Fireside Coffee
An extensive range of gourmet Fairtrade &/or Organic certified teas, coffees, cakes, wine, beers, cookies, chocolate, sandwiches and more, to eat in at our Licensed premises on St. Clements Street or to take home and enjoy. Our own-brand range of products are certified by the Soil Association and the Fairtrade Foundation, and we operate under a comprehensive ethical policy.
Ethical and Environmental Policy
Care for the environmen & responsible sustainable Trade
- All of the food products we sell are certified as Organic &/or Fairtrade which ensures compliance with a wide range of environmental &/or Fair Trading standards
- Our shop, offices, processing facilities and equipment, computers and web servers are powered by 100% renewable electricity. Waste heat generated by refrigeration units and web servers is used to partially heat our building.
- We combine and plan our delivery routes to ensure maximum efficiency of our vehicles. We use common carriers (such as Royal Mail) where small deliveries would be carbon-inefficient using our own vehicles. We use public transport where possible for staff movements.
- Carbon emissions that we cannot reduce are off-set by the planting of fruit trees in private residential gardens. These have the dual benefits of absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and also reducing the food-miles of fruit that would otherwise be bought in from supermarkets, farms and possibly other countries.
When purchasing equipment including computing equipment and processing equipment we:
- purchase items second-hand where practical to both prevent it going to land-fill and also to eliminate the material and energy used in producing a new item. The main exception is where new items have distinct power saving or other environmental benefits that out-weigh the environmental cost of its production
- evaluate items based on their energy usage and other environmental criteria, as well as the practical business considerations.
- re-use, sell or recycle old items where possible.
All business processes are evaluated when they are implemented and at least every year afterwards to ensure that they are as energy efficient, materially efficient and as environmentally friendly as possible.
All business waste is reduced where possible. Where not possible it is re-used - for instance all cardboard packaging received is re-used as packaging for out-going orders. Any organic waste, such as spoiled tea and coffee, is composted and used for the trees we plant to offset our carbon emissions. Where it is not possible to re-use items, we recycle them where facilities exist.
Ethical Employment:
- We treat our employees like humans, not “resources”. The national minimum wage is not enough to be considered a living wage. We pay all of our employees a living wage as a minimum. All employees are paid the same wage (pro-rata for time worked) regardless of the position or job role they hold in the company. We meet and aim to exceed all legal requirements on working conditions, working time, discrimination and other factors affecting our staff. We aim to provide an environment that people are happy to work in and want to work in.
Equal Opportunities:
- We examine all of our working practises, hiring practices, policies, job roles and work places to ensure that they do not promote direct, indirect or institutional discrimination against any current or future employees, customers, suppliers or anyone else on the basis of disability, race, gender, sexuality, age or religion.
- With specific regard to religion, we believe that all of our staff have the right to hold their own religious views and beliefs. However where those views and beliefs contradict this ethical policy, particularly with regards to discrimination against others, they will not be tolerated.
- We hire employees solely on the basis of their aptitude for the job.
Social Responsibility:
A company is a group of individuals performing work. We are each responsible for, and to, the community in which we live and work, and to those communities that are affected by the work we do. This set of ethical policies recognises this and its implementation forms our commitment to social responsibility.
