A Taste of the Region

A Taste of the Region and its Winchelsea Larder shop & cafe takes a strong stance with regard to its environmental impact ;

• All our outgoing packaging (eg. for online orders) is eco-friendly, including paper tape, cardboard boxes, biodegradable filler, cardboard hamper trays, raffia ties and "real" (biodegradable) cellophane. Consequently, all our packaging can be recycled.
• Where we can economically find it, we use already-recycled products. Our envelopes, letter paper and A4 cardboard are all consumer-side recycled (in other words, made from recycled paper from consumers as opposed to waste products from manufacturers). Much of this has been obtained from Going Green Solutions, Melbourne.
  
• Nearly all the products we offer for sale are sourced and made locally, using local ingredients as much as possible. This reduces the "food miles" environmental cost - a concept that adds the carbon footprint of transporting, warehousing and distributing an item to the carbon footprint of actually making that item. Buying Local also benefits the local and Australian economy. We have signed up to the Australian Made campaign's "Retail Supporter" program to officially accredit ourselves as vendors of Australian Made products.
  
• In our Winchelsea Larder cafe & retail outlet, we separate food scraps, general rubbish, and recycling rubbish. Food scraps go to local pigs and select lettuce leaves to the Kindy guinea pig! We have managed to reduce waste going to the garbage tip to less than one bin a fortnight.
• We offer picnics as part of our offerings from the Winchelsea Larder - these are put together with our local produce items, using palm-leaf plates, bamboo cutlery, and biodegradable cling-film.
  
• Drop in to Winchelsea Larder for a coffee, and you will be drinking Jasper fairtrade organic coffee - all the way from Nicaragua, but at least the growers receive a fair payment for their crop and the crop itself is grown sustainably. We regularly receive compliments about our coffee, it really is excellent quality as well as eco-friendly! And unlike many other "eco-friendly" coffees, it is 100% fairtrade and organic, not a lesser mix.
  



• We have signed up to Origin Energy's "20% GreenPower" accredited renewable energy program (see originenergy.com.au/green for more info). In addition, we use energy-efficient lighting - 30% more light for the same wattage in our downlights, and compact fluorescents (5W instead of 40W per bulb ie. over 85% reduction) over our till and coffee-making area.
• In line with recommendations, during hot days we turn off the side lights (which illuminate product shelves and paintings by local artists) and adjust the air-conditioning to 24-25 degrees, and on cold days we adjust the heating to 18-20 degrees. Air-conditioning is powered by a timer to ensure it is not left running overnight. The air-conditioning unit itself is an energy-efficient split-system heater and cooler, and we keep the filter clean to ensure maximum benefit at minimum cost.
• We do not use plastic bags, instead preferring not to use a bag at all unless requested or necessary, and then using paper bags (with paper or raffia handles for the larger sizes). Takeaway food eg. sausage rolls is wrapped in paper, not plastic. Our takeaway coffee cups are paper with recyclable plastic lids, and we give out wooden stirrers when wanted.
• Hot water is provided on demand by a gas-powered water heater, so no need to heat then store water (with consequent energy wastage).
• We're an internet-powered business - not just an online webstore, but our entire financial and inventory mangement system is online, using the integrated Netsuite "Software As A Service" product. Our payroll (AussiePay or ePayroll)is likewise web-enabled and integrated into Netsuite. One benefit from this approach is that we don't need a separate server computer (with its energy consumption) to run these facilities, plus we can access them anywhere anytime through a web-browser (which means no need for expensive and time-consuming disaster-recovery strategies, as our data and applications are professionally looked after elsewhere).

We would love to be carbon neutral - ie. where we can't avoid a carbon footprint, we would take steps to neutralise that carbon footprint in some way eg. by sponsoring the planting of trees. At this stage in the life of our young business, carbon neutrality is not practical, but it is definitely a strategic goal that we intend to achieve as soon as reasonable.

Placing your orders with us not only encourages our environmentally-friendly business - it also makes a real difference to the way the economy evolves. Smaller, more environmentally sustainable farms, producers and makers continue to flourish, global transportation requirements shrink (a little!), and healthier more natural choices increase.

As crude oil gets harder to find, extract and distribute, and so gets more and more expensive, the sensible choice is to reduce dependency on oil where alternatives exist. Buying 'local' is one way to achieve that by lessening the need for transportation. Even if our goods and hampers are dispatched far and wide, at least they were grown, made, packaged and gathered near to the place of dispatch.

If you have any suggestion that you think would help us here at A Taste of the Region to improve our eco-friendliness, do please let us know.