Going Green
Consumerism for a better world
GOING GREEN – CONSUMERISM FOR A BETTER WORLD by Pippa McGrevy
Turtle’s Surf Shop is one of a number of outlets in Antigua and Barbuda that offer eco-friendly products. The inspiration behind the shop is Adrian Kirby: passionate about the environment and conscious living and an enthusiastic supporter of ethical brands.
Adrian’s path to shopkeeper is quite a story: a man of the outdoors, devoted to a sporting life mainly on the water, he was left seriously incapacitated by a body-surfing accident which bound him to a wheelchair. With such restrictions on his previous activities he focused on what else he really loved: graphic design and fashion. His desire to find a new way to live which could incorporate his passion for the environment and his love of style lead to the opening of Turtle’s Surf Shop where the clothing, shoes and accessories sit neatly alongside the surf and paddle board equipment for rent or sale.
Adrian established Turtle’s Surf Shop in 2012 with the aim of promoting and celebrating ethical living and to show that conscientious fashion is neither ‘too expensive’ nor ‘not as good’. All brands available in the store are hand-picked by Adrian for their great design as well as for their principled manufacturing process. Environmentally friendly products are sourced from small independents like Bureo who run a recycling program in Chile collecting washed-up fishing nets and turning them into skateboards as well as well-known international brands that are ecologically responsible and invest in sustainability. His own line of clothing, TRTL, is produced from organic cotton, bamboo and recycled materials printed using water-based ink. And when the clothing on the reprocessed-paper hangers, the footwear and the accessories arrayed in Turtle’s Surf Shop look as great as they do it’s easy to make the right ethical choices.
As Adrian says, “Our playground is the environment: it’s our duty to preserve it.” And when our sustainable future depends on each and every one of us making a difference, then buying ethical is one way to do this.