here’s a question for you...

Do you think the following item is:

a) A tool for working out where we get our fruit from
b) A really fancy cheese plate
c) The Barclays Green Leaders in Business Award trophy

Yep, it’s C (we know the silver plate at the bottom gave it away).

This week has been a great week - not only did the sun shine for about 15 minutes on Wednesday, but we also won a Barclays Green Leaders In Business Award. The awards were designed for British businesses to demonstrate how they are addressing the global environmental challenges we all face through the use of new processes, technology, products and services.

We really liked the philosophy behind these awards as it was about proving that sustainability and being a successful, competitive business can go hand in hand. Becoming a sustainable business is something that we passionately believe in and all of us are committed to delivering our sustainability goals.

We know that there isn't always a perfect solution but there is definitely always a better one and we’re not afraid to work hard to achieve our goals. As the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed – keep trying until you do. It's been a really busy year on sustainability for us so far. We've been working on:

Getting our pineapples from Rainforest Alliance certified farms - The first pineapple farms in Latin America were certified at the end of 2007, and we took the first delivery of certified pineapple earlier this year.

Rolling out our own set of minimum standards for sustainability with our suppliers which cover all relevant social and environmental issues.

Introducing a brand new label for our bottles made from 25% recycled paper and 75% paper from forests that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Reducing the amount of paper used in our kids’ wedges and 1L carton by 10%.

Introducing key performance indicators for all our production, packaging and logistics suppliers to drive forward continuous improvements in the areas of energy, water and waste.

Whilst we’re immensely proud of the work we’ve achieved so far, we know we have a long way to go, and the journey never really ends.

Sustainability is always a process of constant improvement to ensure that we are running the business in the best way possible and that we make the most responsible choices as we grow. Every day we are looking for new ways to become a more sustainable business and encouraging our suppliers to do the same. Our plans going forward are to make the step change from ‘greening’ our current business model to what we are calling ‘advanced sustainability’ (until we think of a catchier term). Basically, we want to challenge everything about our business to make sure we’re doing everything that bit better.

In terms of this award, we were up against some pretty tough competition so we are extremely chuffed that we won. A big thanks to the judging panel for picking us as a winner, to our suppliers for working towards our sustainability goals with us, and to everyone who works at innocent for doing their little bit.

Right, where's the cheese?

Comments

[Rika]

Wow, congrats!!! I'll be celebrating with a nice smoothie!!!