Clearspring's

Sustainability Policy

“We constantly work and play to convert one more acre back to Organic each day”

Introduction

We have been pioneers of natural, animal free and organically grown foods since 1993, because right from the beginning we have known what leading experts worldwide are now saying: the way to a sustainable and healthy future is through growing and eating foods that are kind to the planet.

Want to learn more? Read how 30 world-leading scientists have defined a healthy and sustainable diet.

READ MORE

Our

Core Values

PROVIDE

food for future generations

PROTECT

the eco-system and the world we live in

PROMOTE

traditional and sustainable foods with integrity

Our approach to sustainability focuses on three key areas:

1. Product Integrity / 2. People Care / 3. Planet Care

Clearspring Organic Japanese Tofu - Silken & Smooth

Product Integrity

Every Clearspring product is made with carefully chosen ingredients, minimally processed to lessen their environmental impact, and designed to contribute to healthy, plant-based diets.

Our brand promise is that it meets the following criteria:

  1. 100% Vegan as defined by the UK Vegan Society – the manufacture of the product and its ingredients must not involve or have involved the use of any animal product, by-product or derivative. The potential cross-contamination with animal derived products (including meat, eggs, milk, fish, crustaceans, molluscs and their derivatives) is effectively controlled during production, storage and in the raw materials.
  2. Certified organic, conforming to EU regulations and the UK Soil Association’s standards (with the exception of products that are out of scope and traditional Japanese foods that are not available organic).
  3. With a focus on using whole foods as our key ingredients
  4. Free from ingredients or materials derived from GMOs (including processing aids and packaging).
  5. Free from added refined sugars; specifically free from cane, beet and agave sugars.
  6. No palm oil.
  7. Free from refined salt (all organically certified products).
  8. Free from chemical additives including flavour enhancers, anti-caking agents, and colourings.
  9. Free from ingredients and materials known to be damaging to the local environment (flora and fauna), e.g. soya beans from primary rainforest areas.
  10. Grown and processed with respect to local communities and in compliance with international laws and conventions on human rights, working conditions and anti-corruption

People Care

Our Suppliers

We work with over 40+ suppliers from all over the world who have agreed to adhere to our core product criteria and values. Many are independently audited to high standards such as ISO14001 which encompass these. Moreover, by having a direct relationship with our suppliers and visiting them regularly, we know about their company ethos and operations well.

We regard building long and stable relationships with our suppliers as a key priority for delivering consistently high-quality products for our customers as well as ensuring we are trading fairly and ethically.

To this end, we choose our suppliers carefully, ensuring that they meet our core criteria (see above) and operate with integrity and respect towards their workers and supply chain. We are doing this by checking that they can commit to adopting the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact so that they meet fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

In turn, we promise to apply respect, fairness and transparency in all our transactions with them.

Our Community

By working closely with local distributors, we support the livelihood of our global customers’ communities.

We contribute to the wider community by aiding projects and events that are doing good. We donate products both directly and through our international distribution partners, including Dutch food banks. More locally in the UK, we give to our neighbours City Harvest, who distribute surplus food to those in need, east London based community cookery school Made in Hackney and the Vegan Society as well as many others.

In 2023-24 we donated the equivalent of just over 40,000 meals as part of our 30th anniversary campaign.

Our social media posts offer valuable information that empowers our audiences to adopt healthy, sustainable lifestyles.

Planet Care

We recognise that even as an ecologically conscious business supplying products that are promoting global sustainability, our operations have environmental impacts that need to be minimised. Below, we list our areas of focus.

Energy Use

Our head office uses 100% renewable electricity supplied by Octopus Energy. Furthermore, a major renovation in 2015 greatly improved energy efficiency through the installation of double glazing, sensor operated lighting and taps with instant hot water for beverages.

Transport

We transport our goods by ocean freight when they come from outside Europe and by road haulage within Europe, avoiding air freighting.

Online shop orders are delivered via Royal Mail and DHL, both delivery companies that are committed to greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with global efforts to mitigate climate change.

We support zero carbon staff commutes by taking part in the Cycle to Work Scheme, providing secure bicycle racks and EV charging.

We reduce business travel by having some of our sales agents resident in key international sales regions. We also do this by consolidating trips and reaching as many suppliers and customers as possible at key national and international trade shows.

Packaging

At Clearspring we care about good packaging. It is vital for food safety and quality preservation throughout the shelf-life of all our products, so they reach you in their best condition and do not go to waste. Its environmental impact should be as low as possible too. This is why we take the time and dedicate resources to continuously reviewing our packaging.

The good news is that the primary packaging material of over 70% of our products is already recyclable and quite a few of our ranges are zero waste. This means that none of it has to go to landfill (subject to the availability of recycling facilities which varies in every local authority and country).

As licensees of the Soil Association, we aligned with their membership to the UK Plastics Pact, which includes the clear target to make all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. We will not fully meet this goal, however, we are proud to have made significant upgrades to our best-selling product ranges between 2022 and 2024.

Organic Seaveg Crispies

The inner plastic tray has been removed from individual packs, saving over 4.5M trays, which is equivalent to 17.5 tonnes of plastic (based on 2023 annual sales). As a result of the smaller volume, the trade case is more compact and space efficient. Additionally, the multipack outer bag has also changed to a recyclable, paper-based material.

View Product

Organic Silken Tofu

The trade case is now 100% paper-based. The removal of the plastic sleeve from the previous shrink-wrapped tray format has resulted in the saving of over 1 tonne of plastic per year.

View Product
Clearspring Organic Japanese Silken Tofu
Clearspring Organic Japanese Yaemon Tamari Soya Sauce - Double Strength

Seasonings

We removed the plastic sleeve from the tops of our 250ml, 500ml and 1L seasonings which are packed for us in our Dutch warehouse. This means we have removed almost 100kg of plastic film from our packaging this year, whilst ensuring our products remain tamper proof and without impacting the safety or high quality of our seasonings.

View Product

We pay extra attention to our packaging design for new products, where possible avoiding the use of single use, non-recyclable plastic. Our brand-new Condiments range is in fully recyclable glass packaging.

Plastic free Online Shop

Online Shop - orders are packed 100% plastic free in fully recyclable and often recycled packaging. We have invested in a cardboard shredder which produces void filling, giving a second life to used cardboard cases.

Waste Management

Stock – we are continuously monitoring the efficiency of our stock management to ensure we avoid food waste. We donate short-dated products which we cannot sell to food banks and charities. Where disposal is inevitable, we use the services of a contractor specialising in food waste, which means that it is reused rather than going to landfill.

Office - We recycle most materials, working with First Mile, a zero waste to landfill contractor for materials that are not collected by the business estate services, e.g. kitchen waste.

We practise paperless invoicing saving on paper and postage and otherwise aim to minimise paper use.

If you would like a copy of Clearspring’s full Sustainability policy, please contact us.