We're sure not perfect here at Princes Gate. There's lots we'd like to do better, but we're trying harder all the time to do our bit.
Mother Nature is pretty good to us. Not only does she provide the raw materials for our product in the form of rain, but she's also blessed our land with mineral rich rock to filter the water and gives it its unique analysis.
We believe in Sustainability, but it's a word that's brandished around a lot of late. For us, however, it's something very simple but extremely meaningful.
Sustainable business is the provision of goods to meet our needs, without compromising the needs of future generations. For us it means looking after the factory (the climate and the landscape) for future generations of bottled water drinkers.
So you see, we're not tree-huggers, and we don't wear flip-flops. We just love Pembrokeshire, and we love what we do. And we love Rain!
What we've done well:
A combination of reducing packaging, reducing our waste to landfill, recycling on-site and using greener forms of energy (in addition to planting lots of trees) have yielded the following results:
- Reduced electricity by 30% year on year (despite growing in size!)
- Reduced oil use by 10%
- Reduced Carbon emissions by 45%!
- Reduced waste landfill by 35%
- We'd like to be carbon neutral in a couple of years.
What we do not-so-well:
Our bottles are made from PET plastic. Most of you know this is not an environmentally kind form of packaging. We're looking at alternatives all the time; There's something called PolyLacticAcid which has recently come to the market. By using corn-based ingredients, it's possible to make this bio-degradable bottle. It has i's downsides at the moment though: it takes twice the energy to produce and transport - and it comes all the way from the states. We're working with producers closer to home to try come up with a solution we can manage locally. We'll keep you posted.