Go Green - Case Study - The Naturally Healthier Way

A GREENER WAY TO WORK

With a business called “The Naturally Healthier Way”, one might think that all green practices were well in hand. However, owner Debbie Willis-Dwyer wanted to make sure she was doing all that she could to help the environment.

Following a referral from Croydon Enterprise, Debbie was contacted within a day by Lee Sexton, the Greening Business Officer for the Go Green service from southlondon.biz – a service funded by the London Development Agency. A couple of days later, Lee arrived to carry out an assessment of the business. “It was all very prompt, and Lee was really on the ball,” said Debbie, “the information was really good, highlighting and raising awareness of the things you can do to go green and conserve energy – they’re really not as obvious as they would seem.”

The Naturally Healthier Way is a recently opened retail food outlet based in South Norwood, specialising in healthier and specialist foods such as vegan, vegetarian, dairy, nut and gluten free, as well as sandwiches, freshly squeezed juices and healthy hot drinks to take away. It not only promotes a healthier way of life through diet choice, but is a fantastic and rare resource for the many people living with food allergies. With an ethos that all conditions can be reduced or dismissed with a change in diet, plans for the future include free consultations and remedial advice.

Before the assessment, Debbie was already pro-actively green. The shop provides an invaluable soap refilling service to customers at a 10% discount, where they bring in their existing bottles and fill up with Ecover, the environmentally friendly soap product now available in many retail outlets. They also recycled their packaging and used low flush toilets and encouraged the use of green bags instead of plastic. Because of Debbie’s efforts thus far, The Naturally Healthier Way already meet the criteria to qualify for the Bronze award from Envibe, and can work towards the Silver award.

“You don’t think of certain things that would help the environment and yourself and the assessment made me aware of things that I could do to cut down on fuel and also of the grants available so you could buy A* rated equipment to further reduce consumption”, said Debbie, “I have been approved for funds and can now buy a more expensive refrigerator that is higher rated. The Go Green service is a natural fit with our own ethics.”

Following the assessment, Debbie’s green action plan included the use of lower energy lighting bulbs, to fit spray magic to taps and to reduce her waste contract to bags instead of the large green waste bin which wasn’t being used fully and now saves her money on her waste collection. Staff are now encouraged to turn off all equipment and lights are turned off at night. “We used to leave things on at night, especially our electronic gate so we could come in in the morning,” added Debbie, “now, we switch off everything including the gate with the exception of our fridge and we leave and enter through the side door instead of using the gate. The gate is still serving its purpose but that small change is allowing us to save on the energy that the gate would have used all night, every night.”

With a target of reducing energy consumption by 5% each year, electricity bills will now be monitored closely to analyse future trends and measure the impact of the saving measures already taken.

“It’s all about changing habits and taking simple measures that can really make the difference,” said Debbie, “and Lee and the Go Green service was fantastic for pointing things out that we just hadn’t thought of. I can’t recommend the service highly enough to other businesses; it’s been a great learning experience.”

The service is available to businesses in the five London boroughs of Merton, Kingston, Sutton, Croydon and Wandsworth, focusing on businesses that have not sought support from publicly funded business agencies in the past. Businesses like The Naturally Healthier Way can apply for small grants to help them implement appropriate solutions.

For more information on the ‘Go Green’ programme please contact Helen Clark Bell at southlondon.biz on 0208 947 0055, email gogreen@southlondon.biz

For more information on the Croydon Enterprise programme call the Business Support Hotline on 0208 680 6161 or visit www.croydonenterprise.com.