Social Responsibility

OUR APPROACH

Co-founders Celine and Christopher have lived in southwest London for over 20-years and care deeply about the impact they have on the local environment and community around them, the wider environment beyond, and the people and businesses that they reply upon and who in turn reply upon them. As a local business they recognise that Jefferson’s impacts upon many people’s lives daily and they are determined that that impact should be a positive one across every aspect of the business.

Little Village logo, Jefferson's Ice Cream 2024 charity partner

CHARITY PARTNER

In 2024 we will be supporting the Wandsworth branch of Little Village. Founded in 2016, Little Village carry out amazing work supporting families across London with children under the age of five and living in poverty. Please read more about the work they carry out here. Throughout the year we will be raising money for Little Village and carrying out regular clothes drop donations while helping to raise further the profile of this amazing local charity. To donate to the Jefferson’s Little Village fundraising campaign you can do so here – donations of any size are gratefully received.

There’s no hiding from the fact that the impact of any company within the food industry is significant, including Jefferson’s. We use a lot of packaging, we have a van that delivers our ice cream, our shops and kitchen must be heated and cooled, we run a lot of fridges and freezers, we receive several deliveries a week from suppliers, all running their own vans and kitchens. We can’t hide from it, but we can, even as a small independent business, do something about it. On a practical day to day basis, we are delivering on the following initiatives:

SUSTAINABILITY

  • Waste Disposal & Recycling

    We are now able to precisely monitor how much of our waste is recycled, and we have set a target for 2024 of achieving a minimum 70%. Our waste partner sends any non- recycled waste to generate green energy. Nothing is ever sent to landfill.

  • Packaging

    Most of our packaging, including tubs and coffee cups is recyclable and we always provide wooden cutlery for take away (some customers do prefer plastic ice cream spoons, which we only offer as a secondary choice). We also provide a Keep Cup discount to encourage customers to bring their own take away coffee cup.

  • Paper Wastage

    Through embracing IT we have been able to almost fully eradicate the use of paper across the business.

  • Temperature Control & Energy Efficiency

    Our Brixton kitchen and store are naturally cooled. In Balham we don’t turn on the air conditioning until outside temperatures reach approximately 24oC, preferring natural ventilation wherever possible.

    All fridges and freezers and other equipment are turned off immediately when not in use and all our lighting is LED.

  • Supplier Credentials

    At least 60% of our ice cream ingredients are sourced nationally. We also support hyper local wherever possible, and recent collaborations have included Brixton Bees and Brixton Distillery. In an ideal world all our suppliers would be local, unfortunately there aren’t many cocoa, vanilla or tropical fruit plantations in the UK! However, we closely appraise the sustainability and social responsibility credentials of all our suppliers, wherever they are.

  • Local Workforce

    We recruit locally wherever possible and encourage our team to cycle and walk to work, providing space to store bicycles.