One cup more sustainable
We take on responsibility for people and nature.
Sustainability is important for us – and we want to show you how. We have been consistently following our own path for many years – and we have become the German tea brand that is able to offer you an extensive assortment of sustainably cultivated products.
“As a family-run company with more than 150 years of experience, sustainable business is deeply enshrined in our corporate principles. For us, supplying our customers with sustainable products of high quality also means taking on responsibility for the world where we live.”
Michael Spethmann – Co-owner and Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Jochen Spethmann – Co-owner and member of the Advisory Board
We are thinking outside our own box.
We want to drive responsible business forward across the entire tea market. That’s why we are working in close cooperation with powerful partners, such as the Ethical Tea Partnership, on firmly setting appropriate standards throughout the tea industry. Our partners for raw ingredients and packaging materials have committed themselves to observing our suppliers’ code of conduct, for example. This in turn is modelled on the key working standards of the International Labour Organisation among other things which, in addition to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, is also involved in abolishing child labour and prohibiting any discrimination.
We are strongly committed to the protection of human rights.
Our raw ingredients and materials must be cultivated or manufactured without violating any human rights. We can say that in the knowledge that respect for this is of particular importance in the places where our teas are grown. Our supply chain extends over 90 countries around the world and quite a few of them face major political and social challenges in terms of human rights. That’s why we have formulated a policy statement on the observance of human rights
, that conveys our values and sets the framework for everything we do. This statement commits us to the guiding principles of the United Nations and sets out how we meet our duty of care and human rights obligations.
We protect our environment and our climate.
We rely on raw materials from all over the world and a healthy, unspoilt environment in the growing regions where our broad range of teas are produced. Climate change, however, poses a significant threat to global tea production. That is why it is even more important to act now and make our own, personal contribution to protecting the climate.
In 2020 we made all our German sites climate neutral for the first time. We did this by increasing our energy efficiency and generally reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We have compensated for the emissions that we have been unable to avoid or reduce to date through climate protection projects certified to the highest standards by the recognised ClimatePartner service provider. We have chosen projects in countries from where we source large parts of our raw materials here. In India we support the supply of clean drinking water, in Rwanda we support an initiative that makes efficient cooking stoves available to the people there.
We have been identifying short-term and medium-term targets for improving our corporate carbon footprint since 2010. From 2010 to 2019 we have been able to reduce our CO2 emissions almost by half in all our sites in Germany. In 2020 around 3,600 tonnes of CO2 were emitted, which amounts to a reduction of 22 per cent over the previous year.