The Tea Drinking Challenge

It is a matter of fact that Pinkies like to drink tea. Lots of tea! Especially black tea. Even more these days. Why? Because we are preparing for summer! Does that make sense to you? Well…

Tea is not just tea. Looking away from personal tastes, we all need to make sure that our tea comes from a sustainable supplier. We recently evaluated our tea-suppliers and found that in the centre we serve tea from at least 5 different brands at the same times. All of these have different eco-labels and different approaches to a sustainable and eco-friendly tea-industry. So we went to look behind the nice colours of the tea-bag and decided instead to support one brand of tea, which has good sustainable practices. The problem now comes: what do you do with all the rest of the tea from the previous suppliers? You drink it!

At this moment we have app. 3600 tea-bags of black tea of 5 different kinds. If you like milk in your black tea, 3600 cups of tea would require app. 54 L of milk. That is the same amount of milk that the staff team uses for breakfast, coffee, tea and drinking in 2 weeks! Also, there is all the fruit and herbal tea as well.

So if you are making your way by the centre in the next few months, please help us in the quest to become even more eco friendly before summer. If not, why not show your support of our efforts with a nice cup of tea?

If you have been inspired to look at the tea brands you yourself drink every day, then you might quickly get confused by all the different labels you see. So how do you find your way in this forest of eco-friendliness? 

There is a couple of different things to consider regarding the tea-industry: The worker’s conditions, de-forestation, and the quality of tea. Different eco-labels each focuses on one of these subjects. To find out which labels your brand of tea have (or what else they do to environment and society), visiting their web-site is the easiest solution. Underneath you will find a short unofficial guide to what the most common labels means.

Good luck finding your new favourite brand, and happy tea drinking!

Rainforest Alliance

Is only available on products which originate from rainforest areas. The suppliers are regularly check that the farms producing the products are taking precautions to conserve wildlife, waterways and forests. Also important is protecting the workers and their families and actively work for a long-term sustainability. Steps taken includes, reducing chemicals, increasing tree cover, protecting wildlife as well as local communities and indigenous people living in the areas.

Fairtrade

Fairtrade is one very well known brand that focuses on the rights of the workers and mall companies involved in the big industries of especially tea, coffee and chocolate. It is only available to producers in countries where the individual workers right is normally forgotten. Members can only be small producer organisations, that protects the right of any workers and reaches the quality goal. All companies trading Fairtrade must pay a certain minimum price and an investment bonus the company can use to further develop.   

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)

An international organisation supporting responsible and sustainable forestry management. Works to find solutions between local inhabitants, environmental organisations and the timber industry to improve the local community and overall secure forests for the future. Products with the logo are from producers and areas which are environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically sustainable.

 

Mette (DK)

Catering Assistant 2014