British artisan spice and tea firm Steenbergs has announced that its business is now carbon neutral.
The company has calculated its energy usage in producing products and business travel, and all transport costs from bringing ingredients in to its factory and then distributing its Steenbergs products to customers.
Committed to minimising its impact on the environment, Steenbergs' factory includes environmental features such as sun pipes, green energy, solar panels, and low water usage toilets.
Steenbergs already generates half of its electricity through the solar panels located on the factory roof, but has completed this year’s carbon offsetting by purchasing carbon credits to cover both direct and indirect carbon generated from its operations in 2013 - just 17 tonnes CO2e, up from 12 tonnes CO2e in 2012.
Carbon credits for around 90 newly planted trees were purchased from Hiniduma Bio-Link Project, a reforestation project in southwest Sri Lanka, certified by the Plan Vivo Foundation in Scotland with its carbon credits registered in the Markit Registry.
Plan Vivo supports projects that work with rural smallholders and communities to protect their natural resources, fitting well with Steenbergs’ work with Fairtrade and spices and teas from rural smallholders in Sri Lanka and India.
"Sustainability, fairness and equity are core to the Steenbergs brand," says Axel Steenberg, co-founder of Steenbergs. “So we really like the way we can offset excess carbon dioxide generated here in Yorkshire through projects in Sri Lanka, where we buy many of our spices and teas.”
@ 2014 ESM - European Supermarket Magazine
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