Health food retailer targets 150,000-tree environmental pledge

One of the UK’s biggest independent online health food specialist retailers has launched a project that could see 150,000 trees planted in Africa over the next 12 months.

Healthy Supplies has unveiled a scheme that will see a tree planted for every order placed on its website. Any orders in excess of £50 will see five trees planted and orders over £100 will see the company commit to planting ten trees. The scheme will also offer all customers the option to clear ocean-bound plastic in highly polluted rivers, stopping the rubbish from reaching the sea.

The scheme will also accurately track every tree or ocean clearing operation Healthy Supplies commits to through an opt-in app that offers full transparency on the company’s eco-efforts.

The company is one of the UK’s largest independent online health superstores, stocking a vast range of more than 6,000 products including food and drink, supplements, home and beauty, pet food, books and stationery.

Director and co-owner at Healthy Supplies, Tina Manahai said: “This scheme has been long in the planning and part of our mission to be more than just a superstore. Not only do we want to help make our customer’s eco-friendly journeys easier with exciting new products, but we also want to ensure that we do business in a way that is good for the environment.

“We’ve invested with our project partners to help develop technology that allows customers to see every step of the tree planting process, from propagation to the actual planting. They can see in real time when their pledge to clear ocean-bound plastic is happening.”

Healthy Supplies has partnered with Verdn, a green-tech specialist, who work with the Eden Reforestation Project and Empower AS. Verdn will help transparently track all tree-planting and ocean-clearing exercises.

The West Sussex-based company says this is one of many societal and environmentally positive measures being implemented. “All businesses have a responsibility to protect the environment and we take our duty incredibly seriously. We want to use our platform to raise awareness of current issues and show our customers how we as a business operate in an eco-friendly way. We also aim to encourage our customers to become more sustainable – whether that’s by introducing new products or developing recipes for plant-based meals.

“We’re invested in learning about what more we can do as a business to help the environment and our community. Our customers expect it, and we expect it of ourselves.”

Healthy Supplies says it is also now on a rollout plan to switch to fully recyclable packaging on all its own-branded Sussex Wholefoods by Spring 2022.