innocent are helping us to plant and improve 60k square metres of orchards this year as part of the Big Rewild campaign.
The campaign will include a series of community events over the summer in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Swansea.
Its overall aim is to bring more ‘wilderness’ into cities, inspiring families to try growing and to encourage more wildlife into their gardens, as well as supporting The Orchard Project to carry out our vital biodiversity work. Look out for our charity partner logo on their orange juice bottles from now until August!
Big Rewild was officially launched in Trafalgar Square last month, when a team of horticulturists worked through the night to turn the 30m x 20m space into a green paradise for the day – complete with a replica lion statue covered in live foliage, turf and meadow. All the plants were borrowed from local nurseries, kept in their pots to reduce waste, and either returned or given away at the end of the event.
Find a local community event near you at the end of this article.
Miles and Leo Da Silva Smith in a ‘wild’ Trafalgar Square for the launch of the Big Rewild campaign. Credit: David Parry/PA Wire
Why are we joining forces with innocent?
It might seem an unlikely partnership on the surface, but we’ve done our homework and although they’re not perfect (and let’s face it, who is?) they do recognise the climate is in crisis and are making conscious efforts to address that.
We also share a love of good quality fruit and even though we’re not growing oranges in our orchards yet (but look out for some more unusual trees such as persimmon popping up in London orchards we support) we’re pleased to see they’ve created a carbon neutral orange juice.
This means they’ve calculated how much carbon it takes to make a bottle of orange juice throughout the whole process. They then work with their partner South Pole to support projects that remove or stop the same amount of carbon from being emitted.
Offsetting responsibly is one thing, but reducing carbon emissions overall is the most effective way to address climate change and innocent is taking this seriously: from the way they heat the boilers in their factory to how they power their company vehicles.
And as their ingredient suppliers currently account for just over half of their carbon emissions and the wider supply chain accounted for 99% in 2020, they recognise they have to extend their efforts much wider to achieve these ambitious targets.
For many of their suppliers, carbon reduction is a new thing, which is why their Farmer Innovation Fund this year will focus on helping their farmers reduce carbon and bringing new ways of working to the wider industry.
Innocent carbon neutral orange juice. Credit: Colette Goulding
But what about those plastic bottles?
innocent’s bottles contain at least 50% recycled plastic and all of its bottles are recyclable. The plastic used in packaging is a recyclable, lightweight, robust plastic which has a low carbon footprint – they’re actually three times lower in carbon than glass bottles.
They have an ambitious target to collect and recycle 70% of their bottles by 2023, through education, awareness raising and advocating for better recycling infrastructure and deposit return schemes (DRS), which are shown to drive recycling rates of over 90%.
Work is also ongoing to make the packaging lighter, which will save 2,500 tonnes of plastic by 2023. This includes removing tampers, switching glues and making the labels smaller.
What is the big idea behind the Big Rewild? This is what innocent has to say about it…
“It’s not only reducing our emissions, we also want to inspire wider change. Our little drinks wouldn’t be possible without the power of nature, and nature-based solutions are a fundamental part of tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. The Big Rewild is our way of giving nature a helping hand as part of our dream to help build a healthier planet – a place where people and nature can thrive together.”- innocent
innocent are partnering with other organisations, such as The Orchard Project, to create and protect natural spaces and fruit orchards across Europe; to preserve and restore global forests and make it easy for everyone to do their own little bit of rewilding. Coupled with offsetting projects around the world, the aim is to rewild a total of two million hectares of land by 2025.
The Big Rewild sits alongside existing decarbonisation efforts, which includes cutting emissions in half by 2030 and the launch of a new carbon neutral sustainable factory in Rotterdam.
Find a community event near you:
London: Saturday 28 May – 11am – 2pm (Hainault Forest IG7 4QN) – wildlife walk, bug and scavenger hunts (and cake!)
Manchester: Sunday 5 June – 11am – 3pm (East Philips Street, M3 7LE) – insect hotel building, planting pots and baskets, treasure hunts (and more cake!)
Swansea: Sunday 11 June – 11am – 3pm (Pentre-Chwyth Road, SA1 7FR (enter woodland through wooden arch) – forest school, stalls, food and plenty to see and do all in the heart of the woodland.
Glasgow: Sunday 12 June – 1 – 4pm (Alexandra Park Food Forest, G31 3JJ) – willow weaving, Plant ID walks, bug hunts, summer pruning demo and a song!