During the last month quite a few of the projects that we started during lockdown have come to fruition.
We have further improved our stockrooms for packed goods, passed our pre-audit for a new hygiene standard we are bringing in, taken delivery of a new van and become a registered exporter of coffee to China. But, by far the most interesting, is the finalising of the data for our carbon footprint calculations.
The report shows the amounts of CO2 produced throughout our ENTIRE supply chain from the cultivation of the bushes that bear our tea leaves and coffee beans, through to delivery of our finished, packed products by our vans or haulier, literally to the doorstep or warehouse of our customers. You could imagine preparing all this data was an enormous task and I would like to thank in particular two members of the team, Kate and Louise, who approached this data collation with intelligence, good mathematics and tireless dedication.
We have now received the finished report from C-free and are now looking at the various options open to us to offset the CO2 our activities have generated. Our investments will most likely be made in the following sectors:
- Sustainable farming practices
- Renewable and sustainable energy generation
- Looking at our purchasing model and including low-carbon or carbon neutral / negative tea and coffee estates (Daterra coffee estate is proud of its carbon negativity)
We are in the process of seeking advice on what schemes are available in these various areas and will share our decisions once we have had all the data provided that we need.
We are very pleased to see many of our customers back fully-re-open and busy again. Our sales and the amounts of enquires we are receiving are increasing which, after the ‘wilderness years’ of lockdown and the pandemic, are very encouraging.
