Sustainability

We aim to be as sustainable as possible, reducing packaging and food waste learning as we go! 

We will continue to  seek ways to be more sustainable in every part of our business. 

Here are some initiatives we have undertaken and others we aim to do!

Shopping local

  • Imbibe Coffee Roasters, locally roasted coffee in Dublin 8. Our supplier values sustainability and supports projects in areas where they source their coffee by donating a portion of their takings each year. They look after staff paying above market rates and  operating a profit sharing scheme. Their coffee is delivered in reusable large containers.
  • Bretzel bakery. A local bakery, based in Dublin 2.  They supply all our sandwich breads!
  • Fairfield Farm Milk in Enniscorthy. Milk direct from the farm, pasteurised but not homogenised, making it more nutritious and tastier.
  • Foodcloud. We purchase apple and carrot juice from Food Cloud, based in Tallaght. They turn fruit that would have been discarded into delicious juice.
  • Other suppliers. We buy only Irish meat, Irish free range eggs, Irish cheeses and butter. We seek to purchase items with low air miles.
  • Past changes – we stopped the use of tinned Tuna because of overfishing. We will continue to make changes as we learn of industry practices that do not align with our values.

 

Fair Field farms milk bottle with a flat white coffee in a yellow cup

Food Waste

  • Use full vegetables for soups, reducing waste. 
  • Our food waste is segregated for compost collection.
  • Bread scraps, and heels used to make stuffing used in sandwiches. 
  • Used coffee grinds, offered to customers for use in gardening
  • Too Good To Go app. Leftover pastries or sandwiches sold at low price in surprise bags. 
  • Short date milks, used for baking. 

Packaging

  • Our takeaway cups, lids, straws, cutlery, napkins, sandwich paper and bags are all biodegradable and recyclable. 
  • Our catering trays are made from pulp and are biodegradable, the lids are recyclable. 
  • We don’t buy drinks with plastic bottles. We opt for glass or aluminium cans as both are more widely and easier to recycle. 
  • We return disposed cans in the return scheme. 
  • Keep cup discounts for customers who bring their own cups. 
  • Trial running Share Club, a keep cup scheme where customers have access to free keep cups.
  • All recycling is sent away dry and clean.

Staff Sustainability and Inclusion

  • We share our time and skills with  people on placement who may be distanced from work, or with learning difficulties from organisations such as Ability, who work with people with autism. 
  • Provide training and regular staff training evenings, to encourage, get feedback and check in with everyone. 
  • We have a profit sharing scheme for all staff who have been with us for one year. We increase the amount depending on how long staff have worked with us. 
  • We aim to retain our staff where we can, allowing change of roles into other areas. 25% of our staff have been with us for 5-10 years. We also get a lot of seasonal part time staff, but we have had many come back to us yearly. 
  • Provide a lot of training opportunities in collaboration with the National Learning network, Tus, Transition year students. 
  • We also work a lot with organisations such as Twinn, providing work placements for European Language students to improve their english. 
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Community

  • We share our space with local and inner city  community groups and we build relationships with our regular customers, business neighbours and suppliers.
  • A local community farming group uses our outside space  every week distribute their produce to local residents.

Energy

  • Dishwasher turned on when needed in the morning, and not before. 
  • Hot water turned off in the afternoon, a few hours before closing so as to reduce overconsumption. 
  • Kitchen fans kept on low overnight, only during the summer, as it keeps fridges and freezers cooler. 
  • Café fans/ heaters turned on only when needed. 
  • Empty and switch off display fridges when we no longer need them both. We turn the large one off every afternoon.
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Equipment

  • We always opt to repair and fix over buying brand new. We try to make our equipment last as long as possible. 
  • When we have breakages, we look for parts, not brand new! We have a broken equipment graveyard and keep spare and old parts, to repair anything that breaks down!

You can learn more about social enterprises in Ireland here: https://www.socent.ie