Ethical Policy

 

Thinking globally, acting locally

We are a small shop in a small town in the North of England, but our ethos is informed by thinking big - about our planet and its future.

Transition town

Hebden Bridge is part of the Transition movement, a grassroots network of communities working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability. More info

Our ethical policy

We make decisions about the products and produce we stock in our shop based on the principal of 'thinking globally and acting locally'.

Certified organic produce

Most of the products in our shop are certified organic. Organic certification is supervised in the UK by 2 bodies:

Growers must comply with rigorous EU standards for organic produce. For a small grower, it costs about £500 to register plus an annual fee of around £500 and it can take several years to qualify.

Local producers

Local smallholders and farmers who grow using organic methods often cannot afford the certification process but we do stock their produce in our shop and we clearly label it as "grown by organic methods but not certified".

Ethical choices

We regularly review the products in our shop in the light of ethical considerations.

For example, successful organic brands are sometimes taken over by corporate multi-nationals, and the new owners do not necessarily share the ethical principles of their founders. We use the "Ethical Consumer Magazine's Product Guides" to help us make decisions about our stock. Two examples are shown below.

Green & Blacks

We are phasing out G&B chocolate in favour of more ethical brands like Montezuma. More information can be found here.

Ecover

Ethical Consumer rates BioD above Ecover by its ethical standards. To encourage our customers to change from Ecover to BioD products, we are currently offering new BioD washing-up liquid bottles for the price of a refill. More info

Packaging

  • We try to avoid over-packaged goods.

  • Our milk is supplied in re-usable bottles.

  • We use recycled paper and board for all our printed material.

Transportation

We try to keep this to a minimum by using local suppliers wherever possible.

All our veg box deliveries are made using our electric vehicle, so we are not adding to the pollution problem in the valley bottom.