KAITIAKITANGA and PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP
As outdoor adventurers ourselves we are fully committed to protecting our natural wild spaces. As food manufacturers, we take our responsibility for our sustainability seriously.
Food processing, packaging, transport, household consumption and waste disposal are pushing the food supply chain to the top of the greenhouse gas emitters list. Local Dehy has addressed all aspects of our operations to reduce our impact.
Arising from our aroha of the outdoors is an ethic of stewardship or KAITIAKITANGA. For us, this means taking responsibility for the products we buy, make, and sell. In January 2022 we moved all our products to use home compostable packaging only. Having an end-of-life solution for our packaging that replenishes and doesn’t pollute means we reduce carbon emissions, and our packaging doesn’t end up in landfills.
Local Dehy uses NEW ZEALAND GROWN PRODUCE for our fresh ingredients. We have a great environment for growing a vast range of veggies and keeping it local means reduced transport miles. Whilst we often pay more for home-grown, we are committed to supporting local farmers and the Kiwi economy – sourcing food with greater quality and flavour, and upholding higher employee standards.
Adopting a CIRCULAR ECONOMY approach to our business means reducing the amount of waste we produce and designing products and services to keep valuable resources in safe circulation.
Our responsibility starts in our processing where we use solar power to drive production during daylight hours reducing our electricity usage. During our food production, we receive a lot of waste from suppliers, and we are committed to reusing as many of these resources as we can. Our mission for zero waste starts with woven polypropylene grain sacks that our beans, rice and pulses are packaged in, they are a resource that can be remanufactured so are sent to futurePosts™ where they are up-cycled into fence posts. Another large portion of our waste is soft plastics. We wash and dry all items, and our plastics parcel is then sent to a commercial recycling plant directly. Products that can’t be up-cycled such as glass, aluminium, and cardboard we also recycle.
Finally, all the products that leave us have an end-of-life solution, and we believe that none of our products should ever end up in landfills. So join us in our sustainability mission, and take responsibility too!