Meet our Sustainable Champions of 2025

The scale of work to be done to make the food industry – let alone the world – a more sustainable space for years to come is daunting, but having spoken to a number of key players in this sector for this issue, the Speciality Food team has confidence that consumers are in safe hands.

There’s a raft of businesses in the fine food sphere which are passionate about making change, but at present this comes at a cost which not all are able or willing to pay – as is the case with consumers.
Ultimately, when it comes to the consumer’s understanding of sustainability, a lot of the understanding (or misunderstanding) is down to the true meaning of value.

A sustainably-produced bag of crisps may cost considerably more than a pay of a conventional bag you’d find on a supermarket shelf, but what is the true cost behind this ‘saving’ shoppers make by opting against the sustainable choice? That is the question that is all too difficult for many to answer, but which must be understood if we are to look to protect our people and planet for future generations.
The answer is complex, but from a fine food perspective – where conversations are frequently had around connecting shoppers with farmers and small-scale producers, and the stories behind their food, it is not hard to understand if we take the time to listen as it’s a language we are all familiar with.

Here you can learn about how valuable players in our industry are forging ahead to make a difference. From investing in new technologies and adapting their farming and production practices to educating consumers about how they too can become sustainable champions, there is plenty of hope to be found.
We also hear from industry experts who share vital intel, from challenges to opportunities, to help you make future-forward decisions as the year progresses.
You’ll find reams of vital information about how the fine food industry is evolving and shaping up for the better – and, I hope, feel inspired to take action in your own realm.
Here’s to a brighter shared future.

‘Look after the land like you’re going to farm forever’

Sustainability runs through the very core of Barfoots – which is renowned for preparing and delivering excellent quality sweetcorn and speciality vegetables, grown with care.

The business is always thinking one step ahead when it comes to its impact on the environment and natural world, and this sensitive approach has been recognised at the highest level, with founder Peter Barfoot awarded a CBE for his services to sustainable farming.

His mantra, right from the start, has always been ‘look after the land like you are going to farm forever’. This is something that rings true through every part of Barfoots, which is proud to be a LEAF ‘Beacon of Excellence’, and part of WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment to reduce waste, cut carbon emissions and protect water.

There are myriad ways in which the business mitigates its environmental impact. Firstly, across the business farming is delivered in a nature-positive way that encourages biodiversity and better soil health.

There’s a strong commitment to using water sustainably and effectively. Water treatment facilities convert all waste factory water into irrigation water for crops, and in 2024, reverse osmosis was added to this process, converting waste water into potable water.

On the energy front, an AD plant converts waste (such as sweetcorn husks) into electricity to power the entire factory and operations site, with surplus sold to the National Grid. Digestate from the process (rich in micronutrients), is turned back into the soil as a natural, homegrown fertiliser.

Additionally, last year Barfoots installed more than 5,000 solar panels at two sites, saving 399 tonnes of CO2 annually – the equivalent to planting 20,563 trees.

Another crucial part of the business is its model to reduce food waste, which remains a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In the UK alone £3.5 billion worth of food is thrown away by households, and a further £3 billion by hospitality and foodservice.

The unique Freshlock system helps tackle this problem, without compromising on taste. In fact, consumers surveyed agreed they preferred Barfoots sweetcorn to standard vac packed varieties, saying the flavour, texture and appearance were all superior.

‘We’re taking the opportunity to make big changes’

Cottage Delight
has made multiple positive strides in the last few years to build upon its sustainability credentials. While the brand already sold its products in 100% infinitely recyclable glass jars, with recyclable lids and recycled plastic front labels, it last year introduced a digital brochure to further reduce its reliance on printed materials, and the decision was made to replace its mop top and rubber band (worn by jars for 30 years) with printed lids. 

Although a change in look is a major shift for any brand, Cottage Delight felt it was a necessary step – one that in its first year prevented 4.8 tonnes of rubber bands from going to landfill in a 12-month period. 

Additionally, 22 tonnes of paper and packaging has been removed from processes annually, and there’s been a 30% decrease in virgin plastic usage. 

“I think there’s an onus on every brand and business to ensure they have sustainability plans,” says marketing director, Sarah Williams. 

Like so many others in the artisan sphere, Sarah says Cottage Delight is seeing growing interest from consumers around the environment. It really is impacting buying decisions – especially in food halls and farm shops. “These are the types of consumer who are probably more knowledgeable about food, and want to know more about what they’re buying, who produced it and how they produced it. They expect more from artisan brands. Being sustainable is an expectation.” 

As last year was the 50th anniversary of the brand, there are plans to build even further on its sustainable practices. “We want to celebrate what we’ve done, and where we’ve got to, but really, for us, it’s about looking forward to the next 50 years,” says Sarah. 

‘We hold ourselves to the highest organic standards’

The Doves Farm name is associated with goodness, from the ground up. Doves Farm is proud to have been a leader in the organic, free-from and artisan foods market for nearly 50 years.

It was founded in the late 70s by Michael and Claire Marriage, who felt incredibly strongly that better soil health, and farming without pesticides and insecticides, could contribute to better health for people.

They were some of the first farmers in the UK to convert their land to an organic system, and the fourth business licenced by the Soil Association.

To this day, Doves Farm continues to hold itself to the highest organic standards, while adopting regenerative practices such as crop rotation on its own farm, to break pest and disease cycles, while keeping the soil in tip top condition.

The brand also works with a network of trusted and traceable organic farmers across the UK and beyond – all of whom share their vision and passion for working towards creating a better planet.

Additionally, Doves Farm is proud to further support the sustainability of local communities as the owner of the Wessex Mill brand, which processes a variety of British flours, using grains from farmers working within 50 miles of the mill. Each bag is proudly stamped with the grain variety used, and the name of the farm it’s grown on.

Doves Farm also operates on around 70% renewable energy sources (including its own solar panels), and 99% of its packaging materials by weight are recyclable.

The Doves Farm range is constantly evolving, with more than 20 products available, appealing to a huge range of tastes and dietary requirements, from plain and strong white flours for home baking, to speciality varieties such as Wholemeal Buckwheat and White Spelt, Chickpea Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Coconut Flour, and the bestselling Oat Flour, alongside a range of organic cereals and biscuits.

The team say their goal is to “make organic an everyday choice, educating consumers about the benefits of organic to the planet and personal health”.

‘We aim to achieve Net Zero by 2050’

Consumers who love cheese are increasingly seeking out artisanal, speciality products in a bid to make more sustainable choices.

And this is something cheesemakers and producers are taking very seriously indeed. At the Emmi Group – renowned for delicious-tasting Swiss cheeses, including the Kaltbach range, which has stolen British hearts at the deli counter – a range of initiatives have been put in place, with a commitment to huge change by 2027, and achieving Net Zero by 2050.

These include the creation of an AOP ‘eco-cheese network’ (bringing solar power to farms and dairies producing AOP cheeses in a bid to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% within the next two years), targets to reduce water waste and water use, a move to reduce food waste by 50%, and for all packaging to be 100% recyclable.

These measures build on a business model that already seeks to be as sustainable as possible. Despite Emmi’s size and growth, it remains committed to working with small, generational family businesses – around 200 farms and village dairies – typically caring for just 20 to 60 animals.

Each of these, in turn, puts great emphasis on high animal welfare and making the finest cheeses, from the best, fresh milk.

These close relationships are in many ways the secret to the success of Emmi. A typical example is Bodenacherhof. Arnold’s 25-hectare farm looks after Fleckvieh and Red Holstein cows, all named (Panda is the family favourite), and grazed on Alpine pastures during the warmer months, or locally grown hay in winter. Sileage and GMO feed are strictly forbidden.

Around 60% of Arnold’s operation is powered by solar energy, and by sustainably grown wood from his own 12-hectare forest.

Emmi sees its moves as an investment in the future of food and farming, and in cheeses that bring the very essence of the land to the table.

‘Our commitment extends beyond farming practices’

Fairfields Farm makes thick-cut, skin-on potato crisps that also happen to be vegan, gluten free, carbon neutral, and with no major allergens - making sure there is something delicious in the range for everyone.

While the brand is celebrating another year of record growth at its potato farm and crisp factory, from their little and lovely corner of the UK, the team is obsessed with growing sustainably and going even beyond carbon neutral to Net Zero.

It’s easy to keep doing things the same way as they’ve been done for decades, but sometimes you need to make big changes to make big differences, plus more than a few leaps of faith.

A few years ago, Fairfields Farm put their plough in the shed and they haven’t taken it out again. That sounds small, but the impact is huge. Every single time soil is turned, greenhouse gases get released into the air. Today, when the team prepares the land for planting, they take care to use what they call “minimal till” techniques that minimise carbon release.

To help recapture some of that carbon, they use a green cover crop between harvests, which sucks carbon dioxide – and other good stuff like nitrogen – out of the air and into the ground, providing them with nutritious and natural ‘manure’ to be used during the next crop. They also use crop rotation to make sure that land gets a nice rest after growing potatoes – around seven years, in fact!

Other crops they grow include maize and rye, which feed the farm’s on-site anaerobic digestion plant, which produces clean energy and also has a marvellous byproduct called ‘digestate’, which they use to fertilise the soil.
 
Water is hugely important, too. Fairfields Farm has been busy building reservoirs and filling them in the winter, making sure they can be as self-sufficient as possible in those summer months when potato plants are particularly thirsty.

Of course, the commitment to sustainability extends beyond farming practices: Fairfields Farm maintains wild spaces for biodiversity, has created two brand new woodlands, engages with schools to promote farming, uses green energy including solar panels and even the cooking oil used to prepare the crisps is collected to be repurposed into biodiesel.

‘We want to empower our customers’

It’s the intention of luxury confectionery brand, Flower & White, to make life just that little bit sweeter for everyone – from its suppliers and staff, to consumers.

The business fully embraces sustainability at every stage of the process, from sourcing, to energy use and waste management in the factory, even through to the team sharing an electric-run company car.

Flower & White’s Imogen Smith says the business really, truly cares, adding that being sustainable is, “something we want to do for the planet, and to empower our customers”.

She continues, “As a brand you have a lot of power in how people think and feel. You’re not just selling a product, you’re selling a lifestyle. We have a responsibility to do the right thing. We have that culture within our team.”

The business is officially on its B Corp journey, and taking every measure it can to work in a planet positive way. For Flower & White, B Corp is more than just certification. “It’s a bold statement that underscores our dedication to balancing people and the planet with profit.”

Action so far includes the decision in 2020 to shift the dial within the on-the-go market, introducing recyclable paper packaging to the range of deliciously light meringue bars and bites. Additionally, the business works with local printers to reduce its carbon footprint, has installed LED movement sensor lights in every room at the offices and factory, and has shifted to renewable energy sources.

The taste of sustainability stretches to the products themselves too. Flower & White only uses British sugar and free-range eggs, and chocolate is sourced from Barry Callebaut, whose Forever Project focuses on protecting the natural world, while helping to lift hundreds of thousands of farmers out of poverty.

That puts a lot of weight behind this delicate, indulgent products, which come in at less than 100 calories per serving.

‘To reconnect food with nature and health, we need to work together’

The Garlic Farm is in many ways setting the ‘gold standard’ for sustainability in Britain. Not only is the farm an organic operation, but in recent years it has embraced regenerative agriculture, and these practices combined have led to healthier soil, a healthier environment, and to a wealth of biodiversity on site.

Viewing the farm and its operations holistically, and taking a nature first approach has long been important to director Barnes Edwards, who wants the business to ‘lead from the front’ on these issues, inspiring others to follow in its footsteps.

“We collectively fractured the food system generations ago,” he says, adding that the challenge now is to come together to deliver radical socio-economic change. “The approach to a singular challenge of, for example agricultural emissions, needs to be considered in the context of the interconnected elements of wildlife, water and health,” he continues. “The economics impacting these foundations of our ecology are not in balance. This is a really, really big problem.”

Barnes says the changemakers reading our Green Issue “understand the issue, feel strongly and act boldly”, but as a sector, they are in the minority. “How can we scale the methods and efforts on holistic impact mitigation by brands among these pages? How can speciality retail incubate, evidence and roll out the respectful, regenerative service they offer communities? And what levers can we pull to encourage and accelerate nature-led solutions?”

Thankfully, he thinks, some of these solutions exist, including organic farming with, he says, details in a recent OF&G white paper demonstrating that whole ecosystem restoration could be possible with a concerted increase in organic food production.

“Alongside other restorative farming techniques and nature-based approaches to land use such as agroforestry, adaptive grazing and a focus on soil biology, there are solutions that deliver. But how do we transition?

“The truth is, we as a business and family have no idea. We are busy asking lots of questions, listening to all sorts of impassioned innovators and doing plenty of experiments on the farm. Some stuff is working well, with visible results. Some not. What is clear is that to tackle the metacrisis and reconnect food with nature and health, we need to work together!”

‘We continuously evolve our sustainable working practices’

Glebe Farm Foods is blazing a trail when it comes to sustainable working practices, evolving its processes and operations on an ongoing basis to mitigate the business’s environmental impact wherever possible.

This year, that has included installing an additional 453kW of roof-mounted solar panels, following on from the opening, in 2023, of a state-of-the-art Tetra packing plant at the Cambridgeshire site. This launch enabled Glebe Farm Foods to bring all packing into one place, reducing food miles dramatically, taking hundreds of thousands of miles of HGV transport out of the system.

The processor has also built three innovative biomass boilers for its oat mill, using oat husk residues to generate steam, meaning it does not need to use fossil fuel heat – the heaviest power demand on site – for the flaking of oats. The process is now entirely circular.

In terms of responsible and regenerative farming, Glebe Farm Foods has a tried and tested strategy. Its founders believe in introducing processes that are economically viable and work well, which in turn leads to farming partners adopting these organically.

For example, several of Glebe’s partner farms grow beans or peas within oats, which has shown to have potential to give sustainable yields using significantly less nitrogen fertiliser – the main cause of carbon in grain crops.

Having tripled the size of its plant over the last 12 months, Glebe is planning to grow by 25% annually over the next few years and has the ambition to double in size again, thanks to broadening its product range, meeting the growing demands from foodservice and retail customer demands for products with a lower carbon footprint.

‘We welcome visitors to our production facility’

The tax on plastic bags in the UK has been a success. According to government data, sales of single-use plastic bags have dropped by a huge 98%. Instead, customers are choosing to reuse bags for life, or to invest in sturdier options such as cotton or jute.

If you’re looking for a sustainable partner to print your branded jute, cotton or juco bags, GoJute could offer the best solution, with all its products being recyclable, compostable, or both.

Founder Gary Warren grew up in Cornwall, and always had a love for the environment. This led him to seek alternatives to the plastic problem, setting up GoJute’s factory and mill in Kolkata, employing more than 350 people.

The business supports sustainable jute farmers in India, and GoJute ensures workers on its farms and in its factory have good conditions and a decent living wage, with the factory being accredited by SEDEX – the international standard for sustainability, environmental and social responsibility. As part of its transparent approach, GoJute welcomes client visits to the production facility, where they can see every stage of the process in the hands of highly trained, skilled local staff.

Sustainability extends beyond the bag making process. All paper within the business is FSC certified from sustainable sources, GoJute’s recycling facilities process 99% of refuse waste, and on a micro level, staff are encouraged to drink from reusable cups and water bottles, and to use the company fleet of electric cars for business travel.

‘We are what we say we are. We really care’

Dawn and Joe Reade, founders of Island Bakery, never take their location, on the beautiful Isle of Mull, for granted.

In fact, the island’s wild natural environment and close-knit community are just two of the reasons they’re so staunchly committed to being organic, and operating as sustainably as possible.

Using only pure, natural, GMO-free, traceable ingredients (which you might find in your larder or cupboards at home) from organic farms and producers, is at the core of the biscuit-baking business. 

Every product is palm oil free, with the team instead plumping to use real butter, delivering that simple, authentic, ‘true’ biscuit taste, as if you’d baked them yourself, and they insist on never using artificial flavourings or preservatives.

That “honest” flavour and use of ingredients has resulted in a clutch of prestigious accolades, including wins at the Great British Food Awards.

Besides using organic produce and baking in the traditional, time-honoured way, Dawn and Joe are proud to use local and renewable energy sources to bake their sweet and savoury biscuits.

“Our electricity is generated from local wind and hydro turbines, and we are probably the only biscuit manufacturer in the world to bake all our produce in wood-fired ovens,” they say. “Our sustainably sourced, Mull-grown wood fuel is part of a near-neutral carbon cycle - quite unlike mass-produced commodity biscuits, churned out from gas and oil-fired ovens.”

They’re also leading on artisan biscuit packaging. Each box is shipped to customers with the products tucked into little paper ‘boats’, replacing the typically used plastic trays while protecting every bite.

“We’re a small family-owned bakery from the Hebrides. We are what we say we are,” they add, saying they’re small enough to pay attention to every detail, and to really care.

‘We tread lightly and treat our team and the planet well’

Guy Tullberg of Tracklements talks about the importance of sustainability to the business

We think that sustainability is a sensible ingredient within the business that informs everything we do. Every little change makes a difference, and in 10 years’ time it’s going to become expected – consumers will assume that businesses like Tracklements will behave in a particular way.

As we go through the business of business, leaving a furrow behind us that enables the next generation of food manufacturers, there is a question of feeling the responsibility of looking after our suppliers, staff and customers. 

We tread lightly and treat our suppliers well – a lot of them have been partners for decades. We make sure our suppliers feel valued by running a Supplier of the Year Award scheme every year, and ask what sustainability measures they’re implementing so they get acknowledgment for the work they’re doing. 

We have an expression here about being a ‘good citizen’ – if you want to be a Tracklementeer, you have to be a good citizen even if nobody’s looking. That’s part of our charter of how we do things. 

Part of that is environmental, so we have 10,000 solar panels on our roof which generate just over 100MW of electricity. We’re currently in the process of opening another site and that will house enough solar panels to generate 300MW. After that we should be 60% covered in terms of our energy usage. We also have a water treatment plant which returns the water we use to the water table, electric vehicles as pool cars for anyone to use, plus all of our packaging is as environmental as we can get it – our glass is 30% recycled already and is infinitely recyclable. We recycle our label cores and all of the backing paper goes back to the label manufacturers. We’re zero to landfill, too. We work really hard on those credentials and on being sustainable. 

However, it’s important to remember that we are sustained by customers taking jars off the shelf – without that, there is no business to be sustainable. We’ve got to communicate that to people, and make sure that we’re making a very tasty product – it’s not enough to be sustainable, we also have to be really good at what we’re doing and making the best products we can make.

‘Our sustainability consciousness stretches beyond packaging’

Two Farmers are pioneers in 100% compostable packaging, with their innovation proving popular with sustainably-minded consumers – indeed, the team celebrated Earth Day 2024 by hitting the milestone of having sold 10 million bags of their crisps, which equates to 10 million conventional plastic bags saved from landfill and litter. 

As well as offering consumers packets of crisps in 100% compostable packaging – which they are encouraged to compost using advice shared on the business’s website and social media channels – Two Farmers provides crisps in 100g and 500g tins which are 100% recyclable and reusable, and are promoted online as creative storage containers, with fans sharing their composting and reuse journeys. 

The business’s sustainability consciousness stretches beyond packaging; the team prioritises sourcing ingredients locally to minimise food miles and grows potatoes within a 2-mile radius of the production site. By producing crisps in this way, Two Farmers are proud to champion the work of local produces and reduce their carbon footprint. 

The farm houses a number of sustainably-driven technologies, including winter irrigation lakes that are used to irrigate potato crops during the growing season; an on-site anaerobic digestion plant which allows potato scraps, peelings and waste crisps to produce energy which powers the production unit; and on-site solar panels, which power many of the farm’s processes. 

In its bid to become carbon neutral, the farm has seen substantial savings in the past five years – including a reduction of 21250KgCo2/year thanks to solar panels installed in 2022. 

With its innovative approach to production and sustainability-driven farming methods, Two Farmers are guiding consumers towards a better future one compostable crisp packet at a time. 

‘Healthy soils and resilient fields are a top priority for us’

Matthews Cotswold Flour has been milling artisan flours in Britain for more than a century, always putting the quality of the grain first, bringing the very best products to both home and professional bakers.

As one of the oldest family-run flour mills in the UK, Matthews Cotswold Flour feels it has a duty to lead from the front on sustainability – both of the land, and of livelihoods.

The family’s own farm has been organic since the 80s, and in 2019 the team, led by Paul and Bertie Matthews, began their regenerative agriculture journey, building a set of standards for themselves, and for a number of their partner farms which had already been integrating the practices into their operations for some time.

It’s Paul and Bertie’s hope that 10,000 acres of land supplying Matthews Cotswold Flour will be regeneratively cultivated by 2030, encouraging on-farm biodiversity in nature and deep within the soil. “Farming methods that create healthy soils and resilient fields are a top priority for us,” they say, adding that they want to put more back into their environment than they take out.

Sustainability, to the family, is about more than caring for the land, though, it’s about people too, they say. Matthews Cotswold Flour works directly with local British farmers to grow their grains, helping to safeguard traditional farming jobs. The creation of The Cotswold Grain Partnership consolidates this message, fostering a sense of connection and collaboration in the industry, so those within it can share new ideas, develop new growing opportunities, and promote sustainable food and farming.

Matthews Cotswold Flour is also committed to reducing waste through animal feed, using energy efficient technology, and working to reduce the business’s carbon footprint to net zero.

‘You can’t afford not to be sustainable, and doing so will increase profits’

At Cotswold Fayre’s recent conference and 25-year anniversary celebration, a defined thread wove its way through every part of the day – doing good.

Whether through supporting projects such as City Harvest in London or the Bala Children’s Centre in Kenya, working as a B Corp to do its bit for the planet, or paying the Living Wage and supporting its employees and wider community, ‘doing good’ is something Cotswold Fayre holds close to its heart, thanks to staunch commitment from founder Paul Hargreaves.

“People sometimes say that they can’t be sustainable and make a decent profit,” he says. “I would argue you can’t afford not to be sustainable and doing so will increase your profits.”

He continues, “Many businesses have brought environmental and social sustainability into their businesses over the past five years when it has become more popular to do so.  However, I have heard more recently from several businesses who have told me that in these difficult times they have put their sustainability agenda on hold and are focusing just on the ‘business’ side.  I think this is a mistake and assumes that driving a sustainability agenda is mutually exclusive to profits.  It isn’t!  Better sustainability and better profits go together.”

Paul says his experience as a business leader is that the more we do for people and the planet, the better our businesses can be. “Think of it another way. It’s never been that difficult to work out that businesses that treat their people well are more successful.  Companies where their people look forward to coming to work rather than seeing it as a chore are far more likely to see better productivity, greater loyalty, and better financial results.”

There is increasing demand from consumers, he adds, for companies to work more holistically to support supply chains, employees, and the environment. “In a survey commissioned by B Lab UK in April 2023, it was found that 78% of people believe that businesses should have a legal responsibility to people and the planet alongside maximising profits.  As time moves on, businesses that can demonstrate they are good for planet will not only have better people working for them, but more suppliers collaborating with them and more customers buying from them.  It’s not difficult to work out that all that leads to greater revenue and better profits.”