Sustainability

 AUD GROUP SUSTAINABILITY

Our Promise to the Earth
While we at Aud Group take great pride in our all-natural products, we realise that could not happen without the help of someone more important and talented than us: Mother Earth. So we have made a commitment to leave the earth in better shape than we received it. And it’s not just about the smallest carbon footprint; it’s about being good samaritans. Sustainability is our social responsibility.

Our Partner Company
All of our Partner Companies are located in small towns in which the local employees commute only a short distance to work. At the same time, these small communities benefit from increased employment opportunities, an added incentive to staying in these smaller towns. Additionally, in order to conserve as much energy as possible, we do our best to locate our businesses near the raw materials (plantains, cacao, oil, etc), saving abundantly on time and production. For example Plantains are roughly 80% water, which we will eventually evaporate, thus it is more efficient to transport cooked Plantain than the raw plantains themselves.

Our growers, like ourselves, operate mostly family-owned farms. They rotate their crops to keep the soil enriched with nutrients as well as use bio-diesel fuel whenever possible.

The manufacturing plants are business smart, eco-friendly, and overall very efficient:

• All raw waste is recycled and sold as cattle feed
• The waste oil gets converted into bio-diesel fuel
• The starch from the plantains is separated, stored, dried and sold for other purposes
• All recyclable packaging material is recycled

Water Conservation
Retrofitting completion, all the plant extruders in the local plant. Normally, this type of equipment requires running water for refrigeration to be discarded, but now it has the capability to recycle and refrigerate the water it uses in order to put it back into the system, thus reducing the amount of water we use. We will also be replacing natural gas with electricity whenever possible.

Our Packaging
A diverse company with a wide selection of products, we package our products in a variety of sizes. Most of our bags are made from poly material, which is better for the environment, although not quite perfect. For that reason, we are committed to finding and using compostable materials in the very near future. Our ultimate objective is to start using biodegradable and/or recyclable materials in our packaging. Balancing product quality and the shelf-life of our products remains our challenge.

Our Boxes
In order to ship our snacks and cacao with the same quality and care with which are made, we must carefully separate the bags and place them in boxes. Even in the way we make our boxes, we use environmentally sound material and support the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. We work to reuse our boxes whenever possible, as well as recycle the boxes that can no longer be reused. 

At the Office
Paperless Office:
Through electronic communication and EDI, we are striving for a paper free business wherever possible.

E-mail:
When receiving an email from a Aushop® employee, you will notice that the signature is more than a simple name. We have incorporated a friendly reminder to conserve paper as often as possible. Embedded in a purple silhouette field of wheat it says “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”

Recycle Bins:
We have bins throughout our offices for paper, plastic, and glass, which are then taken to recycle centres on a weekly basis.

Transportation
Carpool is encouraged, and whenever we are in an urban area, we look for locations close to mass transportation. Our office is conveniently situated near a train station, an amenity that many staff take advantage of by commuting daily to work by train.