We love and respect the environment

I just received an email from The Drink Business, an industry publication, announcing the launch of the Green Award and for a few seconds I got excited, what a better occasion to shout and show our commitment to be environmentally friendly; unfortunately the excitement only lasted a few seconds, the time necessary to click on the link and check the entry fee, a staggering £179+Vat. We will not enter the award but will use the money we would have spent in becoming even greener.

When we started, in 2003, we were one of the first in the UK to import from small, independent producers. One of the reasons behind our choice was that small producers and artisans respect the environment. A few years later, many others came along and if you have been reading my blog, you remember the Goliath vs David fight I had with Naked Wines. Twenty years later, we are still importing from small, independent producers, with our range 90% certified organic and the remaining 10% “uncertified” because the certification costs money and not all producers can afford it, whilst our food is made from artisans, using only the best natural ingredients.

Then, in 2019 we discovered that Selfridges banned Palm Oil from their own range on the wake of the reports showing that forest was being destroyed to make space for palm trees. On the other side, in almost 20 years, we never imported a single product containing palm oil, our artisan producers just don’t use it. We are proud of our principles and ethic and the above episodes make you even prouder. We may be a bunch of romantics, but we believe in what we do and we put our faces behind every single product we import and sell, we do not sell commodity, we sell food, food that feed our bodies and brains.

Then a few years ago we went one step further. We are a small business and every penny count, but we decided to use whenever possible recycled cardboard for all our boxes and packaging and recycled paper for our marketing material. So, when I saw the email, I thought the award was open to all businesses in the push to make ours a more environmentally friendly industry, but I was wrong; it is another award created by the organizers to boost their revenues and it is a shame in a time where we all need to become greener.