SAGRADO SUSTAINABILITY
At Sagrado we take as many steps as possible to make sure we are sustainable company, ensuring our supply chain is inline with out values. Although we are a Mexican drinks brand based in the UK we make sure that we reduce the environmental impact by purchasing out ingredients from UK based suppliers reducing the carbon footprint of importing it ourselves.
Supply chain
In each can of Sagrado there is only a handful of ingredients; Agave, Tequila, Water and the cans it’s put in.
Our Agave is sourced from a UK based importer who supply 90% of the UK Agave nectar market meaning there are less businesses having to import separately. We made sure that they are up to scratch and have the following credentials;
Fairtrade: Fairtrade certification ensures that the farmers who grow the agave receive fair prices for their produce and work under fair labour conditions. This helps to promote social sustainability by supporting local communities and ensuring that farmers are not exploited.
Soil Association: This certification focuses on organic farming practices. Organic farming typically involves using natural methods to maintain soil fertility, avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and promote biodiversity. It helps to reduce environmental impact and promote soil health.
BRCGS: Ensures that our supplier meets multiple standards throughout their supply chain by a governed body. These include, Supply Chain Transparency, environmental stewardship and social responsibility all of which make sure the chain is transparent, sustainable and fair to the farmers.
Sedex (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange): Sedex is a membership organization that works to improve ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. Being Sedex-certified means that your supplier has been audited for ethical sourcing, labor standards, health and safety, and environmental practices.
In the same way we source our Tequila from a large UK importer who supplies multiple businesses again reducing airmiles and importation. They are a small family run drinks development company and distillery.
Environmental impact reduction
In order to reduce our overall environmental impact we have chosen to source our ingredients from UK based suppliers, increasing our costs but reducing airmiles and CO2 emissions. During our production process we make the necessary steps to recycle as much water as possible, using water retention and heat tanks to reduce the amount of energy wastage. In order to make packaging and shipping more efficient both environmentally and financially we use light weight printed aluminium cans.
We get our cans from a sustainability focused company aiming to help our ecosystem: let's say goodbye to unnecessary plastic sleeves or labels. NOMOQ printed cans are 100% recyclable.
Aluminium cans are easy to transport and 90% are recycled, but the production costs for primary aluminium are relatively high. The fact that the ecological profile of the aluminium can is competitive with other beverage packaging is due to its lightweight and high recycling rate. It is the best option with a lower environmental impact than one-way glass bottles and thus the most ecological option for Sagrado.
We choose to use printed cans rather than sleeved in order to boost sustainability for the following reasons;
The higher economic value of recycled aluminium (no contamination)
Better recoverability of the aluminium (e.g. sleeved cans mistaken for a plastic container and sorted out during the recycling process)
Less downtime of recycling machinery due to plastics
No hazardous emissions during the de-lacquering thermal treatment when plastics or adhesive are burnt
Our goals for the future
Community involvement – As our business grows we want to take the opportunity to give back and support the communities in Mexico where our Agave comes from, making the lives of our supply chain prosper!
Carbon Neutral – By continuing to purchase directly from UK suppliers our airmiles and carbon footprint is minimised. We want to become Carbon Neutral by 2026.
