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All Change! Onwards and Upwards…

October 17th, 2011 1 Comment

Well it’s been a while since I’ve put finger to keyboard here and a lot’s been happening…

Some sad things and some happy things but it’s funny how the things that appear to be backwards steps keep on turning out to be blessings in disguise, just waiting to show themselves. The learning seems to be ‘DON’T PANIC – JUST BREATHE AND WAIT’!

And so it was when our lovely Arnold let us know he was moving on to pastures new. Arnold had been overseeing all our commercial/insurance painting jobs and for one reason and another, through no fault of Arnold’s, we didn’t have a lot of time to replace him and we had a TON of work on. Hence the panic.

But then Anthony turned up, and life goes on and the work keeps coming and the panic was pointless.

Let me introduce Anthony!

Anthony Hubbard. Massively experienced in the Building Industry, a father to two small people, friendly as you like, with an anything is possible attitude. Perfect. Plus Anthony is into IT, so he is turning our systems into SYSTEMS – streamlining and tweaking and bursting with ideas to make us more efficient.

And so, it is with sadness that we say goodbye to Arnold, with thanks for everything he gave while he was with us and wishing him all the luck in the world in his new role. And it is with happiness that we welcome Anthony into the fold. It’s good to have him on board and we look forward to everything that lies ahead…

Until next time…..

Lovely bit of feedback that I just had to share!

July 14th, 2011 No Comments

Recently a very lovely lady in Melbourne, Simone, decided to try ecolour paint for the first time – she has green tendencies, children, hopes for the planet and masses of experience in interior design. The perfect judge!

Of course, we weren’t in the least bit surprised that she loves ecolour paint and will never use anything else again EVER but we were beautifully surprised when she insisted that we share her testimonial with the world… Bless her. So here it is!

“Dear ecolour team,

I would just like to put pen to paper to tell you how delighted I am with your eco-paint. We had a small room to paint for my 12 year old daughter – it needed to be done quickly so she could move straight into it. The painting was a JOY! The paint had lovely texture that was easy to apply and covered the space incredibly well but the BEST thing about it was that my daughter helped with the painting, which was a great achievement for her and I knew it was absolutely safe for her from a health perspective!

The room was painted in an evening and my daughter was able to move in and decorate her space as soon as it was dry because there was no smell at all. AMAZING.

I would love for you to pass this message on to as many people as possible. USE ECOLOUR! It’s healthy for you. It’s good for the environment. It’s the same price as standard paint.

PLEASE everyone do your bit to consider your health and the environment!”

So there we have it!

A big thank you to Simone, and her family, for their enthusiasm!

Until next time…

Well, She’s Officially Launched!

July 6th, 2011 1 Comment

ecolour Sunshine celebrated it’s official launch with a wonderful opening party last week.

Initially nervous that no one would show up, (what has happened to the notion of the RSVP these days?) we sadly didn’t get to eat any leftovers from the FABULOUS catering put on by Ragusa Restaurant in Williamstown. Thank you guys. Wonderful job. Nothing left over, not a sausage, literally. With over 80 people rocking up to wet the shop’s head, the octopus and the Cevapi didn’t stand a chance.

Among the guests, we were delighted to have Stuart and Belle McPhee from ecolour head office in Byron Bay and an interesting mix of family, friends and industry related contacts. A full house, which is great considering how big the house is.

It was really exciting to showcase ecolour’s potential to an open, enthusiastic and interested audience. Thank you to everyone who took the time to come out and celebrate with us. And thank you for all the positive feedback about the store and what ecolour is setting out to achieve. John and the team have noticed a little shift in the feeling of the shop since the party. Everyone there has left a little beam of positivity and the place feels genuinely warmed and ready to roll!

So. Let’s roll…

Eating, sleeping and breathing ecolour!

June 17th, 2011 No Comments

It looks like John may have overdone it!

Has John been working too hard?

A Potted History of Paint.

June 8th, 2011 No Comments

I’m interested in how things evolve. Ideas that grow from a mere thought to something solid, normal, everyday. Can openers. Trampolines. Socks. These things haven’t always been. Someone had a thought. The thought turned into an action. The action turned into a thing. The thing changed and grew. And there we have it – an iPad.

Paint has followed it’s own chequered path of development over the last 20,000 years. Borne from humans’ obsession with colours and our inability not to graffiti, we made our mark with iron oxides (Egyptians), the squish left over from crushing shell fish (Romans), the goo extracted from the poor female cochineal beetle (Aztecs) and the delightful alchemy of a concentrate of cows’ urine and mud (India).

Even 5000 years ago we had worked out that to get paint to go on smoothly we needed binding agents and thinners. The addition of lead and arsenic created durable, colour fast paints that are still holding their own two and a half thousand years later. Not bad – just a bit of a pity that they were, and in some cases still are, completely toxic.

It wasn’t until as late as the nineteenth century that some possibly bored, almost certainly female (but don’t quote me on that), colour obsessive had the synapse spark that resulted in using paint to cover walls decoratively in the way that has become standard in modern times. Around then, an entrepreneurial outfit called Sherwin Williams began manufacturing paints for architectural applications – and an industry was born – one that Sherwin Williams still contends for leadership of to this day.

Nowadays paint is a diverse creature. We paint everything from spaceships to roller skating rinks, with specialized paint applications available for almost anything you can think of. And it’s a grubby business. An environmental black sheep. Packed with heavy metals and VOCs, paints throughout history have behaved like your worst two faced friend – all smiles and charm on the face of it but with a dangerous, secret, poisonous edge.

Luckily, the paint industry appears to continue to evolve. Now, faced with evidence of the damage that standard paints can cause and a need to lessen the environmental impact of their manufacture, companies such as Australia’s ecolour are emerging as the new winners.

ecolour’s paints have achieved carbon neutral accreditation by recycling and re-refining waste engine oil into a water based paint. A first in paint evolution. This oil acts as a preservative and provides durability, superior coverage and smooth application qualities to the paint, which allows it to behave in exactly the same way as any other premium acrylic paint – just without the carcinogens and pullutants….

From cows’ urine to ecolour! That’s quite a journey.

Until next time…

ecolour Sunshine is Open for Business!

May 31st, 2011 2 Comments

FINALLY we have made it!

ecolour Sunshine is open for business. The (new) doors are open, the (new) tinting machine is purring, the (new) floor is shining, the (new) ecolour paint is stacked and ready for sale. Very very exciting. Come and check it out.

In fact before we had even opened for business we had our first walk-in customer. Our lovely office secretary, Margaret, made our first ever ecolour sale to a very happy lady called Georgia! It was a bit of a moment for us here at 3 Evans Street!

And we’ve been busy in other ways too. John and I attended the Property Council of Australia’s Sustainability Conference. A very interesting day hanging out with the movers and shakers of the construction industry and some of the inspirational people at the top of the Australian Sustainability community. There seems to still be a bit of a gulf between the two – the day ended with a well articulated debate on the motion “Sustainability is the key driver for the property sector.” I’m sorry to report that there was a resounding vote AGAINST the motion. It seems money and power are still the main motivations behind construction and development. For now….

Luckily things are slowly shifting. We look forward to being part of that shift, offering ZERO-toxic paint goodness for the construction industry and for you.

Until next time…..

Greenwashing, chickens and paint. What’s going on?

May 24th, 2011 No Comments

Greenwashing is a naughty business. The term refers to organisations upping their ‘green’ image to an environmentally educated public in possibly dubious ways with the hidden agenda of raking in more money. It’s everywhere.

It seems to me that perpetrators of ‘greenwashing’ tend to spend considerable resources shouting loudly about their greenness while actually doing very little towards really addressing sustainability and environmental responsibility. Sometimes the lie is so blatant that it screams ‘foul play’. Talking of foul – let’s take the marketing of eggs as an example. Greenwashing egg producers can be seen packaging their eggs with the words ‘Barn Raised’ beside cute images of a scene from something not unlike ‘Little House on the Prairie’. Of course the truth is that these ‘barns’ are the chicken equivalent of a concentration camp, where they are raised on hormones and unnatural lighting, never seeing the sun or a blade of grass, let alone little girls with blonde plaits.

Apart from the dishonesty that is implicit in this sort of marketing, it is also insulting consumers’ intelligence and studies are beginning to show a developing lack of trust in ANY sort of marketing where there is some form of ‘green’ claim. And that just makes things tricky for the organisations, like us, who are genuinely promoting products that are beneficial to the environment, to people’s health and to reducing society’s carbon footprint.

The paint industry is rife with ‘greenwashing’. Developing and promoting Low-VOC products is greenwashing. To promote low-VOC paint as ‘healthy’ is as ironic and misleading as promoting cars as environmentally friendly. Just as the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman official Bente Øverli said: “Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others.” The same could be said for low-VOC paints. They just poison the air we breathe a little less than their more poisonous predecessors.

ecolour paint really is an environmentally responsible paint choice. ZERO-VOCs means diddly squat, zilch, zip, nada, none. No greenwashing in sight. Not unless that’s the colour you’re painting with of course…

Until next time….

Melbourne HIA HomeShow – Stand M45

April 29th, 2011 No Comments

Can’t think what to do this weekend? Why don’t you drop into the HIA HomeShow at Melbourne’s Events Centre?

It’s crazy in here. So much going on under one enormous great big roof, so many incredible ideas – and one of the BEST of those is at the ecolour stand – where we are.

We’re having a blast telling Melbourne about ecolour’s paint and our new store at 3 Evans Street in Braybrooke. And it seems from the response of the crowd around our stand that Australians really are ready for a more sustainable paint choice that costs no more than other premium paint.

So, if you are looking for an informative and fun day out, come and join us at the HIA HomeShow.

See you there…..

We’re Taking ecolour to the Melbourne HIA HomeShow

April 26th, 2011 No Comments

Renovating? Building? Redecorating? Time for a change? Don’t do a thing until you’ve spoken to us!

From this Thursday 28th April to Sunday 1st May we are going to be hanging out at the Melbourne HIA HomeShow telling anyone and everyone about ecolour‘s fabulousness… We’d love to see you there.

We’ll be giving away $200 of the good stuff and a 2 hour, in-home colour consultancy to the winner of our HomeShow draw, so why not come and have chat and find out what all the fuss is about…

You may as well – the weather’s going to be rubbish over the weekend - so bring the family and have a look around everything that the HomeShow has to offer. So many ideas, so many deals!

We look forward to seeing you at the ecolour stand.

Until then….

Nesting? Create a Truly Safe Space…

April 21st, 2011 No Comments

NESTING? CREATE A TRULY SAFE SPACE.

Once the initial excitement of learning that there’s a baby on the way dies down, soon-to-be-parents often turn their attention to ‘nesting’ and preparing a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment for their newest team member to sleep in. It’s a DNA thing – some ancient calling from the most primitive part of us that wants us to protect and care for the next generation.

Ironically, one of the first things that a lot of nesters do is get painting without fully understanding that traditional forms of internal paint can be potentially harmful to our babies’ health.

Standard paint contains VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). These VOCs are toxic and have been linked to a huge number of infant and childhood illnesses, including cancers, leukaemia and respiratory problems. And it isn’t commonly known yet that these paints continue to off-gas these harmful toxins into our air for YEARS after they are first applied.

Oh, how good intentions turn bad!

The good news is that there is a solution to this dilemma, which will allow you to fulfill your DNA calling and actually protect and care for your little bundle of joy. It’s called ecolour.

ecolour’s paints are completely non-toxic and ZERO VOC. That’s right, no off-gassing at all, at the same time as sealing in the toxins that might have been present from previous paintwork. Not only that but by some force of alchemic magic ecolour is also the only paint in the industry to achieve Carbon Neutral status. AND it’s manufactured and owned in Australia. How’s that for ticking boxes?

Available in over 36,000 colours and manufactured to the same high quality as other professionally used paints, ecolour is the perfect solution to create your dream nursery for your precious new family member.

ecolour lets our children breathe easily so we can…