I am writing this newsletter listening to the August rain on the roof of my garden office – it hasn’t been the best of summers weather-wise has it… Hopefully we will get a couple of warmer weeks in September as I have some butternut squash growing and they could do with a boost of sunshine. However, whilst the weather hasn’t been so great, the Dorset Sustainable Palm Oil Community has had a FANTASTIC summer, with 4 new amazing pledged champions signing up! We are SO close now – just need 12 more hospitality businesses and 4 more workplaces over 20 people to sign up to the initiative and become fully fledged champions before we can be announced as the world’s first SPO county!! Reply to this email to find out more and sign up your company (it is free and we have all the templates!)… So what happened this summer with the Dorset Sustainable Palm Oil Community (DSPOC)?
I am more than delighted to announce that Organix, the internationally renowned children’s food brand that makes organic baby food, toddler and baby snacks and finger foods, has joined the Dorset Sustainable Palm Oil Community! They are a B Corp company (like us!) joining just 1,500 other UK businesses who have undertaken the rigorous certification assessment to ensure that their business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on governance, environment, customers, community and workers, and are a RSPO* member which means that the palm oil they use is certified sustainable.
Friars Pride, one of the premier suppliers to fish & chip shops, fast food outlets and bakers in the Midlands, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, the East of England and the South of England (including Dorset!) is an RSPO* member like Organix. With a depot in Poole and lots of customers across the whole of Dorset, I am thrilled to say that they have signed up to DSPOC and are already a fully fledged champion!
An amazing local charity, The Parks Foundation, who enhance Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s parks and green spaces for everyone to enjoy was our 3rd new pledged champion of the summer. As some of the local parks looked after by The Parks Foundation have community park cafés where customers can buy coffee, homemade cake, and a light lunch, we will be supporting them in making one change from a product with conventional palm oil to a product with sustainable palm oil. And if you can’t visit the park cafes, take 5 minutes to check out their live streaming webcams at Hengistbury Head which feature herons, kestrels and other birds. Very therapeutic!
Our final pledged champion is EKOBI, a Bournemouth based company that believes in the need to have an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet. A group of dedicated change makers, they work with individuals and organisations looking to address social and environmental problems and together create real sustainable solutions. Welcome to DSPOC EKOBI!
We have a few events planned including attending (and sponsoring) the Dorset COP (Dorset's own opportunity to have its say on the #climate and ecological crises) on Saturday, 9th September in Dorchester. Open to everyone (but you must register to attend). Sustainable Dorset, Zero Carbon Dorset and DorsetCAN as the organisers, are bringing together a wide cross section of individuals and community-based groups from across the county to raise awareness of the need and desire to act locally, in a way that puts people at the heart of decisions and is socially just.
We are also looking forward to attending the Big Sustainability Expo in Southampton at the beginning of October as DSPOC is their Cause of the Year! Lynda and Anita – you are the best, thank you for all your support.
Emily, our Founding Director is presenting on Adopting ESG (environmental, social, governance) for business growth at the Dorset Chamber’s Future of Business conference during the Dorset Business Festival Week. I will be there too, so please come and say hello to us if you are there too.
Lastly, a big welcome to Margaret at Chester Zoo! Looking forward to working with you and encouraging individuals and companies of all different sizes to say no to conventional and yes to certified sustainable palm oil!
Number(s) of the month: 16, 47, 18 and 65! 16 is the minimum number of sign-ups we need to get Dorset to be the world’s first sustainable palm oil county. As we need a certain number of different categories, we particularly need 12 more hospitality businesses (cafes, restaurants, fish and chip shops, hotels etc) and just 4 workplaces with 20 people or more. It is free, and can support a sustainable sourcing commitment by helping reduce your Scope 3 carbon emissions**. Click here to sign up to DSPOC (other companies not mentioned above always welcome too!)… And 47? That is the number of pledged and fully fledged champions we already have! We have 18 Ambassadors including Dr Jane Goodall DBE. We are doing so well as a community with 65 companies / organisations / individuals associated with DSPOC but there is always room for more!
* RSPO Certified sustainable palm oil has been farmed, processed, distributed, and sold responsibly with strict rules that protect animals, the environment and people who live and work in oil palm producing countries. RSPO requires:
Halting deforestation;
Treating communities and workers fairly; and
Protecting wildlife and the environment.
** Scope 3 emissions occur in a company’s supply chain. It has been estimated that RSPO certified sustainable palm oil has an average emissions factor 35% lower than that of conventional palm oil, demonstrating the significant impact sustainable production can have on reducing palm oil’s emissions impact. RSPO compliance has been found to reduce plantation-level emissions by 21% and mill emissions by 97%. For more details, read our research report. If you do not want to receive the monthly newsletters any more, please click here to UNSUBSCRIBE, letting me know your email address. As always, please let me know if you want a chat either virtually or face to face about DSPOC, or just connect with me by email. Best regards Lucy Lucy Cullinane Operations Director of Efeca, B Corp Certified 2023 Dorset Sustainable Palm Oil Community T: 01202 299 878 E: dorsetsustainablecommunity@efeca.com W: https://www.efeca.com/our-work/dorset-sustainable-community/
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