Our Pledge To Use Sustainable Palm Oil

Earlier this week, we celebrated the 50 Chester companies that have joined Chester Zoo’s pledge to use sustainable palm oil. We’ve been so impressed by this effort that Stoat Media has decided to get on board and update our policy and practices to help with what we can. Below you can read our renewed policy specifically for our usage of palm oil.

“We at Stoat Media are committed to participation in the Sustainable Palm Oil City project in Chester. With immediate effect we will be planning to reduce our use of palm oil and where necessary use sustainably sourced products. We shall ensure that all corporate gifts, on set lunches and cleaning products where possible will be sourced from sustainable suppliers, as well as promoting the sustainable palm oil initiative in Chester to our clients via our website and social media.”

(We enjoyed our Friday beer at That Beer Place, in Chester Market. One of the original 50 to sign up to the pledge)

We are primarily an office-based company and like many others, we never really thought about the impact that we could be having with some of our everyday habits. With the amazing resources that Chester Zoo freely supplies, we’ve been able to make a few choice changes to help reduce the amount of irresponsibly sourced palm oil we use;

-We’ve replaced the office gifts we give out (such as Easter eggs, birthday gifts and leaving gifts) from Cadburys products, to sustainably sourced chocolates, such as Lindt, Aero, Smarties or Galaxy Chocolates.

-We now pledge to supply food on film shoots from venders of sustainably sourced products when possible, such as Aldi. (We are still researching the palm oil usage of certain fast-food fried chicken shop)

-We will be promoting and keeping up to date with Chester’s push to go sustainable and encourage others to do so.

(Chester Zoo’s sustainable Palm Oil pledge certificate and window sticker.)

As a video production company, we were unsure about what we could do to help work towards the aim to make Chester the first fully sustainable palm oil city in the world. But after visiting Chester Zoo’s website to seek advice, we very quickly found areas where we could improve upon and do our little part. As an office-based business making a few small changes was quick and easy and hasn’t affected how we work, but if every office based business joined in in their own way we could make a massive difference.

(Our first chance to change as we say good bye to one of our receptionists with Lindt Chocolates which use sustainably sourced palm oil.)

Palm oil is used in a lot of more everyday products than you may be aware of, we were surprised to discover. The reliance on this resource has created major problems including the use of child labour, deforestation of vast areas, endangerment of a wide range of beautiful and unique endangered species and negative effects on climate change. By doing a little to curb our reliance on irresponsibly sourced palm oil, as a community we can help to reduce the damage.

Have a look through the Chester Zoo website for tips on what you can do in your everyday life to help. If you are a business owner or employee, checkout the zoo’s page to pledge your support here! It takes minutes to see what you can do to help.

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