Vevolution Festival is an annual day long event in London that brings together those looking to be part of the vegan revolution. It’s a hugely inspiring day that leaves you excited to go out and make a difference. With an impressive line up of talks, workshops and panels, there’s so much to learn: from how to ditch fast fashion to how to make your plant based business succeed.

I know a lot of people that wanted to be there but couldn’t make it for one reason or another. So I’m taking this opportunity to share my show notes from the day. There were so many talks/panels that I wanted to attend, but it was impossible to squeeze everything in.

Fortunately, Vevolution uploads all of their talks to both YouTube and their podcast. These talks are released gradually in the months following the event. Subscribe to them to check out all of their previous talks and to stay updated on new uploads.

My notes from the day

Below you will find notes on the following:

• My chat with Greenpeace
• Sustainably Vegan’s Talk on her Low Impact Movement
• The Ethical Fashion + Beauty Panel
• Kristen Leo’s I Am What I Wear
• The Business Panel
• Veganuary + The Veganuary Effect
• BOSH’s Top 10 Hacks to Build Your Business, Blog or Bestseller

My notes are rough summaries of the talks, but I’ve provided plenty of links and recommended materials if you wish to dive deeper into any of the topics discussed.

Greenpeace

Vevolution took place the day after Iceland’s ‘too political’ palm oil ad was banned. I took some time to chat to Greenpeace, who had a stall at Vevolution, and learnt a bit more about the controversial crop.

There’s a lot to be said about palm oil and how to tackle the problem. Take the time to explore Greenpeace’s site and learn a bit more about the pros and cons of boycotting it. I am confident that Greenpeace putting pressure on big brands is the way forward, so much so that I signed up to regularly donate to the cause.

Immy Lucas, Sustainably Vegan

Immy Lucas, best known as Sustainably Vegan, is the founder of the Low Impact Movement (LIM). The LIM is a social movement fighting the waste pandemic. Immy explained the link between waste and animal welfare and why, as vegans, it’s important that we make changes to our lifestyle now.

The Waste Pandemic

Immy took us through an example that demonstrates one of the many huge problems caused by the waste pandemic.

• Microplastics are super absorbent, which is hugely problematic when they’re absorbing toxins from our polluted waters
• This is dangerous food for fish as research shows that these plastic nanoparticles are causing them brain damage
• It’s unknown to what extent these nanoparticles will have on humans that continue to consume fish

Low Impact Living

Immy broke down some tips on how to live low impact. She also has a great YouTube channel full of tips and guides on both low impact living and minimalism.

• Eat plant based: eat vegan, eat ‘ugly veg’ and eat seasonally
• Minimlaism: don’t focus on the aesthetic of nothing, instead learn to value your belongings
• Check out her How to Stop Buying Things video for some beginner tips

The Movement

Immy had three top tips on joining the Low Impact Movement:

1. Consume less
2. Shop local
3. Raise your voice

Materials recommended: 

• Turning the Tide on Plastic, Lucy Siegle – a powerful call to arms to end the plastic pandemic along with the tools needed to make decisive change

Ethical Fashion & Beauty Panel

The panel was hosted by Marta Canga, one of my favourite vegan fashion bloggers.

• Charlotte Morris, SkinNinja – an app which scans beauty items and uncovers the truth behind it’s ingredients
• Lara Balsam, My Fair Ladle – an ethical fashion & food blogger
• Alex Nicolaou, Nini Organics – a water-free, natural, organic vegan beauty brand
• Laura Way, Votch – the vegan leather watch company

The conversations focused on sustainability and transparency in the fashion and beauty industries. Below I split my notes into two sections, one per industry and bullet point what I learnt.

Fashion

• Surprising to many, the fashion industry sits at third place for ‘most polluting industry’ and second for ‘highest polluter of clean water’
• Similarly, water consumption is a huge issue with 18 bath tubs worth needed to make one pair of jeans
• New innovations are cropping up all the time, like faux fur made from plastic water bottles and velvety mushroom leather
• Continue to call for greater transparency and keep asking #whomademyclothes
• Buying second hand and wardrobe swaps are affordable ways to stay ethical

Beauty

• Most beauty packaging is not recyclable and this is one of the biggest hurdles the beauty industry needs to overcome
• Over 50% of Brits don’t both to recycle their bathroom products
• Brands like Optiat, who use waste to make beauty and promote a circular economy, are leading essential beauty innovations
• Make an ethical impact by shopping in the niche not in the mass
• Keep asking big brands questions because it’s this consumer pressure not a conscience that drives corporations to make changes

Materials Recommended:

• The True Cost of Fashion – documentary about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the fashion industry is having on our world

Kristen Leo

Kristen Leo came all the way from Greece to talk at Vevolution. I love her YouTube account which calls out big brands and explains the need for ethical, sustainable fashion.

Kristen used to be a fashion blogger, a self confessed shopaholic, who would skip meals to afford fast fashion pieces to keep up with trends and produce content. She once had a good relationship with Zara but went on to boycott them and urges others to do the same. Now a vegan sustainable fashion blogger, she helps others shop sustainably.

Animals in fashion

• Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Lady Gaga and Beyonce all wear fur
• Cheap fur products from China could contain cats or dogs
• Attitudes towards leather aren’t changing fast enough with demand set to grow 5% by 2021
• Inside the wool industry, sheep are bred to have excess skin for extra wool production but this excess skin is bad for their health and attracts flies and maggots

Change

The Ranga Plaza incident should have caused a total reform of the fashion industry, as it highlighted the dangers and shady ethics of the fashion industry. Whilst there has been some changes by the corporates, individuals have some responsibility to:

• Think Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair & Recycle
• Invest in high quality timeless pieces rather than fast fashion
• Shop from sustainable brands and ethical designers
• Thrift and buy second hand
• Keep asking brands #whomademyclothes

In addition, if you’re looking for ethical fashion brands, Kristen has a great list to get you started.

Business Panel

This talk was crazy busy, which is a likely indicator that we’ll be seeing more emerging vegan businesses. Emma Sinclair from Enterprise Alumni hosted this panel:

• Scott + Karris McCulloch, The Vegan Kind – vegan subscription service
• Anna Brightman, Optiat – eco-friendly coffee scrubs
• Jonathan Petrides (JP), allplants – healthy and delicious frozen vegan meals
• Heather Mills, VBites + Athlete

How did you start?

• Scott and Karris started their business together whilst they were both in full-time careers to help finance the venture. They had complimenting skills and many sleepless nights.
• Anna co-founded Optiat with her brother, which started whilst they were both in employment. After one successful trade show they decided to quit their day jobs and pursue their passion. This was financed by a mix of their own savings and their parents’ and then, further down the line, an investor or two.
• Allplants made it’s start with savings and then investment whilst remaining a B Corp.
• Heather found her first success decades ago with stick on bras, then pursued 3 businesses which failed before finally starting up v bites.

Some tips? 

• Scott and Karris created their own coconut oil product, which flopped as they underestimated how saturated the market is. They learned from this and moved on.
• JP recommends figuring out if you want to make a big impact or if you want to pursue a passion and make a comfortable profile. Allplants has big ambitions and managed to raise $10 million venture capital.
• Heather advises that a balance needs to be met between idealism and realism. Other tips included: don’t moan, be able to live on a shoe string budget, be calm and levelheaded.

So much changed for vegans in 2018, it’s all so much more accessible. What effect does this have on vegan businesses?

• Scott and Karris said that they’re working hard to future proof themselves and The Vegan Kind.
• Anna explained that because Optiat has roots in sustainability and revolutionising the beauty industry, it has benefitted from the increased demand for both vegan and eco-friendly products.
• JP noticed not only a rise in vegans but also a rise in the ‘plant curious’. As a vegan frozen meals company, he expected his customer base to be mostly vegans. He was surprised to learn through their customer surveys that a large proportion of their customers were omnivores looking to make healthier, plant-based changes to their diet.

Veganuary

Veganuary is one of the biggest contributors towards the big increase in vegans over the last few years. I’m a huge fan of the charity and loved to have the opportunity to hear more about them and their mission.

Unfortunately I missed most of this talk, but managed to catch some interesting notes in the last 5 minutes.

• Despite the massive campaigning achievement of Veganuary, it’s down to a small team of less than 10
• They are asked by a lot of brand for help in creating vegan products in time for January
• Tesco promise that 2019 will be their biggest year for vegans
• Veganuary is going global in 2019 and reaching more people than ever before
• Factory Farmers are scared of the vegan movement, they’re retiring and closing shop

BOSH!

Ian and Henry, the power couple behind BOSH! shared their Top 10 Hacks to Build Your Business, Blog or Bestseller.

1. Design. Find your why. What’s your mission? That’s your statement.
2. Start now. Maybe you think you need investment or a tech geek. You don’t. Start now.
3. Pitch & Refine. Use the books Get Backed and Pitch Anything to learn everything you need. Use instagram messages make contacts, be bold and go for coffee so you can discuss ideas and pitch.
4. Build a team. This might mean sharing your idea and dream with stakeholders. Take a leap of faith.
5. Consistency. BOSH! posts once every other day at least as this builds trust and a relationship with followers.
6. Productivity. Use the Pomodoro Technique to give 25 minute intervals of monofocus to your passion as it’ll have you working way more efficiently. Keep setting yourself quarterly goals as it gives you direction, purpose and helps prioritise the important things.
7. Finances. Start thinking of cash as a scoreboard. You need to do cashflow analysis monthly at a minimum. The classic equation is sales – expenses = profit, but this puts expenses ahead of profit. Flip it to sales – profit = expenses. That way you’ve put your profit away and have an expense budget to work and challenge yourself with. For more information and tips, they recommend reading Profit First.
8. Hire Well & Delegate. Find someone that has a great work ethic, is intelligent, has integrity and curiosity. Everything else you need can be taught.
9. Turn Bad into Good. If something bad happens, flip it. Make it a learning curve.  A positive attitude will keep you on track.
10. Look After Yourself. It’s important to stay healthy, both mentally and physically, so that we are empowered to keep fighting on.