Planning ahead and implementing ways in which your business can be greener can save you money, increase value and USPs and can place you in the worthy, crucial and future-proof category of eco businesses.
With more people considering a business’s ethical footprint in their consumer choices, even that small adjustment can make a huge impact. Showing you are part of a global effort to care for the environment and the planet is highly attractive, especially when we are becoming more and more environmentally conscious.
For instance, research conducted in 2016 showed an estimation of around 540,000 vegans in Great Britain with numbers of vegans going up. With rising trends in meat-free and plant-based products, people are turning to the diet for a range of ethical reasons, from animal welfare, health and understanding their diet’s impact on CO2 levels.
Supermarkets, brands and small businesses are adapting with vegan cafés and diners sprouting up, big chains adding vegan menus to supermarkets including vegan ranges. One major step was Ben & Jerry’s (a global market leader) introducing vegan dairy-free ice-cream to its range.
Figures show that the number has jumped up from an estimate of 150,000 in 2006, and that twice as many women than men, are vegan. It is also expected that the UK vegan population will skyrocket by 327% by 2020. Taken from research by finder.com, around one percent of Brits are currently vegan (around 700,000). The poll results suggest that over the next year, 2.2 million people will adopt veganism, increasing the vegan population to around 2.9 million.
So this makes some very interesting insights when it comes to business planning and the high street, especially if dealing in food and hospitality. We have so many businesses on the market with us but it begs the question, how many are doing more to be greener? Are there any reacting and adapting to consumer habits and wants? With veganism on the rise, it’s certainly a key factor for many. With consumers caring more about their environmental impact as well as business owners, we’ve highlighted some eco businesses on the market with us.
Wildleaf
Wildleaf is a café/coffee shop, delicatessen, butchers, wine merchants and outside caterer that can provide a vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free lunch menu by request.
Wildleaf also makes an ideal stop off destination for cyclists and so can attract those wanting to reduce their carbon footprint.
Food Nude Deli
We have a fantastic zero waste shop on the market with us with Food Nude Deli with all stocked items being vegan.
The shop is a hugely popular and well-used, sustainable shopping and eco-friendly store, offering its customers the ability to buy their food and household items without the need for packaging and plastic as customers are encouraged to bring in their own containers to fill/refill or use paper bags they provide.
Paleo Supply Company London
Paleo Supply Company London is an exciting healthy-focused brand recently introduced to the new Wharf Kitchen. And even though this business has just recently had a sale agreed (within just 18 days of coming on the market with us), it’s worth shouting out.The company provide ethical, organic foods and cater to the ‘Paleo’, ‘Palaeolithic’ or ‘Cavemen’ diet (which promotes eating many of the foods presumed to have been available to humans during the Palaeolithic era) with foods from vegan soft serve, green juices, Paleo desserts to collagen protein shakes.
The brand is proud to be eco-friendly with all its cups and packaging used being environmentally friendly.
PlayKidds
This play centre offers a before and after school club and is a very inspiring one with a great story behind its creation.
It also has made efforts to be significantly greener by recently installing 40 solar panels. This will have a significant effect on energy bills in the future for potential buyers. In addition to this, the new heating is state-of-the-art infrared panels which are electrically powered. The panels have been chosen to ensure that children can play within the soft play centre without overheating, whilst other family members can benefit from the heating that warms objects, not the atmosphere.
All the lighting has now been replaced to LED and a recent energy bill showed a significant reduction in charges.
Vape MOB
With the rapid growing trend of vaping and e-cigarettes, it’s no surprise that this produces a better impact on the environment as even when cigarette butts are disposed of properly, the waste builds up in landfills, and the toxins in the butts can leach into the soil with an estimated 1.69 billion pounds of cigarette butts tossed each year. Not to mention the reduction in carbon monoxides in the atmosphere.
An estimated 600 million trees are cut down each year to produce cigarettes. Vape pens and e-liquid containers are all recyclable. Find out more about all the ways vaping is better for the environment here.
Vape MOB, like many other vape shops offer a variety of ergonomic, efficient e-cigarettes as well as a variety of innovative e-liquid flavours, all helping drive the trend. In turn, maintaining a significant environmental impact as more and more change their lifestyle for primarily personal health, not realising the great effect on the climate.
Norfolk Bells
When it comes to camping, people are getting in touch with the outdoors and nature. Not only that, you consume less water and electricity than at home and camping teaches us how independent we can be outdoors.
We use less energy overall with this eco-friendly hobby and are actively more conscious about looking after our environments, especially when it’s communal. Find out more about this business (currently under offer) here.
FASTrack Eco Mobile Valet
This fantastic valet business is unique in that no harsh chemicals are used in its steam cleaning process which produces an incredibly clean finish on both the inside and the outside of the vehicle.
The business owner has sourced a unique cleaning system which is completely environmentally friendly and requires no specific licenses to operate in the United Kingdom.
Sew in Brighton
Did you know that according to Ecowatch, the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world (the first being the oil industry) and 3.8 billion pounds of textile waste is being dumped into landfills every year.
We are so quick to chuck clothes away or just keep buying new, with new generations not having to rely on sewing. But due to the phenomenal success of the ‘Great British Sewing Bee’ on BBC 2, home sewing is becoming popular as people look to improve their domestic and creative skills. Sewing workshops and courses are available in many sewing shops to cater and this effort is a great thing for the environment to help reduce waste and encourage recycling and sustainability. Find out more about this business here.
Paul Birch Plant Hire
We take for granted the fact our roads and streets are taken care of with those careless to litter. Looking after the environment extends to our urban surroundings.
This brilliant business offers: site sweeps, road sweeping & cleaning, street cleaning and sewerage drain cleaning etc. Find out more about the business here.
Matcha Factory
Matcha is a kind of tea that uses the entire leaf, it offers health benefits and environmental advantages that other varieties of tea do not and a typical tea plant can live for a half-century or more, making it one of the most sustainable and environmental food crops in existence.
In comparison to other beverages, coffee reportedly takes 37 gallons of water to produce a single cup of coffee with coffee crops often using harmful pesticides and chemicals.
Matcha Factory is the UK’s leading supplier of Match Tea and Powdered Green Tea. The business works directly with organic and biodynamic farmers and producers in Japan, China and Taiwan to provide their customers with the best Matcha at the best prices.
With our #GoGreen pledge this month, it was a perfect time to highlight some of our eco businesses and give an insight into the ways in which businesses around us are contributing to a global effort to protect the environment. If you’re a business owner, what ways can you think of to be greener? Or maybe you’ve already made strides in being an eco-friendly business. How is your EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) rating? You need one to sell and we can arrange one for you! Call us on 01204 282 464 or fill in the form below.
Or if you’re wanting to sell a business, get a FREE valuation with us by filling in the form below or give our Valuations Team a call on 01204 282 464.
