Yorkshire Tea and Taylors of Harrogate working to cut emissions to protect the planet

Taylors of Harrogate, which receives around half its tea from Kenya, has warned farmers may be unable to grow tea in the country within 50 years if temperatures continue to rise in line with scientists’ predictions.

But the company has also run a number of projects to cut and offset emissions over the last six years and its tea and coffee products were declared carbon neutral in 2019.

Kathryn Patchett, product sustainability specialist, said: “These projects have included planting millions of trees with more than 7,000 farmers in Kenya and providing fuel efficient cookstoves to smallholders in Malawi.

“We’ve also worked hard to cut down our carbon at our Harrogate HQ and teamed up with our suppliers in Kenya to assess the energy efficiency of their factories and ways to make savings.

“This work is ongoing and our approach to sourcing tea and coffee puts sustainability and long-term relationships with our farmers and suppliers at its heart.”

Ms Patchett added: “We collaborate closely with them to build an approach based on sustainable sourcing practices in order to support them, their communities and our planet.”

Earlier this year, the company announced it was replacing the oil-based plastic tea bag seals in around half its Yorkshire Tea bags with a more environmentally friendly plant-based plastic, called polylactic acid.