Doing the work
Sustainability, without the greenwash.
Concrete actions, measurable goals, and total honesty about the distance between where we are and where we intend to be.
Packaging
The best packaging is none
Packaging is the most visible footprint a grocer has. Ours is being designed down before the first store even opens.
Bulk, from day one
Our stores are designed with bulk sections for cereals, legumes, dried fruit and spices, so the packaging you refuse is packaging that never exists.
Recyclable and compostable first
Where products are packed, we prioritise recyclable and compostable materials, and we screen the brands we stock on their packaging practices as well as their ingredients.
Fewer single-use plastics
Reusable bags are the default we encourage in store, and single-use plastic around fresh produce is being designed out rather than phased out.
We also collaborate with Mauritian recycling initiatives, because packaging policy on an island only works if the material has somewhere sensible to go afterwards.
Transport
The honest freight math
Every kilogram we import has a carbon cost. Here is the whole calculation, and how we keep it as small as an import business can.
~15g
CO2 per kg by sea
container shipping, around 28 days from Europe
~500g
CO2 per kg by air
24 to 48 hours, reserved for perishables only
95/5
Sea to air ratio
of our import volume, by weight
~39g
Weighted average
CO2 per kilogram across everything we move
Three habits keep those numbers down. We consolidate orders into monthly full containers rather than sending partial shipments. We coordinate across our stores so one container serves the island instead of several half-empty ones. And we hold air freight to the short list of perishables that genuinely cannot survive the crossing, reviewing that list every season with the aim of shortening it.
We also keep perspective, publicly. Weber and Matthews (2008) showed transport is around 11 percent of food-system emissions while production is around 83 percent, so the biggest sustainability decision was made the day we chose certified organic supply chains in the first place. The full reasoning, and the trade-offs we own, are on our transparency page.
A note on estimates: our carbon figures are based on industry averages for container and air freight. They are honest approximations, not audited measurements, and we will upgrade them to measured data as the business grows.
Waste
Waste less, admit the rest
A grocery business creates waste at predictable points. Our job is to design those points out and account for what remains.
Prevention first: monthly consolidated ordering and a carefully sized range mean we buy what the island will actually eat, rather than stacking shelves for theatre. Long-life dry goods, the heart of our catalogue, barely generate food waste at all.
Where fresh food is involved, the plan is circulation before disposal. The organic cafe and restaurant in Grand Baie and our food truck give short-dated but perfectly good products a second route to a plate, within food safety rules. Bulk sections cut packaging waste at the source, and what packaging remains is chosen with Mauritian recycling partners in mind.
And because commitments without numbers are just adjectives, we will measure and report our waste streams as the stores come online. If a promise on this page turns out to be harder than it sounds, you will read that here too.
Local ambitions
Growing roots in Mauritius
Imports built Naturespan. Local production is how it matures. Three partnerships, in increasing order of ambition.
Reasoned agriculture
We work with Mauritian growers who sharply reduce pesticide and fertiliser use. Their produce is labelled local reasoned agriculture, honestly and distinctly, never as certified organic.
Certified regional sourcing
South Africa runs independent organic schemes such as SAOSO and Afrisco. We are exploring certified citrus and temperate fruit from there: closer than Europe, verified unlike uncontrolled claims.
Container farming R&D
Vertical growing units could produce greens on the island year round, with no chemical inputs, up to 90 percent less water, and harvest to plate in under 24 hours, replacing the kilograms we currently fly in.
Target crops for container farming
By replacing air-freighted fresh greens with local container production, we aim for an emissions reduction of around 80 percent on those product lines, with freshness no import can match. It is a research project today; we will report it as production the day it becomes one.
If a claim on this page ever stops being true, the page changes, not the truth.
Questions
Sustainability questions, answered
- Why does Naturespan ship by sea when it takes a month?
- Because the numbers demand it. Sea freight emits around 15g of CO2 per kilogram against around 500g for air freight, a difference of more than 30 times. Dry goods, which are most of our catalogue, are completely unaffected by 28 days in a container, so patience is the cheapest emissions technology we have.
- What happens to food that approaches its date?
- Our stock planning is built around monthly consolidated containers and careful range sizing precisely to minimise surplus. As the stores and the organic cafe open, short-dated products that are still perfectly good are planned into cafe and food truck menus where food safety rules allow, ahead of any disposal. We will report on how well this works in practice, not just in intention.
- Is container farming actually going to happen?
- It is an active research project, not a press release. The technology, vertical growing in controlled containers, is proven elsewhere: no chemical inputs, up to 90 percent less water, and harvest to plate in under 24 hours. Our aim is to replace the most carbon-expensive air-freighted greens with island-grown ones, cutting emissions on those lines by a large margin. We will publish results when there are results.
- Does Naturespan buy carbon offsets?
- Not yet, deliberately. We are evaluating credible, verified programmes, but we refuse to buy cheap certificates and call ourselves neutral. Reducing real emissions, sea freight, consolidation, local production, comes first; offsetting what remains comes after, and only with programmes that withstand scrutiny.
Keep exploring
Sustainability is a conversation.
Challenge us on any of it at [email protected], or in person from September 1, 2026 in Grand Baie and Tamarin. The food truck is already on the road if you cannot wait.