ALTER/NATIVE

Company

ALTER/NATIVE is owned by Suma Wholefoods, Reg. IP21975R

The Company also owns the following brands:

Suma is a wholefood collective founded in 1977 by a liberally-minded group of people who believed there was a better way, and actively set out to create it.

Today we are stronger than ever. We deliver over 7000 vegetarian, natural, responsibly sourced products to businesses and communities across the UK and internationally. We are one of the largest co-operatives of our kind in Europe, working together to improve our society and support our suppliers and customers.

Welfare

Everything we sell is 100% vegetarian. All our products are cruelty-free and animal welfare is a top priority in our sourcing. We offer a broad range of Fairtrade, organic and locally sourced products.

Our environment

In partnership with environmental group Treesponsibility on their CO2mittment scheme, Suma plants in the region of 5,300 trees each year to offset the carbon produced by our fleet of delivery trucks. Native species are planted to lock carbon into the soil and at the same time providing a sustainable resource, by means of coppicing the plantation as it matures.

The nascent woodlands we have planted already constitute a carbon sink capable of absorbing several thousand tonnes of CO2 over the next 50 years.

Suma staff are given paid time to plant some of the trees and Treesponsibility also work with local schools and other groups to plant trees.

We’ve taken stewardship of the length of the Calder River close to our site, where we pick up litter and remove invasive species such as Himalayan balsam and knotweed. The river is a fantastic wildlife corridor; we see herons, dragonflies and the occasional kingfisher in the summer.

We continue to encourage wildlife to thrive in our local area and have built bee habitat, an insect hotel and wildlife pond.

Using less, avoiding waste

As part of our commitment to our environment we are constantly looking at ways of limiting our consumption and use of resources.
We do this by…

- Nurturing a culture of sustainability by providing workshops on packaging waste, highlighting the importance of recycling and having recycling mentors in place in each department
- Linking with WRAP’s Recycling Week initiative increasing our recycling bins on site
- Getting involved in high-profile campaigns like the Marine Conservation Society’s plastic challenge, to raise awareness of this finite resource
- Investigating ways to reduce the use of single-use plastic across our business, for instance by providing each worker a reusable water bottle
- Aiming for a realistic reduction in energy-related transport CO2 emissions
-Investigating alternative fuel for our fleet including electric vehicles for London and hydrogen for longer distance deliveries.

Our community and partnerships

Community is important to us and we have many links with suppliers, customers, schools and charities in our region.

We work hard to develop our relationships with local food banks and food waste campaigns. For example we’ve sent some of our damaged and short-dated stock to Armley Junk-tion, a pay-as-you feel community café in Leeds. This means we’re preventing lots of food waste from going to landfill so it can be used to create healthy meals instead; it’s a win-win situation.

We’re committed to spreading the word about why co-operation offers an equitable and sustainable business model. We share this message by providing tours for business studies students and offering work experience placements for high schools and colleges. As one of the UK’s biggest worker co-ops, we’re keen to show that fairness, transparency and sustainability can go hand in hand with commercial success.

Contact:

Phone: +44 1422313840

Email: info@suma.coop

Website: https://www.suma.coop