Celebrating our B Corp birthday

Today, 23rd August 2024, marks our first B Corp birthday! One year ago today we achieved B Corp Certification, demonstrating high standards of social and environmental performance and joining a community of like-minded organisations using business as a force for good.

The journey to B Corp status was intense, with our team working together over a period of five years to achieve the certification. We were thrilled to achieve a high score of 95.4 and the process inspired us to do more.

In the past year, we’ve concentrated our efforts on making real, tangible change. Here are some of our highlights:
(Head here to read our latest impact report in full.)

Waste:

• Through education and improving recycling processes, we’ve diverted 52.1% of our waste from landfill.
• We’ve reduced food waste by 31%. We’ve also installed a new composting system and wormery, allowing us to compost 50% of our food waste on site and transform it into high grade compost for our soils. By composting on site, we’ve saved a whopping 400+kg of carbon emissions.
  
  

Energy:

• Across our sites, we’ve decreased electric use by 29%.
• In total, 26.8% of our energy used is generated by our solar panels.
• We’ve reduced fuel use for our biomass boiler by 20% since 2019 and trained our team on the most efficient use of the wood-burners, resulting in fewer logs used from our own managed woodland.

   

Water:

• We’ve reduced water usage by 32%.
• This one is super exciting – we’ve installed a new WETsystem. Our ecological wastewater system processes all the wastewater from our restaurant, shop and accommodation, purifying it into clean water we can use for our fields.
  
  

Environment & Ecology:

• Our WETsystem is processing up to 10m3 of water a day and making significant improvements to biodiversity, with sightings of linnets, young swallows and multiple different species of dragonfly and other insects already spotted.
• We’re certified Organic by Soil Association and Pasture for Life.
• We use an adaptive grazing method for all livestock on farm. Sometimes called ‘mob grazing’, this process of frequently moving the animals stimulates plant growth and benefits soil and animal health.
• We’ve achieved 90% self-sufficiency in pasture raised beef and goats for our restaurant.

People & Community:

• Our team spent a total of 157 hours of volunteering in the community.
• A total of £35895.82 was given in charitable donations including both financial donations and in-kind donations of garlic and other products
• We’ve prioritised local, B Corp and ethical products in our shop and restaurant.
• We’re a certified Living Wage Foundation employer, and we monitor our team’s financial wellbeing with an annual survey.

So, what’s next?

• We have begun a process to transition our product range and restaurant to match the organics status of our farming.
• Measure, measure, then measure some more. We’ll continue to assess everything we can - from our carbon footprint, biodiversity and soil health, to our team’s wellbeing.
• We’ll keep learning. We’ll keep looking to other B Corps and the organic farming community for inspiration and education.

We are on a never-ending journey, but it’s worthwhile. By acting with purpose, we’re aiming to positively impact the wellbeing of people and the planet.  To read our full Impact Report, head [here].