We’re very pleased to announce that we are now Green Small Business certified. But what does it mean?

Well, we have written an Environmental Policy Mission Statement which states that:

We endeavour to:

• Incorporate environmental considerations into our business decisions.
• Continually improve and monitor our own environmental performance.
• Promote environmental awareness among our customers and suppliers.

All very well in theory but what about in practice?

All our packaging is recycled/recyclable/compostable. We also have a Bottle Return Scheme. Bring back your used Shed 1 bottles and we’ll give you 20p for big bottles and 10p small ones. We’ll also donate the same amount to charity via our Marmalade Fund.

Although a lot of our ingredients have a high carbon footprint (cinnamon doesn’t grow in Cumbria!) wherever we can, we source locally grown ingredients. For example, blackberries are foraged, apples are Heritage Apples grown in Ulverston, blackcurrants are grown down the road in Levens, chillies are produced by our friend in Carnforth.

We’re setting up the new distillery so we can recycle the cooling water (through a closed cooling system; therefore a minimum of water loss) used in the distilling process.
The printing companies we use are environmentally aware from being FSC certified to using 80% recycled material.
Kitchen paper and loo paper are made from bamboo by Who Gives A Crap, a brilliant company whose products are environmentally-friendly and who give 50% of their profits to help build toilets for those 2.3billion people who don’t have safe access to one.
Ecover & Method are our cleaning products of choice, and we’ve employed a waste disposal company in order to be have our waste recycled whenever possible.

We have also twinned the Shed loo with a latrine in Tanzania thanks to the Toilet Twinning initiative in association with Tear Fund.

We have joined the Recorked scheme and anyone can bring us their used corks and we’ll send them all off to be recycled.

The list goes on and we’re continuing to improve our environmental performance where possible and we are already researching options in order to make this happen. For example, in 2020, once the distillery is all set up at the Old Calf Shed, customers will be able to bring back their empty bottles of Shed 1 Gin and have them refilled.

Watch this space!