You're a man who wants to protect the environment. What have you put in place within your company to achieve this?
For me, the environmental approach has to be global.
Right from the start, it was unthinkable for me not to have a 360° vision. Working with nature, it's only logical that we should respect it as much as possible.
To achieve this, priority was given to product launches.
For the jams, we opted for glass containers. In France, all consumer glassware (bottles, jars, etc.) already contains a minimum of 30% recycled glass, and of course the containers we use are 100% recyclable.
For all our containers, we have therefore used local service providers as far as possible, and even French ones.
It's just common sense, it allows us to be close by, to be responsive and to minimize our carbon footprint.
In the workshop, we have banned plastic items such as plastic boxes, plastic food film...
The tins have been replaced by large glass jars to hold our spices, and the food protection films have been replaced by charlottes made to measure by a local seamstress.
Our labels are made by Pyramidor, located less than 40 km from the workshop. This company is certified "imprim' vert" and manufactures our labels, all our communication media and all our boxes and cases.
All sales materials are made from 100% recycled paper.
The same policy has been implemented for shipping cartons. We work with Cartonnages Huteau, located just opposite Pyramidor.
All our cardboard boxes, both for professionals and for private Internet shipments, are made from 100% recycled and recyclable cardboard.
For our Internet order shipments, in addition to cardboard boxes, we have chosen to use corn starch particles for the cushioning particles that protect our products, which are 100% recyclable because they are water-soluble.
Bubble packs are made from 80% recycled and recyclable material.
With the environment in mind, how do you choose your fruit?
As far as fruit is concerned, we are already working on the human side.
It's often a meeting of men and women in love with their products.
At the very least, our selection is based on sustainable agriculture, and some of our fruit is "Demain la Terre" certified.
We also use a lot oforganically grown fruit. Maison Perrotte is certified AB by Ecocert. This certification is used in our partnerships with our producers, for whom we also make jams with their fruit and under their brand names.
We don't promote this certification on Maison Perrotte products because our problem is sugar.
I've chosen to use common sense and buy French beet sugar. Unfortunately, French organic beet sugar production is virtually non-existent.
So I didn't see the point of importing organic cane sugar produced on the other side of the planet and making it travel 8000Km to get the AB logo on all our products.
I don't see the point in terms of carbon impact and organic sugar.
As far as our partnerships with organic producers are concerned, the sugar we use is certified organic beet sugar produced in Germany, which is the best in terms of carbon impact.
As a French craftsman, I prefer French production to labels whenever possible.
What are the next steps you'd like to take to continue this process?
We're not perfect, and we're always looking for ways to improve within our means.
We are currently testing plastic palletizing films for our professional shipments.
Until now, we've used opaque plastic films. Now we've found transparent films that are 80% recycled and, what's more, made in France.
We're finishing up our stocks and will be moving on to this type of product later.
I always keep in mind, for all our actions, this quote attributed to Antoine de Saint Exupéry:
"We don't inherit the land from our parents, we borrow it from our children".