What is a sustainable wedding?
At Rusty Lime we are not distracted by the many definitions and differing opinions on what counts as ‘sustainable’. We use our expertise to identify what sustainability means to you.
Our ethos is all about balancing environmental, social and economic elements to give back to nature and communities, without compromising your needs. Of course, if you love getting technical we can also get nerdy on calculating the carbon emissions, environmental footprint and contribution to SDGs of your special day.
To us a sustainable wedding is one that supports the local economy and addresses some (or all) of the main environmental challenges including:
Emissions
The average carbon footprint of a wedding in the UK is 14.5 tons CO2e. This is more than the average annual household footprint and enough to fuel 3.5 cars for a year. These emissions largely come from transport, energy and electricity, and food.
Food Waste
In the UK roughly 10% of all wedding food is thrown away and 15% of couples throw away the top tier of their cake.
Throw away culture
In 2021, the average UK wedding threw away â…“ tonne of solid waste (think a medium sized horse or adult male gorilla).
Fast Fashion
How many guests buy new attire for the big day and where are these items from? The production of a single wedding dress can use 10,000- 20,000 liters of water
Plastic Pollution
the average UK wedding uses 20kg of single-use plastic. If we added up the single-use plastic from all the weddings in a year, this would be 4910 tonnes - equivalent to 47 blue whales..
Environmental Pollution
Where are your flowers and food coming from? What fertilizers or herbicides were used to produce them? Furthermore, 99% of wedding flowers are thrown away.
There are many creative solutions to address these issues. You can still have delicious food, beautiful flowers and your dream dress or suit - together we can create a bespoke and sustainable day that is better than the one you imagined. Contact us to learn more!