We at Green & Blue care about the environment as much as we do about great wine and food. We are not perfect, but we are trying in every way possible to ensure that our business is both responsible and sustainable and we like to think that many of our customers not only support us in this, but are trying to do the same.
The key areas we are focusing on are the following:
- Energy use – our target is to reduce our 2008 energy consumption by 5% in 2009. We plan to achieve this by being much more rigorous in switching off all electrical appliances when not in use. We also want to be using green energy by then.
- Our wine range – almost everything we stock is made sustainably. This means that chemicals are used only in emergencies or in strictly controlled amounts when no other cost and energy effective solution is possible. 42% of our wine range is organic or biodynamic (although not necessarily certified) and our target is 60% by the end of 2010.
- Our food range - we will continue to source food locally wherever possible.
- We have also installed a reverse osmosis filtration system on site and no longer sell bottled water, eliminating both the need to transport this and the problem of recycling the empty bottles.
- Water use - our target is to reduce our 2008 consumption by 10% in 2009. We will do this by being more vigilant in our water usage and keeping a close eye on dripping taps, etc.
- Transport – most of our staff live nearby and we will continue to recruit from the local area in order to cut down the need for anyone to have to travel.
- Waste reduction and recyling – we have banned plastic bags and no longer print out tasting notes. We also now use small blackboards instead of printed cards on each table to advertise events, etc. We recycle all glass, paper and cardboard. We are also investigating the possibility of recycling our food waste as well.
- Minimising the impact of any products we use on site – all our cleaning products, except the glasswasher detergent (though we are looking for an alternative), are now environmentally friendly.
We will keep trying to:
- Adopt the highest standards we can in all areas of operation.
- Identify areas where we can become more sustainable – any customer suggestions are very welcome!
- Purchase sustainable, environmentally friendly products whereever possible – in all areas, not just food and wine.
- Publicise our environmental position in our shop and on the website .
- Train our team to follow good environmental practice and encourage them to get involved in environmental action.
- Continually assess the environmental impact of all our operations through monitoring our energy consumption.
We will review our Environmental Policy at the beginning of 2010 when we hope to have met all the targets described above - as well as having a list of brand new ones! We will then publish the results on our website, so please log on to have a look.