This coming Friday, Anabel Kindersley, owner of British natural health and beauty brand Neal's Yard Remedies, is meeting with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to discuss her sustainability campaign, #StandByBees – and she needs Walpole Members of all sizes to lend their support.
Her aim is to both end the use of hazardous pesticides and support farmers to use more nature-friendly methods of pest control to benefit our country's bee population. This includes ending the continued use of neonicotinoid pesticides, that, despite being banned in 2018, were reauthorised for use on sugar beet this year against the advice of the Expert Committee on Pesticides and the Health and Safety Executive.
Neonicotinoids are not only proven to have a deadly impact on bees (acording to Professor Dave Goulson, a biologist at University of Sussex, just one teaspoon is potent enough to deliver a lethal dose to over 1.25 billion bees), but also these chemicals persist in soil for years, leaching into rivers and harming aquatic life.
Why is this important? Biodiversity is one of the crucial elements of sustainability - and a key component of Walpole’s British Luxury Sustainability Manifesto. As part of our pledge to protect both people and planet, Walpole is committed to urging the government to do all it can to safeguard the environment, which is why Walpole supports Kindersley's #StandByBees campaign and is keen for you, too, to join this campaign.
Bees are a lynchpin of our ecosystem, essential for growing the foods we eat every day and producing the goods companies create. And, unfortunately, the numbers of insects are already in significant decline around the world, with recent research showing that in the UK alone, flying insects have declined by nearly 60% in less than 20 years.
In short, this is somethig that will affect your brand whatever sector of the luxury it operates in from hospitality to manufacturing. That's why Kindersley is leading a coalition of over 80 British businesses and organisations in calling for the Government to lay out a clear strategy to end the excessive use of pesticides in the UK.
"I have been meeting with ministers and have been advised that it's critical to bring the business voice to the debate," says Kindersley of her campaign. "From a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense to me that we don’t have clear strategic goals in phasing out products and ingredients which are shown to have a negative impact on nature. We would not compromise our standards and quality for commercial benefit, and certainly not at the expense of nature."
If you would like to support the #StandByBees campaign, please contact Anabel Kindersley before Friday 4th November 2022 at [email protected]