Following a hugely successful roundtable discussion held at Cafe Spice Namaste last April, we asked our readers whether they’d be interested in developing some of the themes further at the inaugural H&C EXPO.
The one prominent theme which emerged throughout our research was collaboration. The roundtable and our own surveys found that collaboration in the context of sustainability was a significant issue which required further attention and debate.
There were many calls from delegates for greater dialogue between suppliers and buyers so this quickly became a key focus for our roundtable discussion at H&C EXPO.
We spoke with Bharat Chudasama, commercial director and master taster of Hope & Glory Tea, one of our roundtable sponsors, to understand what sustainability means to his business.
What does sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability is at times described as ‘the ability to be maintained at a certain rate’ or ‘the avoidance of depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance’.
As responsible members of society – whether as individuals, a family, a company, brand or business – we try our very best to live and abide by this principal of sustainability in all we do. At home, Nina and I take recycling and waste management seriously. Almost 80-90% of our produce is recycled in some way or other.
The same principle holds for our business. For instance, our packing partner in Sri Lanka is the only packing facility in the country to have a zero (0) carbon footprint. They are accredited by the Soil Association, Control Union (EU Organic), Fairtrade and the Ethical Tea Partnership. They understand the need to be a socially and environmentally responsible company, especially with such a natural product as tea.
In addition, we minimise our own carbon footprint by using sea freight where possible.
We have also ensured that our new packaging range will be at least 98% (in most cases 100%) recyclable and/or or biodegradable. We understand that our business partners are looking for tea partners that share the same social and environmental principles as they and their customers do.
Moreover, we follow through on this ethos and responsibility in relation to our distribution channels. Over 95% of our distribution is direct to customers whereby we can streamline delivery schedules, and utilise eco-friendly vehicles to undertake deliveries. This way, we reduce our carbon footprint further.
Why is sustainability important to you?
We all have a massive role to play, whether it is to protect the environment in which we all live, or the ecosystem for living organisms. In the business sense, we want to create a brand that tea-lovers everywhere can believe in and reflects our values. Sustainability also underpins our business model. We want to ensure Hope & Glory is sustainable for the long term and that our brand of great, premium, speciality tea – organic, Fairtrade and ethical –can be enjoyed by many generations to come.
But the most important reason is our children. We have three young children and we want to do all we can in our own small way as parents and as a business to ensure we protect the world in which they will grow up. And we also want them to be able to look after, experience and appreciate the world we live in with all its natural wonders. But this will only be possible if every generation takes its responsibilities to our planet seriously.
What would you like to achieve at the roundtable?
Ultimately, we want businesses to understand that however big or small they are, this is a collective, global issue incumbent on all of us to do our part. We believe the sustainability agenda can be achieved if we all work together and our belief is that our collective impact can be greater than the sum of our individual efforts. We have to work and support each other.
None of this is easy. The solutions are not there for every industry and the economics are not sustainable everywhere. We need to align ourselves in the first instance with issues where we can make quick but lasting wins. Those that need wider engagement and possibly lobbying and support from Government and wider national groups will follow. We may even find that they will look to us for solutions.
We must have an open debate on how we can all work together to create a sustainable environment – if businesses can look to their own sustainability promise, working with the right key partners can help them to achieve their own sustainability goals
Hopefully, we will be able to demonstrate to those in the round table that as far as the world of tea is concerned, Hope & Glory can offer the ‘hope’ needed in terms of sustainability. We want to be seen as the sustainable tea brand for tea lovers everywhere and by partnering with us, our business partners/clients will achieve their sustainability and wider business goals. We can be significant part of the sustainability agenda for the wider tea market and become the go-to Sustainable Tea Partner. They can be proud to serve ‘Hope & Glory’ within their businesses and brands. This is a big reason why we are so proud to be working with people like Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala and their Mr Todiwala’s brand. We share a vision to create responsible businesses devoted to sustainability that consumers and we ourselves can be proud of.
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