Hey,
I'm Dan, the founder of Cauuuse. That photo? That's me in the traditional dress of the Karen tribe who have for generations looked after Goh La Su (that's the Elephant beside me) and many more of Thailands spectacular Elephants.
It was a special experience to be in the mountains where people lived humble lives with the most basic of amenities, the forest their source of life, food, enrichment and their living. Each person of the tribe would greet me with a beaming smile, their joy for life evident. It was truly grounding.
That day became yet another reminder as to why Cauuuse, and many businesses just like it, need to exist. We live in a truly incredible world full of wonder and beauty, but many of us make small every day choices that put our world at risk. We're busy living our lives and easily lose sight of what, if we're truly honest, is important.
As I write this, Christmas has just passed. We don't have official figures yet, but if historical data gives us an indication, in Britain alone we will have spent a giant £5Billion on unwanted Christmas gifts. With 23 Million of those gifts making the journey from being unwrapped, straight to landfill.
Meanwhile nearly 700 million people are still living on less than $2 a day, our oceans are full of plastic and our planet is increasingly telling us things aren't in the best shape right now.
I'll be honest, I've never liked greetings cards, and I struggle when it comes to buying gifts. Because, for most of us reading this, we already have everything we need (and then some) and often gifts are just more ‘stuff', however much love and intention was behind it.
I've spoken with hundreds of people (as you might imagine) about their experiences buying and receiving gifts and the unsurprising reality was that for most people, buying gifts was a difficult task that often lead to them just buying ‘something' because it's what's expected of us. In many cases, we've lost sight of what gifting truly means.
That's why I started a greetings card company. A company with a mission to make gifting meaningful again, to eradicate unnecessary waste and to change lives in the name of the ones we love. Now for me, that's a gift I'd like to receive, and perhaps more importantly, it's a gift I'd like to give. So really, I built Cauuuse for me and for those just like me who want to turn our everyday actions (like buying, say, a birthday card) into lasting change.