When we started Local Box, we laid out some sustainability goals to make sure we kept environmental responsibility as a core focus in the business. We reviewed it after 3 months and then again at 9 months (January 2021).
It’s now 11 months since we started Local Box so what did we say; what have we done over that time; and what have we learned?
Reusable Packaging
We’re still really happy with our own boxes, freezer packs and cool bags that allow us to get everything to you without adding waste. They are all easy to clean, durable and stackable, which allows us to use a smaller vehicle for deliveries. We have around 130 boxes now in circulation and we have done nearly 1500 deliveries. That’s a big saving on single use cardboard boxes.
We’ve also trialled Return & Refills with our Morning Glory Co. granola. This has been a good test that needs some tuning (like how to manage it when someone sends granola as a gift) but we are confident that we can add in more products using reusable packaging when space allows. We want to make it as hassle free and easy as possible for customers and it’s something we’re very keen to offer.
What we’ve learned
There is a long chain of food packaging and even if it’s possible to get it to the customer in low waste packaging, there are a lot of packaging stages before that are unseen by the customer.
When we can find ways to reduce this we ask suppliers to adapt where possible. Many food producers would like to package their food differently in order to reduce waste and are very aware of waste. However, food safety standards do not have up to date guidance and information on how this can be done and therefore more sustainable packaging options are often not adopted. There needs to be more information and understanding at all levels to make sure that reusable packaging can be done correctly.
Single use plastics
Lots of businesses are innovating in this space and we are watching and discussing with different businesses, both here and in other countries, about how they are doing this. It’s an exciting time with lots of potential. It will require trial & testing with customers who are willing to try things out and feed back to businesses in order to refine what alternatives can be offered. We would like to do more around this, again with our Return & Refill packaging.
What we’ve learned:
There can be a trade off between shelf life and low waste food packaging. Plastic is used because it’s cheap, light, easy to mould, hygienic and because it keeps food airtight thereby prolonging its life. Customers have become used to longer shelf lives and products being very fresh when they are bought. It’s a big challenge for the food industry moving forward. How to reduce food waste and reduce plastic use at the same time.
Subscription service
We started Local Box with more of a subscription model in mind but customers quickly told us they wanted more flexibility. We’re still able to manage that flexible ordering and keeping food waste really low. We order fresh food based on our weekly customer orders which keeps waste low. When stock items do approach their use by date, we put them on offer in good time so that customers can buy them without having to eat a whole block of cheese in 2 days. Occasionally, any left over items that can’t be used up (usually eggs or yoghurt because they are bought in fixed-size cases) are taken to The Larder food bank in East Belfast.
Delivery zones
We have kept our delivery zones compact and our delivery days limited. This helps us to concentrate the deliveries over a smaller area and not cover loads of miles. We are approaching a second delivery slot for Belfast as we are now very full on Saturday mornings. Our mileage for the last 11 months is still below 5000 miles. Justin and I do very little driving outside of Local Box deliveries so our annual mileage is low.
Electric Vehicle
When we were buying the van, we would have loved it to be electric. We’d been looking at electric vans since we started. Unfortunately we couldn’t see how we would be able to charge it as we don’t have a space close enough to the house to be able to do that. We would also be quite close to the mileage limit on long delivery days. We would love to operate with an electric van but we think there is still some work around their charging and mileage limitations that needs to happen before we can make it feasible.
We are still happy that our stackable boxes allow us to use a smaller vehicle and therefore be really efficient with the space. For 8 months we used the Hyundai i10!
Product range
We started with about 30 products in the shop. Over the course of the year we’ve had close to 300 products and we currently offer around 200 items.
Choosing which products to stock is not always easy. “Local”, “quality” and “sustainable” are all too vague as guiding concepts. We have developed a scoring system that helps us to decide if we should stock a product or not. We look at a whole range of factors including the production & origin of the product; the price and accessibility; the packaging; as well as how we can manage the product and, of course, what do our customers want to see in the shop.
Some of our best selling products came from customer suggestions and we implement ideas when we can. We are focused on products from Northern Ireland and Ireland but there are products customers would like to see, such as a greater range of organic products, that are much harder to source locally. This is definitely a work in progress for us as we learn from our customers and learn more about working with producers and sourcing food.
Crisp Packets
We get plenty of crisp packets back, around a third of what we sell, but we’d like to see this percentage increase. We’ll be working on customer communications to make these things better known.
What we’ve learned:
We’ve seen customers return other packaging items that they think we might recycle and so we see this return system has potential as we can serve to close the gap between customers and suppliers.
What’s Next?
Sustainability is a very loaded word. I said sustainability to one of our suppliers over the phone recently and he winced and explained that the word is so abused by big food producers and supermarkets that it has lost its meaning.
Thinking about and understanding sustainability, whether it’s in food, fashion, furniture or packaging, is often very difficult and can feel overwhelming. There’s a lot of different aspects to consider, a lot voices and facts out there and picking apart pieces of research is not easy. We have learned a lot over the last year by becoming a link in the food supply chain and being closer to the process.
We’ve decided to look closer at a few different aspects of sustainability and food over the next while. We aren’t the experts but we’d like to share a bit of what we’ve learned and open up the discussion. We’ll look at supermarket practices, food miles, what is organic food, food waste, food packaging and if you have questions or ideas then let us know!
We’ll also share a round up of the year next month so you can get a very honest look at Local Box.
