Kresse Wesling
{{Short description|British sustainable entrepreneur}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Kresse Anne-Marie Wesling {{Post-nominals/GBR|CBE}} (born {{birth based on age as of date|38 |2015|09|13|noage=1}}) is a Canadian-born British entrepreneur{{cite web |title=Kresse Wesling MBE |url=https://globalshakers.com/world-shakers/kresse-wesling-mbe/ |website=Global Shakers |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=23 October 2019}} and co-founder of the luxury recycled accessories company Elvis and Kresse.{{cite web |title=Circularity Champion: Kresse Wesling MBE |url=https://www.rypeoffice.com/circularity-champion-kresse-wesling-mbe/ |website=Rype Office |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=9 July 2019}}{{cite web |title=Kresse Wesling |url=https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/node/158 |website=Cartier Women's Initiative |access-date=1 January 2022 |language=en |date=29 June 2011}} She has been a visiting professor at the University of Oxford's Said Business School.
Early life and education
Wesling was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in {{birth based on age as of date|38 |2015|09|13|noage=1}}{{cite web |title=Elvis & Kresse's Kresse Wesling on belts, brands and acid rain |url=https://www.cityam.com/set-world-fire/ |website=CityAM |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=13 September 2015}} and moved to Hong Kong aged 17 to study an International Baccalaureate at Li Po Chun United World College from 1994 to 1996. She studied politics and East Asian studies at McGill University in Canada from 1996 to 1999.{{cite web |title=Kresse Wesling CBE |url=https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kresse-wesling-cbe-0933646 |publisher=LinkedIn |access-date=1 January 2022}}
Career
Wesling founded an environmental packaging company in Hong Kong in 2002, and brought it to the UK in 2004. She was then involved in a sustainable mother and baby company, Babaloo, and a clothing company, Yew Clothing.
Wesling met members of the London Fire Brigade at a training course and learned, in conversation, that their discarded fire hoses went to landfill.{{cite news |last1=Langton-Lockton |first1=Sarah |title=Elvis & Kresse, green entrepreneurs |url=https://favershamlife.org/elvis-kresse-green-entrepreneurs/ |access-date=1 January 2022 |work=Faversham Life |date=5 April 2019}} As the hose has a maximum permitted life of 25 years, this represented a large quantity of rubber hose being discarded each year. She and her partner "Elvis" (real name James Henrit) investigated possible uses for the material and, in 2005, set up their company Elvis and Kresse to make handbags and other accessories. The company donates half its profits to the Firefighters' Charity.{{cite web |title=Fire service recognised in Queen's Birthday Honours 2021 |url=https://www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/latest/fire-service-queens-birthday-honours-2021/%20 |website=The Fire Fighters Charity |access-date=31 December 2021 |language=en |date=14 June 2021}}{{cite book |last1=Kornel |first1=Amiel |title=Spinning into Control: Improvising the Sustainable Startup |date=20 November 2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-51356-4 |page=103 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__RADwAAQBAJ&dq=said+business+school+kresse&pg=PA103 |language=en |chapter=Tinkering with scrap}} From 2017 they worked with the Burberry Foundation to use offcuts from the international leather industry, turning waste material into luxury goods.{{cite web |title=Ep. 10 Elvis & Kresse |url=https://shows.acast.com/behind-the-brands/episodes/5ff61272358b1259edb71577 |website=Behind the Brands |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=8 December 2020}}
The company is based in a mill built in 1837 in Tonge, Kent.{{cite news |last1=Sinclair |first1=Emma |title=Environmental entrepreneur Kresse Wesling: 'It's easy to be good in business' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-business/10165283/Environmental-entrepreneur-Kresse-Wesling-Its-easy-to-be-good-in-business.html |access-date=31 December 2021 |work=www.telegraph.co.uk |date=8 July 2013}}
Wesling has said that the greatest influence on her "sustainability thinking" was her grandmother, who grew up on a farm where "they had to grow their own vegetables in the summer or they wouldn't have food in the winter. Her generation didn’t waste anything and that attitude characterised her whole life."
Recognition
In 2011 Wesling was awarded the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards for Europe.
Wesling was appointed MBE{{when|date=January 2022}} and was appointed CBE in the 2021 Birthday Honours "For services to Sustainable Business".{{London Gazette |issue=63377 |date=12 June 2021 |page=B10 |supp=1}}
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |editor-last1=Gardetti |editor-first1=Miguel Angel |editor-last2=Girón |editor-first2=María Eugenia |author1=Kresse Wesling |title=Sustainable Luxury and Social Entrepreneurship: Stories from the Pioneers |date= 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-28622-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Ko0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT16 |language=en |chapter=Elvis & Kresse, UK}}
External links
- [https://www.elvisandkresse.com/ Elvis & Kresse website]
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:British businesspeople
Category:British women in business
Category:Businesspeople from Edmonton