🛒 The Check-Out: Black Bee Honey
+ 5 cool NYCW events + what's in our basket - crackers, Boochcraft & tea...
Happy Thursday! Welcome to The Check-Out - your weekly dose of climate x consumer goods inspiration, and your discovery box of products and events the Following the Footprints team are loving this week. It’s great to have you here.
It’s a sweet sweet day when you find a brand that truly embodies a lot of the buzz-words that fly around - traceability, responsibility, sustainability. Ok, you guessed it, today we’re digging dipping into one of our favourite honey brands - Black Bee Honey. A great gift (you’re welcome dad!), we really love the meadow mission they’re on and how connected you feel to the worker bees behind the brand.
After Ruby has dug into Black Bee Honey, we’ll share what the Following the Footprints team has loved and consumed this week. We’ll also share 5 Climate x Consumer Goods events coming up at New York Climate Week - I’ll be in town, and would love to meet local brands, so say hi if that’s you.
Let’s dig in…
> Brand Spotlight
Brand Spotlight: Black Bee Honey
When you list sustainability buzz-words, traceability comes to mind. Especially important within the honey industry which has one of the most controversial foods and at risk from tampering, labour and environmental issues. Certified B Corp, Black Bee Honey has built a wildly British business and built traceability into their DNA.
Let’s check out three ways they are doing it…
1 - Building a truly british beekeeper collective
Black Bee Honey works with bee farmers from across Britain, many of which are solo or family beekeepers. Being part of the collective supports their communities, and means Black Bee can build strong and transparent supply chains too. What does this mean? 4 key things….
Short supply chains - Each pot of gold is single origin and traceable back to the flower. The name of each beekeeper and apiary location are even stamped on each jar, helping consumers choose honey local to them and their taste preferences.
Sourcing from areas with low inputs - From apiaries located in low or no pesticide use, in regenerative and organic farms and in national parks, the bees have visited plants in areas of low input, making the end product as natural as possible.
Healthy hives - Using natural remedies to prevent pests and disease, such as placing bay leaves between frames for wax moth, looking after the hives is aligned with Black Bee’s business ethos.
Minimal processing - The honey retains its microbial properties with little processing, filtering or pasteurising. The Total Activity (TA) score is measured for each batch and displayed on the lid. Activity over 10+ is considered to have high antimicrobial properties.
2 - They’re on a Meadow Mission
Putting nature first through committing 2% annual turnover to create wildflower meadows allows Black Bee Honey to directly support vital habitat for pollinators, and protect the environment that their bees live. Through their partnership with Plantlife UK, 20 acres of meadow has been planted so far, with the goal for 1000 acres by 2030.
Having calculated their product carbon footprints, Black Bee Honey further supports a circular economy model through offsetting their impact by supporting a forest protection project in Brazil. They even offer beekeeper training to build skills and mitigate hunger in the locations where the project takes place.
3 - Protecting more than one type of Worker Bee
Bees are productive and efficient. Driving this mentality through the team, Black Bee Honey have implemented a 6 hour working day to rival the 4 day working week and give a better work life balance. Proud to be a London Living Wage employer, they also place value on getting their team outside and trained as beekeepers.
Ensuring short and transparent supply chains strengthens resilience from external risks and shocks within sourcing. Reducing the gap between food production and the end consumer drives awareness for the social, environmental and economic issues that are hidden within more complex supply chains. Through storytelling, reconnecting with consumers who are are increasingly craving authenticity has never been easier than with supply chains that are short, simple and easy to understand. Black Bee Honey are perfect examples of how this can be done - we should all take a leaf out of their ethos.
Want to learn more about Black Bee Honey?
> In Our Basket
🔎 What we loved and consumed this week:
From Jenny in New York: I’m back with more snacks! While not boasting regeneratively farmed benefits like the Cheddies ingredient list, these pretzelized crackers are just really, really good. They’re baked until perfectly crunchy and salty enough for my (high) sodium preferences.
From Lexi in San Diego: I’ve been loving this San Diego-based bevvy, Boochcraft. Hard kombucha is a California staple and this B Corp sources fresh fruit from local farms to add flavor. My favorite quote from their impact report is “ZERO amount of coal burned, booches pasteurized, artificial flavors added, oil spilled, lobbyists paid off.” For those who can access it in the U.S., the Cherry Limeade is a 10/10.
From Laura in Manchester: Bird & Blend Tea Co hosted a Better Business Network networking breakfast last week in Oxford at the B Corp Festival. It’s good to know that if I’m hooked after one cup, I can always go to one of their stores for a refill!
> Monthly Events Roundup!
📆 [New York Climate Week Special] 5 Consumer Goods x Climate Events
Browse 20+ upcoming consumer x climate events, and submit yours.
22nd September - Sweet Earth Brunch Club: NYC Climate Week Edition
Organisers: Amrut Supper Club, Queer Brown Vegan, Sweet Fire Cafe & Studio, TiNDLE
Location: Brooklyn, US
23rd September - Restaurants and Farms are the Key Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Organisers: Food Tank, James Beard Foundation
Location: New York, US
23rd September - Discover How NYC’s Top Brands Address Sustainability Within Their Supply Chain at the Iconic Brooklyn Brewery
Organisers: OnePointFive
Location: Brooklyn, US
25th September - Bridging the Gap: Business and Community Partnerships for Climate Justice
Organisers: Forum for the Future
Location: New York, US
26th September - Forward Food & Fashion
Organisers: Columbia Climate School, Clim-Eat
Location: New York, US
That’s it for today!
Know a brand we should spotlight next? Let Leone know!
Have links that can make the team learn or laugh? Share them with us, we might just share them in The Check-Out next week.
Hungry for more? You’ll see us on Monday! That’s when we suit up and get serious, digging into a topic that is guaranteed to make you look smart at standup.
Much love,
Team FTF
 |
|
 | A guest post by
|