The environment
Low food miles
The fact Cranstons exists to champion locally farmed meats and locally made produce makes us a very low food mile enterprise.
The local nature of our beef, lamb, pork and chicken supply and our commitment to using local abattoirs means our meat never travels far from field to shop. Find out more about our meat sourcing here
Cranstons work with over 100 Cumbrian farmers and Cumbrian food and drink suppliers so as much of our produce as possible is produced right on our door step!
Plastic
We are working hard to reduce our use of plastic, and the waste it creates. Over the last 24 months we have made significant changes and are continuing make progress with eliminating single-use plastics.
What we have done so far:
Hot counter + takeaway food
- Phasing out plastic tubs and replacing them with a recyclable cardboard alternative
- Moved from plastic cutlery to wooden cutlery
- Changed black plastic pre-packed salad bowls to a recyclable cardboard alternative. The lids are clear plastic but these are easily recyclable!
Butchery
- Replaced black pre-pack containers with a clear plastic alternative – improving the ease of recycling for domestic users
- Ceased using black polystyrene trays. We have moved our renowned sausage range into new technology packaging. The new light weight trays are fully recyclable, easy to process by sorting technology and have a low carbon footprint Read more about this here.
Fruit & Veg
- Produce packed in store is now packed onto a recyclable cardboard tray
- Added paper bags
Store cupboard items
- Introduced a loose oils station with refillable bottles
- Improved the eco credentials of our hamper packaging
Shopping bags
- Introduced a durable paper carrier bag as an alternative to our plastic bag for life (please note our plastic bag is made from recycled bottles and can be recycled)
What we’re looking to change next
- We plan to offer a cardboard box alternative to the plastic pots we use for our pick and mix salad bars
Energy efficiency
We take every opportunity to improve the energy efficiency throughout our business. Refrigeration equipment produces waste heat, a large proportion of this is recovered and used to heat the water in our production unit. As other equipment becomes redundant or is required on new projects we take great care to specify energy saving equipment such as LED lights and light sensors.
We have introduced Solar Panels to our production unit roof which partly powers the equipment we use. We have also recently introduced solar panels to our Cumbrian Food Hall, again, to harvest the sun’s energy and reduce the amount of energy we pull from the grid.
As part of the recent major refit of our Cumbrian Food Hall, we replaced the older, energy inefficient fridges & freezers with new environmentally friendly models. Customers will have noticed that they all now have doors, to maintain cool air and cut down on our energy usage.
Also as part of the Cumbrian Food Hall refit, we have invested in an entirely new lighting system, which uses LED bulbs, again cutting down our energy usage.
Recycling
We make the effort to recycle packaging that is able to be recycled. Where we can, we will use packaging that is made from recycled materials such as bottles and card.