Here at Honeybuns we're not just concerned with baking beautifully crafted cakes.

Honeybuns is environmentally aware and dedicated to having the least harmful effect on the environment. 

Housed on a converted dairy farm, the bakery endeavours to work in a way that encourages wildlife and helps protect the natural wildlife. 

The old buildings have been gently adapted to accomodate our gluten free bakery. The Bee Shack, our team meeting and eating room and where we host the pop-up shop, used to be a chicken shed. Naish Farm still looks and feels like a farm. 

Our BeeGreen initiative was founded by us in 2009. It strives to operate the bakery in an environmentally positive way. 

In this video, Emma talks about the  green  initiatives we run at the bakery, and our plans for the future as we continue to seek out greener alternatives across our business.

On site nature reserve

Our bakery is nestled in 5 acres of Dorset countryside which we run as a nature reserve. It's home to birds, bees, butterflies, insect and a mini herd of rescue animals. The 'sward' or pasture is maintained by our motley crew of beloved pony and charismatic donkeys. They bring lots of love and affection to our working week and look a bit like an off duty circus. Come and see them on our pop-up shop days.

We love Bees

We love bees and have planted many gorgeous looking and smelling herb and flower beds here at the farm. We wanted as many of the plants as possible to be tasty to humans as well as to birds, bees and butterflies. Take a look at what we're doing to encourage bees at Naish Farm. 

Since 2014 we've planted over 2000 trees and hedging plants. We've installed nest boxes, bat boxes and bug habitats. The nature reserve is maintained organically and hedges are traditionally laid.

We support Dorset Wildlife Trust by supplying cakes for their North Dorset group meetings. Money raised from sales contributes towards funds for their conservation work. 

Animal Welfare

When sourcing ingredients, animal welfare is one of our top priorities. We were awarded the Compassion in World Farming Good Egg Award in recognition to our ongoing commitment to only use cage-free eggs. We have Vegan Society endorsement for all our vegan products.

Recycling our packaging

Cake board inserts used in our individually wrapped cakes are recyclable. They are made from card from a sustainable source, and printed with vegetable-based inks. They're laminated with food safe laminate that doesn't compromise the breakdown of the cardboard.

The outer polypropylene film wrapper is not currently recyclable at kerbside. We are busy trying to find an environmentally friendly film to wrap our cakes that can be safely frozen without cracking. We feel it won't be long but if you can help please do contact us.

Foil trays used for traybakes are recyclable, food grade aluminium alloy.

Cardboard boxes are made from recycled material and printed using solvent-free ink. 

Cellulose bags used for chocolate buttons in the Hot Chocolate gifts These are made in the UK from a biodegradable and compostable film. Putting them in the compost heap is the best option. The Food Waste Bin would also be suitable but it might be best to check what the council is doing with this waste - the bags are suitable for anaerobic digestion or industrial composting, if they will allow you to put them in. You can put them in the General Waste Bin; although possibly not viewed as the perfect option, in landfill they will break down to CO2 and water in much the same way as they would in a compost heap. Do contact us for more information. 

Recycling at the bakery

All cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, metal, tin and aluminium foil is recycled. We invested in a compressing machine. We can load it with plastics including ingredient buckets, cardboard and anything else that can be recycled, and it turns them into small bales. We use a local recycling service to collect these baled paper, cardboard and plastic. The cardboard is distributed to paper mills, and the plastic is reprocessed. Waste electronic and electrical equipment is handled by a local recycling  company. Our aim is to be almost zero to landfill by 2020.

What else are we doing to reduce our environmental footprint

SOLAR PANELS
Solar panels help power our bakery: on a sunny day, up to 40% of what we need.

REDUCED NUMBER OF DELIVERIES
Increased on site storage and bulk buying means fewer deliveries and reduced traffic to and from our site. Outgoing orders are collated and we use one collection/distribution company who collect them in one go.

BAKERY EFFICIENCY
We work hard at producing our cakes as efficiently as possible. With improved efficiency we achieve growth without increasing our power usage by the same proportion.