The Slovenian glassware company Steklarna Hrastnik, an innovative producer of bottles and glasses, was this year chosen as a partner of the Pernod Ricard Group for the latter’s annual Responsib'ALL Day, when the firm highlights its corporate social responsibility efforts as part of its overall Good Times from a Good Place project.
The events, which took place last week, included over 19,000 staff of the Pernod Ricard Group in 86 countries. This year was the ninth such day, and the focus circular production with the aim of achieving sustainable development. The various businesses and employees in the group were thus encouraged to develop new way of reducing and recycling the waste, and so promoting circular patterns of consumption. In Slovenia the project was carried out with the support of two partners, Ecologists Without Borders (Ekologi brez meja) and the glassmakers Steklarna Hrastnik.
Ecologists Without Borders is perhaps best known for initiative the “Clean Slovenia” project, which then evolved into efforts to not just clean up waste, but prevent it from being produced in the first place. Working with Pernod Ricard, the group received glass beads made from recycled Absolut, Chivas, Jameson, Ballantine's, Havana Club and Beefeater bottles, which can be bought in their online store, with the money from sales going to projects that will raise awareness of the need to reduce waste.
One of Renata Kobale's recent designs - a custom glass for the Brin Gin Festival
However, not all recycled glass can be made into beads, and this is where the work of the designer Renata Kobale comes into play. Kobale works for Steklarna Hrastnik, but for Responsib'ALL Day she took time out of her schedule to present a workshop on how to weave interesting pieces of glass into necklaces. This is something the designer is very familiar with, as she helps Stelkarna Hrastnik to produce a line of unique jewellery and fashion accessories from waste glass.
The Pernod Ricard event in Slovenia also included a working on zero waste living, with employees encouraged to, for example, reduce paper waste by using double-sided printing, brining a reusable water bottle to work, and avoiding the use of coffee capsules.
