We have to admit straight away that we're not as green as we want to be - and we hope we never will think we are either... We know we can do better, and the idea is that we just keep on trying and knowing we can always do better.
In a previous life I (Cathy) spent a long time in the environmental sector so I think I have a pretty good idea of how we can make some impact - even as a small business. But blimey! It's really difficult when you have very little money and absolutely no buying power!
Having said that, even little us have been able to make some changes that we think are good first steps to helping us to be greener. I'm delighted to have found us a green energy supplier - and we use A LOT of energy - so we think it's important that we reduce our impact with our electricity use. We've also installed new efficient heaters and water system making our use as low as possible too.
But! The thing we are most pleased with is getting plastic out of all our packaging. I'll be honest, it's been a right pain and is costing us quite a lot of money, but it was a non-negotiable target for us. We've changed our boxes to being completely cardboard, which has meant getting our box supplier to make special inserts just for us. It took a while, and we now have to make every box insert by hand so - obviously - I couldn't resist making our feature picture for this blog a very glamorous one of our easily recyclable card insides. It might a tiny part of our business we think it's one of our biggest steps forward so far :)
Most of our bars are wrapped in aluminium foil, and paper, and even our 'plastic' bags aren't plastic - they're Natureflex. We were pretty cynical about 'biodegradable' materials (as they can take YEARS to biodegrade) but it turns out that Natureflex (made from cellulose from sustainable sources) is compostable, so we have gone with that option to try to make our packaging impact as low as possible.
We've taken all other little bits of plastic use out of our packaging, like lids, and 'windows' in boxes. It's weird because we would always want people to see our products, and didn't want to lose giving our customers the ability to see our product. But! Even with things like that a bit of lateral thinking (like putting a chocolate bar in a picture frame) sorts it, often in a slightly quirky, but perfectly acceptable way.
We know there's a lot more we could do, and - frankly - we'd be thrilled if anyone has any helpful, not extortionately expensive ideas. So, if you're a tiny business like us, or you just have a cracking idea or if you'd just like to have a chat about trying to be green when you're a tiny business, do get in touch - we'd love to hear from you!