A Gloucestershire-based ready meal brand has announced a new tree-planting partnership with a Cotswold reforestation project in a bid to achieve carbon neutral status.
The Wild Hare Group, whose range of sustainably sourced products are stocked by department store Selfridges and food delivery app Weezy, has said it will plant 100 trees to offset its carbon footprint to date.
The business, based in the Cotswold village of Aldsworth near Burford, has been calculating the output of emissions across its production using technology developed by climate-tech platform Reewild.
Using procurement data taken since its formation, the company analysed each of its products, calculating the weight and origin of all ingredients, product packaging and adding 20% for any possible emissions overage.
The Wild Hare, which was founded by Dominie Fearn to produce healthier ready-meals for customers with busy schedules, said it would look to plant an average of six trees for every 2,000 units it sells to maintain carbon neutrality.
It added that it will display information around its carbon output in the Reewild app, which will be fully traceable for its customers to access and track.
Ms Fearn, said: “Carbon neutrality is a huge milestone for Wild Hare and it’s something that underlines our dedication to sustainability, while effectively being a by-product of our main goal – that of achieving genuine net zero.
“We work with some incredible regenerative farmers who share our passion for the environment, and it’s in large part thanks to them that carbon neutrality is an attainable aim at this stage.
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“While reaching net zero is a much larger task, we’re very much on the right path and are more than up to the challenge.”
Ms Fearn said the company, whose range of meals has been developed in partnership with Michelin-starred chef Anthony Robinson, had already embraced low carbon processes and said achieving carbon neutrality would be a “much more significant undertaking” for other food producers.
She said despite this, she firmly believed taking steps towards carbon neutrality was “worth doing”, with a range of climatic issues in the food industry set to be discussed by world leaders at the UN Climate Change summit in Glasgow, which begins on October 31.
Ms Fearn said: “I am very optimistic about the upcoming climate summit. There has never been a more important time for collective action in the food industry and I hope the event will encourage an era of ‘doing’ not just ‘promising’.
“We are running out of time in the battle against climate change and a holistic approach is the only way significant progress will be achieved .”
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