Ah, the Mother Earth. Where would we be without her? Probably somewhere not very nice, so we need to all do our bit to keep her pretty.

La Madre Earth is our passionate commitment to ensure that all of our business and baking practices are as sustainable as they can be.  We don't pretend that we've got it all right but we invite discussion and encourage transparency.  We see our sustainability ethos as a journey and not a destination.  We also love using cliches when talking about ourselves so you'll be seeing a lot more where this came from.

The tactile nature of kneading dough and individually moulding each loaf provides endless satisfaction to our bakers – the artists of the kitchen. Our natural age old processes in creating breads and sweet treats allows for full-flavoured wholesome products.

So, we have a full-on commitment to ensure that our relationship with the environment is as passionate and sincere as our baking. It makes sense to us to nurture the things that provide us with so much pleasure.  Hence, our journey has begun...

The Challenge

Although we wish it to be true, there is no such thing as a free lunch (except from your granny) and for La Madre there is a trade-off for producing artisan breads and sweet treats. Baking uses an enormous amount of energy, mainly due to the high levels of power consumption required to operate our electric ovens. The delivery of La Madre goodness into cafes, restaurants and retailers requires vehicles that all too easily churn through those carbon tonnes.

We’ve fully reviewed our business and its greenhouse emissions and have already implemented many initiatives to ease our impact. Plus, we’ve got grand plans for longer-term energy reduction.

The Difference

The La Madre difference is evident in the distinctive taste of our breads, the unique visual characteristics of each loaf, the fine ingredients that we use and the commitment we have to sustainable business.

So what exactly have we done?

1. Installed a heat shifter which extracts warm air from the production facility and shifts it to heat the office and shop to in the cooler months.  It has the added benefit of smelling like freshly baked bread!
2. Use a rainwater tank to flush our low water usage toilets and to service our laundry
3. We have lots of friendly signage reminding staff to turn off lights and taps.  When they forget our sensors turn them off automatically.
4. We use solar hot water
5. The entire building is painted in low VOC paints, with additional insulation plus double glazed windows
6. We do the easy things like print double sided and when we forget, we use that paper for our phone messages
7. Whenever we have a buying choice we always ask for the more environmentally friendly option – recycled paper, recycled plastics and cellulose bags for packaging our bread.  Our new bread labels are printed on a Tree Free stock (made from bamboo) and even the backing paper is recyclable!
8. We champion sustainability in the baking industry by spreading the message to other bakeries through the Baking Industry Association of Victoria.  We also shout out our achievements to anyone who wants to listen.  La Madre believes we’ve all got our part to play in environmental sustainability – businesses and consumers.

Our most recent initiative is the external audit we have completed with the Carbon Reduction Institute.  All the greenhouse gas emissions produced from the cradle to customer lifecycle of our Hot Cross Buns and Choc Cherry Sourdough Buns have been calculated and offset through the purchase of carbon credits accredited under the Voluntary Carbon Standard to offset our emissions impact.  This makes these products certified Carbon Neutral Products!  We plan to add more products to our Carbon Neutral Portfolio as well as continually look for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.