How does buying things at your Students' Union help wildlife?
Do your bit for Sheffield minibeasts - Buy an Abbeydale Ale from Interval
Supplier: Abbeydale Brewery
What they supply us with: Handpulled beers in The Interval
As a brewery we generate quite a lot of organic matter waste. Specifically spent grain after we have extracted most of the sugars from it and spent hops after we have extracted the aromatics from them. Our spent grain goes to a local farmer who feeds it to his cattle as part of their diet.
The spent hops are very bitter (they are the ingredient which give beer its bitterness) so cows won't eat them. So they are bagged up and given away for free to people who collect them. People use them in their gardens and on their allotments mainly for mulching around plants and fruit and veg where they are said to be a natural deterrent to slugs. Some people with a heavy clay local soil will dig them in as a soil enricher. Any surplus, not collected by gardeners, goes to Heeley City Farm, and sometimes the Botanical Gardens where they are composted to be used later.
So in supporting farmers, gardeners, allotment owners, parks and a city farm, we are very much supporting the maintenance of the greener spaces of the city and their biodiversity.
Do your bit for forests - Buy a Yee Kwan ice cream from Interval
Supplier: Yee Kwan
What they supply us with: Delicious ice cream!
Yee Kwan Ice Cream believes in reducing our environmental impact during the manufacturing process of our delicious products. We recycle all our paper, plastic and food waste. The milk and cream we buy is from a local farm 4 miles from our ice cream factory. We try our best to source products locally in order to reduce our carbon footprint. The ice cream tubs (125ml / 500ml) that we use are made from paper originating from well managed forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Do your bit for salmon - Buy a snack in Coffee Revolution
Supplier: Freshfayre
What they supply us with: Sandwich fillings, soft drinks (inc Fairtrade), soured cream, crisps (in Coffee Rev), wrapped snacks, cheeses
Truck wash - they have moved their detergent to one that is fish friendly and is supported by the environmental agency. We are constantly looking to source products that fall within a 40 mile radios of our distribution centre, cutting down our carbon footprint. We are in the process of being accredited with ISO 14001 which delivered a framework to give a strategic approach on our organizations environmental policy, plans and actions.
Do your bit for orang utans - Buy Today-branded products, made by your Students' Union
Supplier: Planglow
What they supply us with: Packaging and labels for the Today brand
All packaging is made from 100% compostable and biodegradable materials. Sustainable and renewable plantations for board and plant based laminates.
Do your bit to support nature-friendly Fairtrade farmers - Buy a flapjack in Coffee Rev
Supplier: Peros
What they supply us with: Fairtrade wrapped snacks and chocolate bars in Coffee Rev
As the UK's leading independent distributor of Fairtrade products, many of the products we sell contain ingredients that carry the Fairtrade mark. The Fairtrade mark ensures that growers in the developing world receive a Fair price for their goods. The main products used in our products are sugar, tea, and coffee - along with fruits and nuts. These products are grown by small holder farmers who have often farmed the land for generations. These farmers take great care to look after the land and preserve it for the next generation. The growers tend to practice bio-diversity on their land - so for example coffee growers will generally grow bananas to shade the coffee, and will grow beans at ground level as they provide nutrients for the soil. Often avocados are grown too. This way of working encourages biodiversity, so by buying Fairtrade Eros and Cafedirect coffee the University of Sheffield is having a beneficial effect on bio-diversity thousands of miles away.
Do your bit for solar power and saving the forest in India - Buy a Fairtrade tea
Supplier: Fairtrade products - Wicked Coffee
What they supply us with: Fairtrade coffee, hot chocolate, tea, sugar sticks
By purchasing Fairtrade products, shoppers in the UK are ensuring that disadvantaged producers and workers receive a Fairtrade premium for investment in economic, social and environmental products. These premiums can enable farmers to implement a range of environmental protection programmes which will contribute to the range of solutions needed to address climate change and ultimately benefit all of us. To give two examples, tea workers in India have invested some of their Fairtrade premium into replacing the traditional wood-burning heating with a solar-panelled system. Coffee farmers in Costa Rica have used the premium to replant trees to prevent soil erosion and have invested in environmentally friendly ovens, fuelled by recycled coffee hulls and the dried shells of macadamia nuts. This means that they no longer need to cut forest trees and so can preserve the rainforest and the oxygen it produces.
Do your bit to help give local pigs a low carbon meal - Buy some fruit or a meal with vegetables from Bar One
Supplier: AJ Webbs
What they supply us with: Fresh fruit and vegetables
Cardboard and wood is reused or recycled. Damaged or spoiled fruit and veg is saved and collected by a local farmer and used for pig food.
Do your bit for badgers and buzzards - Buy a panini from Coffee Rev
Supplier: Holdsworth
What they supply us with: Frozen and chilled food for Coffee Rev
At our main hub distribution site at Evesham, we have preserved nearly three acres of an unused brown-fields site to encourage wild and indigenous species. While it must be appreciated this is largely an industrial site, areas of wild flora create a habitat for animal species. Such species that can be found on (or near) the site are grass snakes, badgers and birds of prey (Buzzards are a regular sight). We have preserved areas of marsh land and wild brambles, naturally occurring meadow grasses and hedgerows; which provide an ever scarcer habitat for some of the more sensitive species. This is managed carefully to ensure a barrier between the habitats and the operating parts of the site. On purchasing the site in 2001, we planted various trees and cultivated those already present to create a natural perimeter to the site consisting of evergreen, hawthorn, sycamore and elm rather than erecting palisade fencing. Though this requires more regular maintenance, it provides further habitat for wild species and creates an effective light and sound barrier between the site and surrounding residences.
All our all our cleaning chemicals used in Students' Union bars and outlets are EU Ecolabel accredited, biodegradable and made in the UK.
Supplier: Delphis Eco Chemicals
What they supply us with: Cleaning chemicals used in Bars and Catering
All chemicals are EU Ecolabel accredited, not tested on animals, readily biodegradable, compliant with environemntal legislation, safe in spetic tanks, phosphate and phosphorate free and have a reduced impact on aquatic life. All products have a reduced carbon footprint due to manufacture and distribution in UK. All products are developed from plant based surfactants.
Do your bit for polar bears - Buy a Diet Coke
Supplier: Coca Cola
What they supply us with: Soft drinks, post mix
Partnering with WWF to conserve the Polar Bear's artic home, pledging £3 million over the next 3 years. Introduction of the innovative Plantbottle, partially made of plant based material and gaining the Sustainable Pack of the Year prize at the UK packaging awards in 2012
Do your bit for Bees - Buy Co-op Fairtrade biscuits / cotton wool
Supplier: Co-Operative Group
What they supply us with: Fairtrade products inc confectionary, coffee, tea, hot choc, cotton wool and cotton buds
They are leading the "Plan Bee Revolution" and letting us have some free seeds to help promote it! See http://www.co-operative.coop/farms/responsible-farming/biodiversity/. Plus good videos / activities etc at http://www.co-operative.coop/farms/habitatheroes/.
Do your bit to reduce herbicide and pesticide use - Buy an organic Tea
Supplier: Wicked Coffee
What they supply us with: Fairtrade Coffee & Sugar, organic tea
All coffee is Fairtrade certified. The Fairtrade organisation does extensive work on climate change, fair prices for farmers, sustainability of farmers livlihoods, sustainability of the land etc. Sugar sachets, drinking chocolate and Clipper organic tea, and other sundries are also fairtrade. Clipper tea is organic = very positive for biodiversity!!
Do your bit for conditions for cotton farmers and wildlife - Buy an Earth Positive t-shirt
Supplier: Earth Positive Clothing
What they supply us with: Our Sheffield Clothing (& staff uniform t-shirts printing)
Organic and Fairtrade Cotton apparel made in carbon neutral manufacturing facilities powered by wind turbines.
Do your bit for water quality and sustainability - Buy a Bag It Don't Bin It bag
Supplier: Bag It Don't Bin It
What they supply us with: Bags sold in Our Sheffield
A Sheffield based company specialising in fairtrade cloth bags that use inks which aren't harmful to the environment.
