Since attempting to live a low waste and low footprint lifestyle, I’ve become obsessed with yoga. Turns out, mindfulness and eco-living come hand in hand.

It’s impossible to stop and consider your impact on the planet, without slowing down and consciously acknowledging your body and your mind.

Yoga has been incredibly beneficial for my mental health while processing the devastation of our planet, and of course my body loves it too.

When I first dived into yoga, I had the urge to throw my old plastic mat from The Warehouse (gifted to me by a family member many years ago) out the window, and purchase a brand new mat that was far more Instagram-able and not bright purple. But that would have been wasteful, unsustainable, and totally besides the point.

Over the last few years I’ve been hunting down yoga mats in preparation for the day my mat bites the dust. I’ve been sniffing mats at markets, stroking them in store fronts, and stalking them online. In June I realised I needed to act quick as my yoga mat started to shed little pieces of purple plastic. This meant I couldn’t practice yoga outdoors (something I love).

Perhaps coincidence or fate, in early August this year (2019) I discovered Valka Yoga.

Note: Tim (my husband) now uses my old mat for his yoga & work outs in the lounge. He was doing this just on a towel, and it has been so much better for his body. If you have an old mat and you’re wondering what to do with it, Valka Yoga wrote a really useful guide around reusing mats here.

Valka Yoga is a kiwi owned, eco-friendly yoga gear company. They’re not your typical business who throw products at you left right and centre. Instead, they use yoga products as their pathway to make positive impact on people and place. I personally believe they’re excellent: otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this blog post.

Valka Yoga are on a mission to become a zero waste business, and are very close to meeting this goal through deep consideration of every single business component. For example, every mat that is purchased, a tree is planted. Valka Yoga work with Carbon Neutral to plant trees in biodiversity “hot spots” that sequester carbon, combat erosion, restore animal habitats, and improve soil quality.

Danny & Jonny are the best friends behind Valka Yoga. What has impressed me most with the way they do business, is their transparency. My contact has been with Danny, and after each email back and forth, Danny has always provided me with detailed answers and honesty around their successes and room for improvements.

I’ve had the privilege of testing out a Valka Yoga mat for the last few months, and I’m hooked. Not only has it inspired me to get back into regular yoga practice, but their transparency and efforts to do the best they can, have made me encouraged for the future of business.

My Valka Yoga Mat

Materials

My mat is made from rubber and cork.

Rubber: The rubber is sourced using a sustainable practice called rubber tapping (from my research, this doesn’t harm or kill the tree). Natural rubber is actually tree sap, so rubber tapping involves cutting a groove into the tree bark, peeling it off a bit to reveal the sap. I learnt a lot about rubber when researching!

Cork: The cork is harvested in Portugal in fair trade working conditions, using a sustainable practice too. The tree bark (cork) is harvested by hand every 9 years, meaning no tree is cut down or negatively impacted. Cork oak trees play a big part in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere- this is one of the reasons Danny chose to use cork. As the demand for cork grows, more trees will be planted, which is always a great thing.

One of my biggest concerns with the materials used, was how they were bound together. Sometimes companies get away with greenwashing by using brilliant materials (like cork and rubber) that can break down at the end of their lifecycle, but don’t stop to mention they are stuck together with harsh chemical glues! This is not the case with Valka Yoga.

The cork is fused together with the rubber using heat and pressure: no glue required.

Production: The mats are manufactured in China in a factory that Danny visited and sussed out himself. I was happy to hear all health and safety regulations were met and exceeded, the employees are paid fairly (they are unionized) and a typical work day is 8:30am - 5:30pm including lunch at an onsite cafeteria where all the employees eat together. The factory is closed during public holidays and employees are paid for any over time work, which is an uncommon occurrence at this particular premise.

Packaging: Valka Yoga have recently gone completely plastic free in their packaging, including all their other yoga accessories (blocks, bands, mat bags, drink bottles). They ship their products in cardboard boxes and compostable mailers throughout New Zealand and Australia.

My honest review

• It smells delicious. I could stay in child’s pose all day long.

• It’s much heavier than a plastic mat, but not as heavy as many on the market.

• If you are slightly cold and not sweating at all, it can be hard to grip: I cup my hands and breathe on them to add moisture, or sometimes even lick my palms, and I’m then good to go. I don’t have this problem usually, as I’m usually sweaty doing yoga - sweat helps with no-slip.

• The length and size is perfect.

• If you practice yoga in public, people will stop and ask where your mat is from.

After many months of conversation with Danny at Valka Yoga, it’s clear Valka Yoga are deadly serious about making BIG change. I asked Danny a few questions to understand his ‘why’ and see a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of a business with a big purpose.

When was the moment you realised your mission would be selling yoga mats & accessories?

I was in a yoga class, face first in my mat doing child's pose for a minute. It felt a lot longer actually. The mat smelt really bad. It was a brand new mat I had bought recently from one of the big brands (*cough* Lululemon *cough*). That evening, I ended up reading about the materials used for most commercial yoga mats and how they aren't even rubber but polymers and plastics made to resemble rubber.

These mats are used for a year or two and then just end up in the landfill. What a waste! So much for yoga (which means union) being about being one with ourselves and nature. I couldn't help but think - surely mats could be made from a better materials. Materials that are natural and biodegradable. And that don't stink. I had also just modelled for the launch of a friend's yoga mat line a few months ago. And that made me realise that it's not so hard to start a yoga brand."

Tell me more about the Valka Yoga team.

Currently it's me and my best friend Jonny. I take care of the marketing, design and production. He sends out the orders. He's into meditation, not yoga. But he's a good friend who's happy to help me out. The team includes everyone else who helps us by purchasing one of our mats. That is what helps us plant trees, which is part of our mission.

Why would someone buy your mat over all the others?

Life is about experiences, not possessions. We don't think of ourselves as selling yoga mats. We deliver experiences. We want our customers to feel ecstatic when they unroll their yoga mat for the first time and see its beautiful design. We want them to feel grounded when they practice yoga on its natural surface. And yes, we want them to enjoy being stuck in child's pose with their faces in their mats!

The hardest part about running a business that sources yoga mats ethically and sustainably?

The hardest part is sourcing the right products. Not every supplier shares the same views on sustainability and the environment. For many it's a silly fad and for others it’s an opportunity to make money. Most suppliers and yoga brands would happily label something as eco-friendly and proceed to wrap it in 3 layers of plastic. Use of misleading materials such as PER (polymer environmental resin) is commonplace because they are cheaper than rubber and said to degrade under "certain conditions". It is tough finding a supplier that truly understands your mission and is willing to work with you on that basis. And so we take our time adding new products to the catalog, vetting each of our suppliers rigorously.

What gets you up in the morning?

Knowing that we're contributing towards making the planet a better place every single day. It's wonderful seeing the impact a single yoga mat can make. Every time an order is received on our website, that's a tree being planted in a biodiversity hot spot. That's a tree that will be a home for the different species that inhabit that area. And that's because a customer who, given the wide range of yoga mats available on the market, made a conscious choice to go for an environmentally friendly option. And all of this is an opportunity for us to put a big smile on the face of a passionate yogi.

Describe Valka Yoga in three words.

Beautiful. Sustainable. Functional.

Valka Yoga is my personal choice of yoga mat, and if you like what you hear, it could be yours too.

If you need a new yoga mat or tools to help with your yoga practice…

Shop at Valka Yoga here (New Zealand/Australia). Use ETHICALLYKATE for 10% off your first order.

Rest of the world: Find the mats on Amazon.

As a rule, I only work with brands I love, use, and can whole heartedly back. I send the brand a large list of questions to answer first, and trial the product properly before saying yes to anything. This is a sponsored blog (I can't pay my electricity bill with free products), but 100% my own words, photos, and opinion.

Main Image taken by Nectar Photography.