Our Mission Statement
Our
mission is to promote and share a compassionate animal-friendly
lifestyle through great tasting, organic fairly traded vegan food
whilst maintaining a competitive edge in the street food scene by
creating innovative menus and marketing campaigns.
Equally
important is that we build and maintain a social, ethical,
sustainable and environmentally conscious relationship with our
customers, suppliers, partners, community and our planet.
The
Vegan Grindhouse Sustainability Policy
Sustainability
is important to our business and even forms part of our mission
statement.
“Our
mission is to promote and share a compassionate, animal-friendly
lifestyle through great tasting, organic, fairly traded vegan food
whilst maintaining a competitive edge in the street food scene by
creating innovative menus and marketing campaigns.
Equally
important is that we build and maintain a social, ethical,
sustainable and environmentally conscious relationship with our
customers, suppliers, partners, community and our planet.”
Sustainability,
to us, means having the least detrimental impact on our local and
global environment whilst being able to operate, develop and grow our
business in a competitive industry.
This
is what we are currently doing as a business:
-
All of the food and drink we source, create and sell is plant-based.
Meat is the single most resource intensive food on the planet. Our
land, water, ozone, habitat and air are all suffering horrifying
effects from meat and animal production. For example, meat production
requires 11.5 times as much land, 15.2 times as much water, 13 times
more fossil fuels, and 6 times as many biocides as soy production.*
-
All of the products we use in our business, for example cleaning
products, are vegan, eco-friendly and are not tested on animals. This
has less impact on the environment.
-
We locally source our ingredients, where possible, from other small
businesses which results in less
packaging, food miles and preservatives whilst supporting local
businesses.
-
Products which can not be locally sourced are sourced from ethically
sound suppliers such as Suma Coop. These companies have the objective
of creating and maintaining sustainable jobs and generating wealth,
to improve the quality of life of the worker-members, dignify human
work, allow workers' democratic self-management and promote community
and local development.
-
Where possible we buy ingredients which are organic and fairly
traded. This results in less chemicals in the food chain, environment
and ensures sustainability for the growers and producers.
-
All of our packaging is made from recycled materials and is either
biodegradable or recyclable. This results in less landfill.
-
Where possible we have recycled or upcycled items for our work
environment such as our griddle and boiler. This prevents
these items ending up in landfill and is less wasteful and less
harmful to the environment than producing these items from new.
-
During the production of our food items we ensure any recyclable
packaging is recycled in the appropriate manner and any
non-recyclable items are repurposed or disposed of responsibly.
-
When financially possible we donate a percentage of our profits to UK
based animal charities in order to be socially responsible and to
promote the work these organisations do and how it aligns with our
company ethos and our mission statement.
-
The majority of our trade is within our home county. This provides a
service to our local communities and reduces the environmental impact
caused by driving long distances.
-
A by-product of our work is the promotion and education about
veganism/vegetarianism which in turn promotes sustainability.
-
Our uniforms and promotional material use vegetable dyes and
organic/recycled materials which results in less harmful chemicals
entering the environment.
-
Most of our marketing is done through social media rather than print
media resulting in less physical waste and paper usage.
-
We donate any leftover food to local homeless charities/soup kitchens
to benefit community members and reduce wastage.
-
Where possible we ensure our suppliers also have environmental and
sustainability policies in line with our own. Where this is not
possible we aim to educate our partners about sustainable trading.
Future
Aims
-
We are developing relationships with local food growers in order to
be able to source ingredients from within our county in the future.
As
a business we will revisit and review this policy on an regular basis
with a goal of continuously improving our sustainability and
environmental impact.
*Data
from “Meat Production's Environmental Toll” - Toronto Vegetarian
Association