Five stars for green Boston Spa businesses

The the first five stars for Sustainable Local Business Award programme have been awarded to The Crown and the Pudding Lab after the scheme was launched by Boston Spa, Wetherby and Village Community Green Group.

Co-founder Penny Stables said: “I am delighted to be able to recognise these local businesses as striving to protect their local environment and help mitigate the impact on climate change.

“It’s great to see that these businesses now offer free water refills, don’t use polystyrene and many other oil-based single use plastics and are actively engaged in reducing both plastic as well as food waste.

“There’s still more to do, with a community wide waste management saving initiative and closing the loop on food waste and compostable packaging too, to ultimately achieve Plastic Free Community Status, but we are excited to be able to recognise the efforts these businesses have already made”

Local businesses participating in the Sustainable Local Business Award programme, are being recognised for engaging in various initiatives, such as joining the refill.org and Too Good to Go schemes.

Penny added that they can also benefit from potentially reducing their waste management costs by up to 30 per cent with an initiative the Community Green Group is working hard on with local family business Forge Recycling and local composter The Maltings.

“There are obvious benefits to the environment too, with less waste going to landfill or incineration and more to circular economy activities,” added Penny.

“And there’s the benefit of engaging more customers to support local businesses that are involved in the initiative too.”

Kian Lian and Ashley Close, co-founders of the Pudding Lab are ‘excited to be part of such a community idea.

“Not only are we helping to reduce waste through the initiative, we can also better manage our own packaging and food waste, to support a transition to a more circular economy,” they stated.

“Businesses can also benefit from lower waste management costs and the community now knows which businesses are actively trying to reduce unnecessary single use plastics, reduce food waste and encourage reuse and refill.”

Chris Impett, General Manager at The Crown, added: “It’s good to be part of a local community effort such as this.

“We have worked hard to reduce the waste, created by the business and now recycle the majority, along with closing the loop on food waste too, at a local composter, turning food waste into soil nutrients, which obviously help to improve soil quality for growing food.

“We’ve also benefited from reducing our waste management costs by 30 per cent, with less going to general waste, which is great for the environment too.”

Other businesses getting involved in the scheme - supported by Wetherby ward councillors Linda Richards, Norma Harrington, Wetherby Town Council and Boston Spa Parish Council - will display a poster.