Developing Sustainable Food Business

Ecostudio were recently awarded funding from Glasu to develop eco-action plans with a number of food businesses from Powys. The project was run as a competition and recieved over 50 entrants with 5 winning businesses selected to recieve a free sustainability review and mentoring from Ecostudio's team of award winning mentors.

The project is a first of its kind because it demonstrates how commercial advantage can be achieved by doing food business in sustainable ways - this is why we believe it gained significant coverage in the national media.

To find out more click here.
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The Guardian Newspaper featuring Ecostudio!

For several years now Ecostudio has worked with the True Taste Wales food and drink awards to develop and judge the Contribution to Sustainable Development award.

This was recently featured in G2 - a section of the Guardian Newspaper. Alongside several Welsh food businesses that are recognised for their work in making and selling sustainable food of the highest quality.

The work has broken new ground because it acknowledges the contemporary challenges facing the food industry today along with setting the standard for other businesses to follow.

But don't just take our word for it. Click here to read what an internationally renowned journalist for the Guardian reports.

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Sustainably speaking at the Hay Festival

Last month we were asked to present to delegates at the Hay on Earth seminars - an event which forms a central focus at the Hay Literary Festival. Organised by the Ecosapiens team 'Hay on Earth' has become a meeting place for who's who in sustainable development in Wales and we were of course delighted to be able to offer our support to this important event.

For the past 12 months or so we've been leading a pilot project called the Sustainable Supply Chains initiative. We've been developing a number of projects that are demonstrating how sustainability can work in commercial food supply chains, devising ways to measure progress towards sustainable business goals and creating ways for food and drink businesses to apply sustainable practices.

But don't just take our word for it click here to visit our partner site and listen to some of our clients speaking at the Hay festival.
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UK ethical products market worth £36bn!

A soon to be published report by the Co-operative Bank will show that the UK market for ethical products is valued at a cool £36bn. It also shows that the average household spending on ethical food and drink has increased from £81 to £244 over the last decade.

This is significant because as more consumers continue to recognise the benefits of purchasing environmentally sustainable and socially responsible goods it mean that smarter businesses will adapt their practices to meet this demand.

It's not all about Fair Trade. Large companies such as Tesco are also responding to meet this demand. This means that their suppliers will need to conform to new sustainability standards if they want to maintain this business.

Can your business afford to ignore this? If you have the will we have the way to help your business achieve sales in the ethical marketplace. What's more our sustainable business programmes will help equip you to embrace the challenges that the future holds.
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....and the winner is...

Last night the True Taste Wales food and drink Awards took place in Abergavenney Market Hall. It is THE event on the food and drink calendar in Wales.

The Sustainable Development award was presented to Kevan Downing, Hospitality Manager of Aberystwyth University.

We're absolutely delighted for Kevan and his team and we're looking forward to working with Kevan and the True Taste to continue to raise awareness of doing better business to the food and drink sector in the year ahead. Please check back for more updates.

Find out more here.

Ecostudio featured in the Observer Food Monthly!

Iain Cox (Ecostudio) was interviewed alongside Professor Tim Lang (Professor of Food Policy at City University London) by the Observer Food Monthly for an article titled: 'Wales leads the way to a sustainable future'.

The article describes the work that is being done to recognise Welsh businesses for their contribution to Sustainable Development. Ecostudio work in partnership with the True Taste Wales to deliver this groundbreaking award.

'Sustainability is about how the food economy works, how the supply chain works, its impact upon the material and biological environment on which the whole of humanity depends' says Professor Tim Lang.

Iain Cox explains what this means to businesses 'It's about making changes, doing business differently and it's about taking risk. It's about businesses being more innovative'

Click here to download the article in full.
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Doing business more sustainably brings huge opportunities for forward thinking food and drink companies

But don't just take our word for it!
Consider the current growth in demand for local food, the recent boom in organics. Then consider how businesses are responding to this new phenomenon: take a look at the Co-operative, Innocent Smoothies, Green & Blacks and some less well known (but equally forward thinking) companies, Ty Tanglwyst Dairy, Bacheldre Mill, The Knobbly Carrot Food Company.

What do all these businesses share?
An understanding that by placing environmental ethics and social responsibility at the heart of what they do (and clearly communicating these values) can generate good PR and more sales.

Thereby creating a more sustainable business. This is where Ecostudio can help.
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