Green Statement

The Bread Factory is committed to reducing its impact on the environment. We accomplish this by looking at smart ways to reduce our waste, improve our energy efficiency and increase the percentage of waste we recycle. 

We believe that these efforts can be good for both the environment and our business. We do not see a trade-off here, but rather an opportunity to gain two sets of benefits with one action.

As a check on our own efforts, we have invited both the Environment Agency and the Carbon Trust to audit us and to help us to identify opportunities to reduce our environmental impact.  We have recieved a passing grade E by the Environmental Safety Organisation.

What have we done and what are we doing today?

1. Reducing Waste

Our production approach (make-to-order) reduces daily wastage to <0.1%

Cardboard boxes (baking trays) are reused where possible, saving around 30 boxes per day

We have a dedicated 3-man 'Goods In' team to monitor inventories and minimise waste of perishables

We have recently installed a new energy efficient heating system

2. Improving Energy Efficiency

We have invested in a GPS tracking system to monitor and optimise van routes

We keep the average age of our van fleet under 5 years old

We have a policy to turn off all computer screens and lights in the office when not being used

We operate new highly efficient gas and electric ovens – no oven is over 4 years old

We operate battery-powered vehicles for our Goods-In

We have partnered with five companies to minimise our miles travelled

3. Recycling

We have a compactor for all cardboard and paper products - we then store and sell our bundles

We switched from olive oil cans to recyclable vats

We recycle pallets back to our producers

We switched to reusable delivery boxes, where possible

What is our plan for the year?

We plan to have the Carbon Trust evaluate our energy use

Our annual review of packaging aims to reduce usage by a further 10% relative to sales

We are evaluating an investment in a tool called the PowerPerfector, which reduces energy usage

We are evaluating our flour usage to identify ways to reduce wastage by an additional 5% through better work practices

We intend to again meet the demands of the BRC in terms of waste disposal and tight management of chemicals