By Michael Doran
While government and business leaders dither on sustainability, Lilly Parker has put her principles first and taken action by opening a carbon neutral tattoo studio in Healesville. The studio, Golden Goose, combines two very important elements of her life, a love of art and a passion for reducing the world’s carbon footprint.
“As a person I like to live my life leaving the least harm behind me as possible so it was natural to align my business with what I believe,” she said. “There is just so much information out there about climate change that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
“When you have 99.9% of world’s best scientists telling you that things are a certain way, it’s really hard to ignore something that is threatening my life and also my friend’s children and I just can’t think of anything more important really.”
Ms Parker, who is from Healesville, got her start in the sector seven years ago when she started her apprenticeship. “I loved art at school and I liked tattooing because it was different and a really good way to do art everyday and make a living.”
It has taken three months to set up the new studio but reducing the carbon footprint has always been central to how the business has been established.
“The first step is reducing your carbon footprint, which includes your electricity usage, so I replaced the old fluorescents with LEDs. I’m using recycled and biodegradable goods where I can and using organic plant-based inks.
“The important part is once you reduce as much as possible you then need to sequester the carbon you’re operations are creating. So I pre-purchased 27 tonnes of carbon credits from Carbon Neutral Australia and that money is used to plant trees which will offset the carbon that my business releases.
“I believe this is the first carbon neutral tattoo studio in Australia and maybe even the world and its here in Healesville.”
