The Fragile Earth series started with the Little Earth Book and was followed up with the Little Food Book. Both books are compendia of short articles about key issues within the subject area and each article references further reading on the subject. The books talk with an authoritative, objective style about key social and environmental issues which face our society. Intriguingly Yeo Valley Organics enjoyed considerable success in selling copies of The Little Earth book by promoting it on their packaging. This is a nice example of the sort of partnership and support that authentic businesses can enjoy because they have objectives other than simple profit.
Talking to Alastair you begin to wonder if he has green blood, being also vice president of the Soil Association and having stood as a Green Party Candidate. Alistair’s values are obvious in the way the business is run and the direction it is heading in.
Finding Alastair Sawday Publishing or Sawday’s is not difficult but it is interesting. To aid me I had a map of a piece of open countryside with an arrow placed there by the post code search on an internet map pointing at a field.
I cycled up the road towards the field and found an entrance to a farm, I rode in past the beautiful farm house, admired the spectacular view and found an office in a cluster of converted stables and barns. The office turned out to be one of the buildings used by Sawdays to house the 40 people who work there, but there are no clues or signs until you are inside the building.
Part of the point, for Alastair, in creating the Special Places series was a search for authenticity, as he puts it "real conversations, real coffee, real food and real travel experiences with people doing their own thing in their own way." The special places books deliver authentic experiences in abundance with a selection process that rigorously excludes the "pompous, the cold and the overly commercial" and seeks out and embraces the independent, warm and characterful.
Another part of the point for Alastair is to turn the business into a model of a socially and environmental sustainable business. To set an example and to draw other businesses into the same principles by applying awareness, example, advice and gentle pressure on suppliers for example to use more recycled material and sustainable methods and B&B and hotel owners to offer an organic breakfast.
To ensure that their own example is a positive one Alastair is encouraging the formation of a "green team" who are starting out by visiting BedZed (the zero emissions housing development in South London and Beacon Press (A leading environmental printing firm) to find ideas and ways to bring the business closer to being environmentally sustainable.
As part of the socially sustainable aspect to the business Alastair and the team are determined to run the business in a very human way, taking care of mothers giving them time to be with their families and caring for the staff in general. As with many authentic businesses Sawday’s find themselves pioneering new ground in working out how to run a company profitably while being more and more sympathetic to the personal needs of their people.
Being there and talking to Alastair and other members of the team their it is obvious to se that they really do live their values of authentic humanity – where people see each other as people and not roles or titles, environmentalism both by being it and by promoting it, a quiet commitment to their purpose and to each other and trust a strong sense of trust within the company and extending to it’s community of suppliers and the B&B and small hotel owners.
Alastair sees the business as a journey, which involves the building of a platform for their messages, growth and influence. As with any journey it is important to be able to tell where you are and ensure that you are going in the right direction and at a speed which is consistent both with getting there in time and safety. To do this you need to have measures so that your journey is not like travelling in a featureless desert but has a clear direction and route. At Sawdays their asses their direction and pace by checking that staff turnover is low and happiness is high, by ensuring that personal development and a career path is available to the team, by focussing on long term sustained profitability rather than short term gain and by checking in on how green they are and how many others are they inspiring to be green.
Alastair is achieving his green vision through three main routes and two of these routes are series of books.
The Fragile Earth series is remarkable for its concise and hard hitting summary of the critical situation our society has created for itself and our cohabitants on this planet. No punches are pulled, these books tell it like it is to the point where you wonder if Alastair is not taking quite a risk in publishing them, but Alastair assures me that no one has threatened him.
The second is the Special Places book series itself which offers with sublime subtlety the alternative to globalisation and the reason for wanting to avoid it. Special Places is about celebrating and supporting the individual, the local and the independent. Alongside this Alastair is able to use his considerable charm backed by the influence of his books to encourage the hosts recommended by the books to use organic and local food as much as possible especially at breakfast.
The third way Alastair is working towards this is through his growing influence with his suppliers, like working with his printers to reduce the environmental impact of the books through cleaner printing processes and finding ways to use recycled paper without compromising on quality.
If you need to remind yourself or a friend or relative about the need for change in the way that we run our society buy the Fragile Earth books – The Little Earth Book and The Little Food Book for only £6.99 each. If, having read them, you feel the need to take a break with a clear conscience the Special Places books are just that and you can feel a measure of comfort that you are striking a blow against global capitalism at the same time – as long as you don’t fly or drive to get there.
www.sawdays.co.uk