Green Business of the Year 2008

Business description: This family-owned organic muesli manufacturing business is green to the core. Redesigning packaging, switching to lightweight paper and then offering the service to other brands has saved 7.2 tonnes of materials. Alara has also cut its landfill waste contributions by 75%, composts food in bins and wormeries found in its own permaculture forest garden and uses Good Energy’s renewable electricity tariff.

Judges comments: Started in a squat in central London in 1975, the founder Alex Smith had to show creativity from the off in order to survive and slowly nurture a muesli manufacturing business from nothing. And it was that same type of approach to its environmentally-friendly initiatives, exhibiting a true commitment to going green while tying it in with commercial imperatives, which elevated it above other finalists in the final reckoning.

The clearly passionate Smith has created a permaculture forest to the rear of the company’s muesli factory. He has changed almost every aspect of the Alara’s core processes, from redesigning its packaging and switching from plastic to lightweight paper with a plastic film in order to cut waste that could end up on landfill by 75% to using a 100% renewable energy supplier.

Any visitors to its website, www.alara.co.uk, and readers of its ‘Green Alara’ blog will see how green solutions are not just a passing fad but an everyday consideration – something the judges could not ignore.  www.alara.co.uk