Vega's Sustainability Goal

We seek to provide ecologically and socially friendly, premium natural health
solutions with minimal impact on the ecosystem and without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their needs.

We will strive to achieve this through selective and efficient use of resources
and energy in entirety be it via supply, production or consumption.

Existing Initiatives:

Social Responsibility

Support an array of community initiatives including:

  • Health awareness
  • Vegetarian and vegan societies
  • Athlete sponsorship
  • Support Community Based Activist Groups
  • Support eco-friendly socially responsible events and partners that promote
    environmental sustainability. These include green festivals, Vegan/vegetarian
    events, media partners (such as Alive and VegNews Magazine,) with similar values
    etc...
  • Strive to heighten awareness and educate people on the nutritional benefits
    of raw, organic plant based whole foods.
  • Employee initiatives including education allowance, smoothie & salad meal
    plan, free health product plan, fitness membership allowance...

Sustainability:

  • Efficiently grown ingredients
    • Vega products are derived from plant based ingredients that require far
      fewer resources (energy, water etc...) to produce than animal and synthetic
      based products. We are currently conducting a study to measure the reduced impact
      of our products on the environment.
  • Nutrient dense ingredients
    • Plant based sources of protein like hemp and chlorella provide more protein
      per ounce than animal sources providing greater nourishment from far less land
      mass.
  • Organic ingredients
    • helps preserve air and soil quality
    • reduces the amount of energy required to grow the food and
    • results in foods that are free of toxic chemicals or genetic modification.
  • Raw, undenatured ingredients
    • Products are ready to eat in their raw state and thus require less processing
      and thus energy to produce and prepare.
  • Source ingredients as local as possible
    • Use of recyclable materials
    • use of more environmentally friendly plastics and paper in packaging and
      promo items,
    • Use of bio friendly alternative materials such as corn based cups for demoing
      in place of plastic/paper.
  • New eco-friendly designed facility

    Read More
  • Recycling program
  • Education
    • We strive to heighten awareness of environmentally friendly nature of organic,
      raw, plant based whole foods through PR initiatives, trade shows, articles,
      literature etc
  • Fair Labour Practice
    • Our manufacturers are all based in Canada and follow the Canadian labour
      standards.
    • We perform regular visits to our manufacturers.
    • Ensuring fair labour principles - fair pricing, fair wages, and good working
      conditions - is a particular focus when sourcing ingredients from other countries,
      such as Peru, China, Indonesia, and the Phillipines.

New initiatives:

Environmental footprint reporting

As a leader in the health industry we aspire to set an example that it is possible
to follow socially responsible, sustainable practices and be a profitable and
successful organization. We are committed sustainable practices backed by trusted
scientific based certification. As such we have taken necessary steps by investing
in the expertise of Conscious Brands (www.consciousbrands.com),
the leading organic food company sustainability consultancy in Systems Thinking,
The Natural Step and Carbon Labels, to help us define and further reduce our impact
as an organization. This two year project will manifest itself in the following
three phases:

Phase 1 -Carbon labeling of our products

This initial phase provides us with a quantitative value we can place on our
label to to indicate the amount of CO2 emissions generated as a result of producing
and consuming Vega products. It expresses the total output of carbon emissions,
and thus environmental impact, connected with the product's lifecycle - from seed,
to store, to final disposal of the packaging. This detailed process map of inputs
and outputs identifies weakness and provides a starting point from which we can
strive for continuous improvement in our products' environmental footprint through
increased efficiency and reduction in emissions (such as over-shipping, manufacturing
inefficiencies, etc...). To complete our carbon-label Conscious Brands has done
a full life-cycle assessment and look at all the key stages. This includes:

  • Drawing a map of the key stages in the supply chain - from ingredient production,
    to getting product on the shelves, to disposing of the package.
  • Looking at the energy consumption directly involved in each of these stages,
    and converting this into the resulting amount of carbon emissions.
  • Add up the carbon emissions from each of these stages to get the calculated
    value.
  • Come up with a final carbon footprint (and put that onto the product as
    a carbon-label)

All Conscious Brands Life-cycle assessment processes are third party verified
and comply with the ISO 14064, a best practices environmental standard, (www.csa.ca).

Results

The results thus far have been impressive to say the least. When comparing
the greenhouse gas impact of Vega One with a "typical breakfast" and a "traditional
breakfast" we see the following:

A serving of Vega leaves a tiny Carbon Footprint* and provides many times
the nutrition with 10 X less emissions than the typical light
breakfast of cereal flakes, milk, yoghurt, banana and over 38 X less
than a traditional bacon and egg breakfast with toast and hash browns.

Download Study (215 KB)

The Carbon Label Standard

By using the Conscious Brands/Zerofootprint, (the verifying body for ISO standard
compliance, www.zerofootprint.net),
Carbon Label seal organizations commit to their customers that their product meets
three criteria:

  1. The product is committed to a cycle of continuous improvement in its environmental
    performance
  2. The product line will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions over time
  3. All measured carbon emissions will be offset through certified, independently
    audited carbon offset credits.

What is a carbon footprint and carbon offsetting?

Everyone's talking about it but what does it mean?

Carbon footprinting measures the amount of carbon emissions produced by the
things we do. From flying, to driving our cars, to the things we buy, every one
of us leaves a carbon footprint on the environment. At Sequel we are calculating
our organizations total footprint and looking at ways to reduce it. Our initial
environmental footprint assessment will involve calculating a baseline of emissions
to measure against. We will offset our environmental footprint by purchasing carbon
credits through Zerofootprint, thus allowing us to be a carbon neutral organization.

Why Carbon offsetting?

Carbon dioxide emissions are about 40% higher than they were before the Industrial
Revolution and at their highest levels in recorded history, covering over 650,000
years. The idea of offsetting is to counterbalance the environmental effects of
our actions in order to ensure a healthier environment. For example, car travel
releases climate-changing CO2 into the atmosphere. When you offset your driving,
you ensure that an equal amount of CO2 is taken back out or prevented from being
released in to the atmosphere. This means that your driving will be "carbon neutral."

Phase 2 - Organizational Assessment

Phase two and three move from a focus on specific product impact to that of
the company as a whole. The purpose is to identify Vega's financial,
social and environmental progress with goal towards improvement while remaining
a profitable organization.

  1. Stakeholder engagement - This is a process that involves
    generating feedback from our stakeholders to define any issues we might improve
    upon. Vega stakeholders include our customers, suppliers, end consumers,
    employees, farmers or anyone throughout the process impacted by our actions,
    activities and products. The stakeholder engagement is a co-creative process
    to help define our corporate performance indicators on a financial, (our economic
    impact), social, (how we interact with communities with whom we are involved),
    and environmental level. Once we have these along with our baseline environmental
    footprint, as part of our commitment to best practices we can develop an action
    plan towards continual improvement.
  2. Internal environmental assessment - This entails taking
    an environmental assessment of our organization determining direct and indirect
    emissions such as measuring electrical uses, employee travel etc... It will
    provide a baseline from which to measure improvement.

Phase 3 - Sustainability Reporting

This last phase will provide us with a report that measures Vega's financial,
social and environmental footprint and progress.

  • Sustainability report - Once phase two is in place, with
    the help of Conscious Brands we can develop an action plan towards sustainability
    be it environmentally through a reduction in emissions, or socially through
    ensuring fair trade.