Emma Bunton interview: Being an eco-friendly family

Meeting Emma Bunton

In September I had the pleasure of being invited along to Kit & Kin‘s blogger launch party. Part of the day included the opportunity to interview Emma Bunton, one of the co-founders of this eco-aware baby brand. Here’s what we chatted about.

The Kit & Kin range for babies and mums

Have you always been eco-aware, or are you influenced by your children?

We chatted about how our children were major factors in both of us becoming more interested in eco-friendly matters. Emma said she really didn’t give her sons, Beau (10) and Tate (6) enough credit for influencing her eco-awareness. “They go to school and they come home and talk about recycling and all these wonderful things. They pick up so much!”

She acknowledged that she’s been pretty lucky throughout her career; first to be a part of the Spice Girls, of course, and now presenting on Heart Radio. Amazingly it’s Kit & Kin that her children are most interested in: “…doing this is the thing that they’re most proud of me for. They know it’s important, they can see an impact. They know it’s important to Mummy, it’s important to them and their future and even today… they were like “Oh we want to come to that”. They never ask to come to anything!”

I told her all about how my own daughter, Eleanor, is so proud to be part of her school Eco Team this year. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen her badge and sweatshirt! Emma loved this idea, saying “that’s brilliant, that’s what we need”.

How else do you and your family lessen your impact on the environment?

Chris Money and Emma Bunton. Founders of Kit & Kin.

During presentation about Kit & Kin, both Emma and her co-founder Chris Money talked about how switching to Kit & Kin nappies was a small easy thing to do. Something even the busiest parent could do and feel good that they’ve made a positive difference to the environment.

Kit and Kin nappies are cute AND eco-friendly! — *Kit & Kin nappies biodegrade in 3-5 years. Other disposables take 500 years!*

Emma expanded on this idea of doing small things to make a difference during our interview. “As a mummy we are so busy doing so many other things… but actually if we can just do little things. They feel like little things but actually they make a huge difference. It’s silly things like, I love a bath and the kids love a bath but actually we won’t do that as much anymore. We take showers and make it a game. Who’s going to be washed the quickest?!

We have been recycling for coming up on nine years, so that’s something we started quite early. We make that a game for the kids and they love it and have learned a lot about that as well.”

Tell me about your work with UNICEF

Emma loves working with UNICEF, she has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2013 after becoming a spokeswoman for a Mother’s Day campaign aimed at ending child malnutrition.

“I’ve been an ambassador for a few years now. I’ve worked with them for many years, but to become an ambassador was just such a honour. I’ve travelled with them to Madagascar and Uganda, it’s just incredible to watch the work that they do. It’s amazing to be involved.”

I asked Emma whether she’d ever taken her children with her on any of her UNICEF trips.

“I haven’t. The last place I went to was Madagascar. At that point, maybe three years ago, I still felt my youngest was too young. I came back and I showed them the pictures and we all cried. I would love to take them at some point. Madagascar, you don’t think about it, but it’s actually one of the ten poorest countries in the world. It’s somewhere I would take the children and show them. I do tell them stories, I tell them we are so lucky.”

Spice Girls

I didn’t want to talk to Emma about the Spice Girls but I did tell her one of my friends was joking about slipping Spice Girls song titles into our interview, which she thought was really funny. We thought Wannabe and Mama were the easiest ones to get!

All in all, meeting Emma was a great experience. She is a genuinely warm and friendly person and interesting to talk to. I really enjoyed our chat and I’m looking forward to working with Kit & Kin as a Brand Ambassador.