Sustainability at Four Seasons means doing our best to implement improvements that makes our business more sustainable.
We’ve done this by making a few simple improvements over the years, like minimising our waste and reusing or recycling as much as we can. Subsequently, this has allowed us to look at other, less obvious avenues – for example, our fleet, our energy use and how we structure our deliveries.
It’s a constant process of evaluating and re-evaluating our procedures and practices to make them as efficient as possible.
Here’s just a snapshot of some of the areas we’ve made improvements in our quest to be more sustainable.
Local and seasonal produce
We buy as much seasonal fruit and vegetables from local farms and UK suppliers as possible, and why wouldn’t we with the fantastic variety of British produce on offer!
By doing so, we not only minimise our transportation and storage costs, but we’re able to deliver the freshest items of the highest quality to our customers.
Sadly, not everything can be grown or sourced from the UK. Where we do need to import goods, we always explore the most sustainable ways to access them.
Reduction of Food Waste
All fresh produce naturally has a shelf-life, and from time to time we’re left with some that is past its best. When this does happen, it’s always offered to our staff or sent to other local businesses or services that may have a use for it.
Reduction of food packaging and waste
Over the years we have significantly reduced the amount of packaging that we receive. We’ve done this by working closely with our suppliers and choosing those whose consistent improvement towards a more sustainable industry aligns with ours.
And so, wherever possible we ask for our deliveries to be unpackaged.
This can’t always be achieved, and some packaging is necessary to protect certain food items as they make their way from the farm, or production line, into our business.
One example of this is bananas: they are picked when they are green and should ideally be kept at a temperature of 13-15°C degrees for shipping. If it’s cooler than that, they will quickly become rotten.
Before we add them to our shelves, they are placed in an air-tight ripening bag filled with ethylene gas. This sealed plastic bag acts as a barrier to keep out oxygen and delay ripening, until they are ready to be sold.
A few years ago we also heavily invested in our very own reusable, biodegradable and recyclable cardboard boxes to deliver our products to our customers. Our customers simply leave them for collection when we’re making our next delivery, meaning we can use them multiple times before eventually recycling them.
We also reuse any cardboard boxes from suppliers, and when these have come to the end of their life, they are crushed and sent to be recycled again.
Finally, we work closely with Hills Environmental Waste to ensure that we avoid as much as we can from going into landfill.
Reduction of paper usage
We are always refining our processes to ensure that we are as paper-free as possible, however where we do need to print we use paper from sustainable manufacturers and printers that match our sustainability criteria.
Fuel-efficient vehicles
All our vans are Euro 6 compliant and less than two years old. We also regularly service and maintain our fleet to ensure that they are as economical as possible.
Rain Water
We use rain water on site from a local well and this supplies all of our water.
LED Lights
All our lighting has been upgraded to more efficient LED lighting.
Fridge Monitoring
Our fridges are monitored 24 hours a day to ensure that they are delivering maximum efficiency.
Organising routes to minimise distances driven.
Our logistics team works with route planning software to carefully plan our daily drops to maximise efficiency and minimise our fuel miles.
We also incorporate picking up as much as possible on route back to the depot – this limits the number of deliveries we receive from suppliers and reduces our carbon footprint.
Sustainability is about living and doing business within the means of the natural world.
At Four Seasons Fruiterers, this isn’t something we’ve added in as we’ve grown – sustainability is something that has remained at the heart of what we do since the day we opened our doors.
