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Sustainability Trends that Impact your Bakery

Does your bakery check off the three sustainability checks

  • 16 June 2021

Does your bakery check off the three sustainability checks below?

  1. Is profitable throughout all of its stages (economic sustainability)
  2. Has broad-based benefits for society (social sustainability)
  3. Has a positive or neutral impact on the natural environment (environmental sustainability)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says a sustainable value food chain is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Additionally, conscious consumerism is on the rise and refers to buying practices that are driven by consumers’ commitment to making purchasing decisions that have positive social, economic, and environmental impact.

Here are some trends that may impact your bakery based on the three pillars above:

Social sustainability

What does your employee welfare look like? Giving back to society and employee welfare are two common socially sustainable initiatives.

For example, and as described by Forbes, “When it comes to transparency of ingredients and processes for scratch bakers, what does ‘baked fresh in store’ actually mean?” Providing transparency around bakery processes can help with customer loyalty and understanding.

Read Flowers Foods announces $5.6M in appreciation bonuses as an example for employee appreciation.

Environmental sustainability

What does your packaging look like? Re-thinking packaging can end up saving you some money in the long-run and reduce waste - think of the three r’s: reduce, reuse and recycle!

Some sustainable options include: eco-friendly packaging that can be biodegradable or reusable. For bakeries, linen bags or glass jars that can have multiple uses.

Be sure to educate your consumers about how to properly recycle or reuse your packaging material.

Economic sustainability

As mentioned above, conscious consumerism considers businesses economic commitments, here are some way to make global business greener:

  • Analyze your supply chain
  • Select suppliers who use goods that are sustainably grown or produced

There can be a lot of wasted space in packaging containers - with most shipping boxes having 40% empty space!

Next time you consider a product release at your bakery, consider the three pillars of sustainability: social, environment, and economic.

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