Going green
Way back in 1970, when Kermit warbled ‘it’s not easy being green’, our favourite frog was encouraging us to be happy in our own skin.
A lot has changed since then – the world is awash with plastic, sea levels are creeping up, and we spend hours the night before the recycling day trying to work out exactly what plastic we can put in the recycling bin!
Today, the webbed ones words are used to describe an ever-present challenge: how do we live on this earth, run businesses, drive cars, build homes and so on and so on, without totally trashing the place?!
Ever since we started Blue Carrot Catering, we’ve taken on that challenge and looked for ways to build a successful and environmentally-friendly business.
Luckily, we’ve found more and more ways for us to do the work we love – creating great food – and do it in a way that leaves as small a carbon footprint as possible.
Here are 5 steps we’ve taken as part of our ongoing journey to be environmentally-friendly caterers!
Use sustainable packaging
Blue Carrot chefs create mouth-watering dishes for our customers. And to make sure all that gorgeous food arrives at its destination looking exactly like it did when it left our Petone kitchen, it needs to be packed carefully.
We deliver most of our catering on ceramic platters which we wash and reuse, wash and reuse, wash and reuse… you get the picture!
For our ever-popular lunch bags and individual platters, we use biodegradable packaging as much as possible. It’s all part of our effort to reduce what goes to landfill. And it’s not just our packaging that’s biodegradable – so is a lot of our cutlery!
Working Together
We’re getting our customers involved – on the back of our custom-made platters, we’ve written a story encouraging them to recycle and compost our platters rather than just throwing them away.
Get help – CoGo
Blue Carrot was the first Wellington catering company to join CoGo – an international organisation helping businesses take action on issues like climate change. We signed up with CoGo’s sustainability programme and gained accreditation badges for using:
• free-range products
• sustainable fish
• fair trade products
• eco-friendly packaging
• and New Zealand made products
It took a lot of work to gain these badges – and we have to keep the pedal-to-the-metal (of an electric car of course!) to keep them.
Sometimes, it can be overwhelming trying to work out how to take meaningful action to combat something enormous like climate change! If you run your own business and want to make a difference, I’d really recommend you check out what CoGo has to offer.
Reduce Waste
We’ve grown up in an increasingly ‘throw-away’ culture… you know what it’s like, if you’ve finished with something just chuck it in the bin, right!
We’ve been working to change that mindset and reduce the amount of waste we generate as a business – we think hard about what can be reused and recycled. And once you get into that reduce, reuse, recycle mindset, as a business or an individual, it’s amazing how empty those rubbish bins become!
Drive smart
We keep vehicle use to a minimum. Each day, before our vans head out to deliver catering all over the Wellington region, the routes are carefully planned so we use as few vehicles and the most fuel-efficient routes possible.
Running an environmentally-friendly business has its challenges – but it is possible and incredibly rewarding.
We are always looking for ways to do more – what do you do in your business to ‘go green’? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you.
See you next time,
Nicole xxx
PS This will make your heart swell – Over to the wonderful Kermit
