Eco-friendly changes to my small business | AD

Well hello to you my reader chums! Some of you may or may not know that I run a home baking business with my twin sister Maria called Twinnies Bake. We started the business nearly 2 years ago now and it has been the best decision I've ever made - and I love doing it. We sell a range of products including our beloved brownies, celebration cakes, cookies, and much more. We also offer a postal brownie service all over the UK!

Eco-friendly changes to my small business | AD

Baking is one of my favourite hobbies and I feel so thankful to turn it into a little business with my twin sister by my side. Something I've tried to do in my everyday life is to be more eco-conscious with what I do and what I purchase. I've begun purchasing reusable products to use in my everyday life - and I have started to look into ways to do this for the business. When Lil Packaging contacted me to talk about this subject, it seemed like a perfect fit, and here are a few eco-friendly changes I've made and will continue to make for the business.

*This is a paid collaboration with Lil Packaging.*

Buy products in bulk 

Our orders can fluctuate from week to week and this depends on what ingredients we need to purchase. Since the pandemic, shops have started to sell bigger packets of flour, icing sugar, etc and I've been utilising this as much as possible. When I buy in bulk, it means less waste as it's only one big bag rather than a few small ones and it saves the petrol of going back and buying more - as it lasts longer.

Packaging our brownies correctly

Finding packaging for our brownies has been something we've tested and trialled over the years to find the right packaging for us. I'm fully aware that packaging means waste so we like to think carefully before we buy. We've predominately bought boxes that were cardboard and recyclable on Amazon and been using them to dispatch out our orders.

However, when Lil Packaging got in touch, I felt like all my packaging prayers had been answered and they were exactly what we were missing out on as a business, especially when it comes to being more sustainable. The company sells a whole range of eco-friendly packaging for multiple different uses. For my business, we use a variety of boxes including specific postal boxes for our brownies, regular-sized boxes for local deliveries, and boxes large enough to fit our celebration cakes - and they do a range of everything. And, it's all plastic-free; the perfect way to implement sustainability into our small business. Reducing plastic is one of my biggest goals as a whole in my lifestyle and for the business - and at Lil Packaging, they do just that. It's a plastic-free and ocean-friendly brand - and if you know me, I love to support any business with those ethics.

Eco-friendly changes to my small business | AD

Recycling the waste

Running a business can mean a lot of waste from different food items, especially as we use a lot of different chocolate products, that I find myself binning so many things. However, I always ensure to recycle everything correctly to reduce the amount of waste that can go to landfill.

The ingredient shopping process 

Being eco-friendly in the business is all about the little things and shopping for ingredients and the way I do that is one of them. As we're only a small business and work from a home kitchen, we don't need truckloads worth of ingredients so we typically go to the local supermarket to stock up. We like to work our orders on a weekly basis so I'll designate one day to go ingredient shopping as it saves petrol and the need to go back and forth - and time. I think this is important as it reduces the amount of pollution we create, and although this may be small, it's an important factor.

Whilst I'm shopping, I'll bring enough bags to make sure I have enough space to carry everything home. It's all about the little things when it comes to reducing plastic waste.

Conserving water

I can assure you that running a baking business creates a lot of mess in the kitchen and that means washing up quite frequently is inevitable. When it comes to washing up, we like to do it in a way to not waste too much water and work effectively - in order to do our bit for the environment.

Eco-friendly changes to my small business | AD

Delivering process

Similar to the shopping process, I like to do everything in one smooth sweep. We typically like to arrange delivery times to customers accordingly so we can do it all in one go and visit the post office on the same trip. That way, it'll limit how much time we're using the car and traveling around - and lower our carbon footprint.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Is there anything else you'd suggest to be more eco-friendly?

Thank you for reading <3

5 comments

  1. I love baking and yesterday made a banana cake. Some of these points are really important like conserving water so thank you for sharing!
    Laila
    www.lailanblog.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. I love banana cake! Thank you, I'm so glad you liked the post xx

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  2. I love hearing about how businesses are doing their best to be more eco-friendly. You're doing great!

    Jemima x
    anotherrantingreader.co.uk

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    Replies
    1. Thank you lovely, I really appreciate that x

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  3. These are all great tips for someone that is also looking to open a business and want to be eco friendly! Packaging and food waste are always a big thing to tackle, thanks for sharing x

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