According to The Earth Trust, “Research suggests that the average wedding produces the same amount of CO2 emissions as five people would in an entire year.” That’s why we are a proud member of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance and why, by aiming to only use local, sustainable suppliers, we are committed to reducing the impact of weddings at The Orchard significantly, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2030.
From the beginning, we’ve always taken our sustainability seriously and in 2022 we became a member of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance, which has helped us discover even more about how we can reduce our impact. We’re very proud of everything we have achieved so far and so this year we decided to enter their annual awards and we are over the moon to have been shortlisted for the Sustainable Supply Chain Award.
But what does this actually mean?
The award is aimed at “enhancing sustainability in the supply chain. Recognising a business that is proactively updating their supply chain to ensure that they are working with like-minded, ethical and sustainable businesses.”
We have made and continue to make changes across our business to reduce our impact. From 2024 we are committed to limiting the distance suppliers travel to get to us by implementing a 60-mile radius limit, which we hope will significantly reduce CO2 emissions from vehicle exhausts. According to the Department for Transport, the average CO2 emissions for a UK car is 221.4 grams per mile x 60 x2 (return journey) that is a maximum of 26,568 grams of CO2 per supplier if the maximum mileage is travelled.
We champion local, sustainable suppliers, which is a positive way to reduce emissions and encourage our couples to use local businesses. We are always looking at ways of improving/developing our supply chain, for example, using one supplier to deliver most of our bar stock and one for hiring chairs/crockery/glassware. Also using local breweries/distillery whenever possible. Not to mention that the apple juice is made from the apples in the orchard – you can’t get more local than that!
We will be engaging with our suppliers and learning more about their sustainable processes and inviting them to participate in the Carbon Literacy Training to learn more about reducing emissions and being kinder to the planet, and we are excited about our new 2024 partnership with sustainable caterer The Cider Barn in Herefordshire.
An important part of our mission from 2024 onwards is to reduce the waste that goes to landfill. We will be offering a food waste collection to divert it from landfill to an anaerobic digester facility, which produces renewable energies as well as reducing carbon emissions.
Looking to our longer term goals, within the next five years we aim to install electric car charging points onsite, we are also investigating ‘greener’ sources of energy, we will work with other businesses within the sustainable community to promote sustainable practices and continue to promote sustainability to all our couples.
We are always learning and striving to be the best we can be. The awards take place on 1st February – keep your fingers crossed for us!