Sustainability

When preparing to launch LUNA & me, our wish was to build a company with integrity, a company that could be counted on to consider every element to preserve the beauty and natural integrity of our world as much as possible.

We were determined not to be one of ‘those’ companies that use concern about the environment as a marketing tool and make claims that their products or materials are ‘environmentally friendly’ or have a low carbon footprint.

We believed to be a responsible organisation we should either conduct a thorough life-cycle analysis of a product or calculate its carbon footprint using Carbon Trust methodology, before making statements of this kind.

LUNA & me is dedicated to the journey toward sustainable business because it is the right thing to do. We are committed to maintaining the highest environmental practices while delivering value to our customers, a safe workplace for our employees, and a lasting legacy for our families and community.

In delivering this commitment, our management, leadership team, employees and partners will work to:

1. Responsibly manage the environmental impacts of our business
2. Reduce energy and water consumption through efficiency and best practices
3. Minimise waste and pollution
4. Comply with all applicable environmental regulations
5. Properly handle and minimise the use of hazardous substances
6. Factor environmental considerations into purchasing decisions, endeavouring to purchase products as locally as possible
7. Train all staff in environmental management practices
8. Engage our customers in reducing our environmental impact
9. Participate in environmental initiatives through Dorset Trading Standards, and environmental charities.
10. Continuously improve our environmental management and performance through an annual review process.

Our location allows us to attract like-minded individuals passionate about furthering our efforts toward environmental sustainability. Our team holds regular meetings to share ideas and identify best practices for employees and the business. Rest assured that our Green Team of volunteers from every department is always seeking out new ways of carrying forward the legacy of respect founded by Sammy’s vision, and those first meals she created in 1991.

All of our packagings are fully recyclable, made in the UK from recycled materials that have been produced in the UK, minimising our carbon footprint.

We appreciate that packaging is a sensitive subject and nobody takes it more seriously than us, however, there is a lot of headline-grabbing statements about packaging both plastic, plant-based and biodegradable that are simply untrue.

We have spent a lot of time making conscious decisions for our business regarding our packaging and none of the choices we make is taken lightly and all are made with the environment in mind.

We believe in a 'circular economy' and the production process of 'closing the loop’ with this ethos recycled packaging waste is collected, recycled and used to make new products, and we believe that this is where our efforts should be focused. This culture is in stark contrast to choosing plant-based packaging that takes from the environment most devastatingly. We believe we need education and accountability from us as consumers, decision-makers, councils and ultimately our government, put quite simply we are not doing enough to make this happen.

So-called bio-degradable and plant-based packaging may look good on the surface hailed as a 'badge-of-honour' and causing a 'smoke screen' for how those single-use products are produced and the damage they are causing to our fragile environment, especially packaging that relies on natural resources for its production, is single-use before being thrown away to rot, surely this is anything but good for the environment.

When we consider ‘anything’ for LUNA & me, we start with the environmental impact, ensuring our environmental footprint remains as small as possible.  We care deeply about our natural world, and yes we did say the world!

Our Patty trays are made from EcoPET. An innovative, lightweight, 100% recycled/recyclable, lower carbon footprint packaging material.

Did you know? Patty trays reduce food waste to zero, and are sealed to lock in quality and freshness.

Our cardboard sleeves that surround our Patty trays are completely bio-degradable, made from FSC registered cardboard, and can be easily recycled after use, or added to your compost heap if you have one.

When you see the FSC's 'tick tree' logo on a product it means that it comes from products certified under the FSC system. When you see the FSC logo on a label, you can buy forest products with confidence that you are helping to ensure our forests are alive for generations to come.

Our Mince boxes are completely bio-degradable, made from PEFC registered cardboard, and can be easily recycled after use, or added to your compost heap if you have one.

When you see the PEFC label on a product, it means that it comes from a PEFC-certified forest (obviously, only the forest-based material within the product). A PEFC-certified forest is a forest that is managed in line with the strictest environmental, social and economic requirements. A forest that will be around for generations to come.

Our Insulated boxes are ‘food-safe’ and made from EPS.
Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is much greener than you think! EPS is similar to a balloon because their shapes are both made up of 98% air.
EPS boxes have millions of cells that trap air, without the need for harmful gasses!
Made from recycled material and fully recyclable after use.

Our Cardboard delivery boxes, brown paper and packing note paper are made from recycled cardboard/paper and fully and easily recycled after use.

Yes, we welcome packaging returns from our local customers.
To keep our environmental footprint as small as possible, for those further afield we encourage you to repurpose our packaging where possible.

Of course! We love finding resourceful ways to give materials a new life! All of our packagings are 100% recyclable but we’ve loved seeing how your little ones have repurposed the packaging for arts and crafts and seeing how your pets have liked to climb inside the box for a snuffle. Your gardening projects using our insulated boxes have been very impressive too! P.S. don’t forget to keep our ice packs and insulated boxes for summer picnics or travelling with our food.

At LUNA & me we choose not to use plant-based packaging, and here's why?

When we consider anything new for LUNA & me we conduct a thorough life-cycle analysis. With packaging it is especially easy to focus on the benefits i.e. you can compost, imagining the packaging melts back into the land as if it never existed! But, we believe we have a duty to dig a little deeper if we are to truly be able to answer your concerns (and ours) fully.

So let's talk about plant-based packaging...we were very excited when the concept was introduced, now, however, it is the invention that causes us the most disappointment!

From a consumers point of view or for a business that wants to shout about how environmentally friendly they are, plant-based packaging is just about as perfect as it can be, or is it?

Taking sugar cane as an example; one of the main crops used in the production of plant-based packaging. First, sugar consumption is in decline as governments around the world fight obesity, but surprisingly sugar production is at an all-time high. Why? Because of the material used in the production of packaging, Bagasse that was once the byproduct has become the primary product in growing sugar and the sugar itself has become the byproduct!

Farming sugarcane is widely known to be disastrous for the environment, causing huge stress. Farming sugarcane mainly relies on the clearance of huge swathes of virgin rain forest that make way for monoculture plantations that use strong pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers as well as huge amounts of water. Eco-systems are destroyed, wildlife is displaced or die out as nothing can live in this barren environment. Just as palm oil plantations are hitting the headlines for the devastating impact on our world, sugar plantations are equally as devastating.

As our appetite for plant-based packaging grows voraciously, sugar production continues to increase destroying even more virgin ecosystems for farmland and further polluting the land and waterways.

In conclusion, this wonderful 'environmentally friendly' product that is used 'only once' and then miraculously 'melts away into the soil', is made after virgin forests are cut down, eco systems and their inhabitants are destroyed. Then to make matters worse, this so-called 'environmentally friendly' packaging is shipped around the world amassing a huge carbon footprint as it goes.

Of course, there is no right answer, however for us, we cannot condone a product that causes so much damage to our fragile environment, it would be unethical for us to keep taking from our natural world when there is an abundance of recycled material that can be used endlessly. We choose to source our packaging materials and the production of our packaging in the UK, our carbon footprint is minimal and the materials our packagings are made from are used time and again...therefore at LUNA & me we are closing the loop.

Our Insulated boxes are ‘food-safe’ and made from EPS. EPS is 100% recyclable. Our Insulated boxes are made in the UK from materials created in the UK, therefore, our carbon footprint is minimal.

Sheeps Wool Packaging uses wool that is sourced and shipped from all over the world creating a huge carbon footprint, all of this without taking into account the processing of the wool which uses a huge amount of natural resources.

We passionately believe in producing food that has been grown in harmony with nature and with the landscape around us. Integral to our story are the British farmers and producers that make up the LUNA & me family.

Our ethics and values are deep-rooted to the core of our business. We believe in producing food that has been grown with respect for nature. Our principles have not changed and you can rest assured that we will continue to produce food that you can trust completely.

Grassland forms a vital part of our countryside. And we are proud to sell grass-fed cattle and sheep. The old-fashioned grasses and herbs are deep-rooted, drawing nutrients from the soil, with red and white clovers naturally drawing nitrogen from the air to fertilise the plants around them. It gives our cattle and sheep the perfect five-a-day nourishment with no need for health supplements.

Our poultry products including duck, chicken and turkey come from ethical producers including from free range farmers that allow their birds to roam outside on healthy pastures in natural light, and with the freedom to display their natural instincts such as scratching for food and dust bathing. These contented birds have properly developed bones and muscles and a strong natural immunity.

Exmoor is home to our wild venison. With its spectacular moorland, rich oak woodland, clear streams and dramatic coastline, Exmoor has a great variety of habitats. These diverse habitats provide homes for a vast array of species, including majestic red deer. Exmoor is so important for wildlife that almost a third of the National Park is protected under UK and European law.

Our Pork comes from high welfare farmers including those that are properly farrow and live outside for their entire lives. They lead an active, outdoor life, spending their time happily grazing, foraging, rooting and wallowing just like pigs should. This means their meat has a distinctive, rich flavour and a fantastic texture.

We only use the finest quality ethically sourced ingredients for our fruit and vegetables.

We have received the countries highest accolades and are proud for every product on our menu to be officially evaluated as the Highest-Rated Pet Food in the UK.

Our mission is to help pet parents feed a five-star menu to their pets at home and with less waste. When establishing LUNA & me, we were shocked to learn that household food waste is the single largest element of UK food waste, at 6.6 million tonnes - more than two-thirds of which could have been eaten.

Our pioneering pre-portioned patties are individually wrapped for easy feeding, meaning you only use what you need and so food waste simply does not exist, in fact, LUNA & me Patties reduce food waste to zero.

And, in our small-batch Kitchen, our pre-order model and predictive technology mean we only order what we need and so food waste is minimal here too.

We hope that by raising awareness of the far-reaching environmental consequences of wasting food, that we encourage all of us to play our part in tackling food waste.

Everybody can do something about this and at LUNA & me we want to shine a spotlight on key behaviours that bring great benefits to your household and the planet.

It is important to realise that food waste feeds climate change.

If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world after China and the US. Yet two-thirds of us don’t make the link between food waste and global warming. And, it isn’t just the leftovers to consider, but the many resources that go into producing our food, like water and land. We might think of the impact of flying or food waste rotting in a landfill releasing methane, but we don’t think about the whole production of food. In fact, wasting food generates more greenhouse gases than all the commercial flights in the world, according to the charity Waste & Resources Action Programme.

Store food better - our food will stay fresher for longer if stored in the freezer and the fridge. That’s why we recommend you defrost the next day's food overnight in the fridge and then store that defrosted food in the fridge in between meals.

Avoid wasting food - by freezing in our pre-portioned Patties you remove only the quantity that is needed.

Set your fridge temperature - the average UK fridge is set to 6.6°C but it should be below 5.

Press pause - if you are not going to use something, freeze it.

Check your supply - make a rough plan of how much you need each time, order just that quantity. This allows for changing preferences and appetite, it keeps the food super fresh too!