, Matt, Tom and Marc, who reassured me that I wasn’t going insane by leaving my career to put plants in bottles, and who continue to lend their wisdom on how to make a success of this emotionally, ideologically and economically, Andy for bringing the brand to life, Matt at Even Flow who took a chance on me and continues to host our sessions in his wonderful record shop and Cafe, Michael for helping me adjust to self employment and gather the momentum I needed to turn this from idea to reality, Maria for her guidance that has completely transformed my outlook, Meg for her counsel, Tory and Sam for being all round excellent humans, and of course my family for welcoming me back home to get everything up and running and for supporting me in moments of doubt (I promise never to use your home as a warehouse again). In reality this list could go on for a lot longer as I would love to thank each of you individually, but if you’ve helped me refine an idea, reassured me that its going to work out, or even just attended a session, please know that I’m deeply grateful to you.
Thank you, my friends.
Follow Terrapy on social media to stay updated on our journey.