Sustainability at Indie HQ: First Steps

In the last quarter of 2019, we were joined in the office by our wonderful Indie Intern, Anna. As well as being a cracking addition to the team, she’s also very environmentally minded, and she soon set about improving the way we do things here at Indie Bay with a focus on sustainability.

Here’s a cheeky blog post from her, telling you what she’s been up to!


With the climate in a state of crisis, here at Indie Bay HQ we have made some changes behind the scenes in a bid to do our bit. From the outset, we would like to make it clear that we know that we are not perfect, but we are trying, and while we are learning and improving we would like to keep our Indies in the loop.

Materials:

We have made some changes to our send-out packaging. The vast majority of it is now recyclable or compostable. We bade farewell to plastic packing tape and are now using fully recyclable tape with a natural rubber based gum. Our old glossy stickers have been replaced by some altogether more sophisticated matte versions which are completely recyclable. It’s a good start… but that’s not all!

Image of Indie Bay packaging showing use of paper tape, recyclable stickers, and recycled label paper, improving sustainability

Food and Drink:

Rather than getting weekly Ocado food deliveries, we have signed up to Oddbox’s fruit delivery. There’s two big upsides to this:

1.We get to enjoy our fruit knowing that is has been saved from the bin.

2.We are entertained by the various shapes and sizes that get sent our way, as shown below…

employee demonstrating variation in size of produce from Oddbox, a fruit delivery service that focusses on sustainability

Annabel (smiling, wonky-apples-in-hand above) has said “goodbye” to her beloved bottled sparkling water and “hello” to a fancy schmancy Sodastream. Not only has it received a good review from Annabel, it uses recyclable gas cartridges to do its fizzing. We have also switched to fully recyclable coffee pods from our friends at Cru Kafe, and have sorted out a new food waste bin for the kitchen. That means no more banana peels being sent to landfill.

 

Utilities:

We’ve even gone as far as switching our energy supplier. We now enjoy our office lighting and PC power courtesy of Bulb energy.  As well as energy providers we’re changing our bank, as it turns out not all banks are as well behaved as they could be…

 

So, we have started taking lots of small steps towards becoming a more sustainable business, but know we have a long way to go. If you have any suggestions or feedback please do send them our way!