(Not the) Son of a Preacher Man

With apologies to Dusty Springfield. But not Bananarama.

When was the last time you did something simply because someone told you to? I would assume it was probably when you were a child and it was your parents’ bidding? Either that or you’re under the thumb or you like TV evangelists, in which case you have my sympathy.

Not my Dad.

So, assuming you’re one of the majority of adults who now do things because you want to and believe it is the right thing to do, not because you’re told to, why is it that some people and organisations think that they’ll win your support for their cause by telling you what to do?

One of the key beliefs we hold here at Fuzzi is that in order to promote the idea of sustainable living, we should not preach to customers. Customers must make up their own minds about using products that we stock, and buy them because they want to do so.

We find it a shame that many people and organisations, especially those in the field of environmentalism, preach to people that they must do x or y, or, potentially worse, guilt people into thinking that if they don’t do something, they are contributing to a specific negative outcome.

That only serves to push people further away in our experience, so they refuse to even discuss or engage in the subject.

We believe that discussion, education and understanding works far more effectively.

I didn’t used to recycle, I always drove everywhere and I didn’t care where my food came from. But I gradually took an interest in these things and as I learnt about them, I felt they might impact on my life, and the lives of my children.

Some of my closest friends and family don’t see things the same way I do. But I don’t tell them what to do, or that what they are doing is bad. I simply offer an explanation as to why I made the changes and why I feel it is important. If they understand my reasons, and hopefully agree, then they might choose to make a change themselves.

So, when you visit Fuzzi, no matter what your opinion on our products, or on the wider issues like climate change or peak oil, we look forward to simply talking to you about them and letting you make up your own mind.

If we can make suggestions for products you might like to try, or give you tips to help you live more sustainably then we would welcome that opportunity. But no matter what your opinion, we’ll respect it. We’ll give you ours on why we think sustainable living is important, but ultimately you will only buy something or do something if you want to.

Even if you don’t believe in the sustainable mantra that we promote, we believe that you’ll find our products attractive in their own right, and support us, our suppliers and the work that we do by buying from us. Come and have a look and make up your own mind!

For the record, we promise to never act like a bossy mother-in-law or invite you to ‘touch the screen and be healed!’… not even for the comedy value. And besides, my Dad was actually an engineer.

Andy