As part of our environmental awareness the S&O Manufactory plots a course beyond zero-impact.

 

Instead we cruise against the tide of wastage that usually flows from any going concern.

We cast our nets deep into the sargasso of the consumer-capitalist sea and haul up treasures that we repurpose to our nefarious needs. We reduce, reuse, and recycle within the business producing no waste materials of any kind. It has reached the point where the Manufactory takes in the waste material of other businesses to meet our needs. In a reversal of most business practices our rum-crafting process doesn't produce enough waste.

 

Perhaps the one aspect we could do better on is distribution - postal vehicles and air-craft are still needed to get our rum out to those in need. But one day our ship will come in and we will use the wind and the tides to deliver the rum... meanwhile our intake of the byproducts of others is a practical alternative to any sort of smoke & mirrors 'carbon-offsetting' mumbo-jumbo. And in the end, sailing in step with the Green Tide benefits the Manufactory, local businesses, local coucil waste management services, and ultimately the environment of our little corner of this big blue world.

 

PACKAGING REPURPOSED - from bubble wrap and cardboard, to styrofoam and newspapers... you name it we've used it (again) to protect our precious shipments while they are tossed upon the fickle tides of planes, trains and automobiles, or even the occasional boat.

 

ZERO OFFICE WASTE - all paper waste shredded and turned into packaging material with most of our record keeping in electronic form. When we do need virgin paper we use only sustainably produced NZ-made varieties, printing on both sides at the lowest resolutions possible, thereby saving on paper, ink and toner. For general, frivolous note-taking and doodling we use the obverse of documents, shredding the paper afterwards for our packaging material. Our office supplies live life to the full, not once but many times.

 

CHATTALS - our office furntiure is 'vintage' as much as a statement of taste as a reflection of going green. Why buy new and characterless when you can have crafted and well-broken in with stories to tell for a fraction of the price. Even a fair part of our electrical equipment has been 'rescued' from the knackers (we never liked anything after Windows98 anyway...). We're farely sure there's an Adana 8x5 printing press with moveable type around somewhere... Now where's my quill pen?

 

TRADITIONAL BOTTLING: some of us still remember making 'your empties go another round' from a time before eco-friendly. Back then this just made economic sense...it still does. The S&O Manufactory has never used a new bottle for any of its range of 700ml and 750ml bottlings. All of these were collected from bars around Wellington, stripped of their previous labels (without using strong chemicals), steralised and then refilled with either rum or gin. Some bottles have been through this repurposing process not once but many times, each time helping the environment that much more than other producers. Such practices were common from time in memorial, being spurned only recently within living memory. We're resetting our practices to those sepia-toned times and reaping both economic and environmental benefit.

[unfortunately we can't repurpose closures and so must buy new, but you do what you can]

 

LABELLING - Inevitably our labels are made new. And like most every label in the world there are off-cuts of waste material from each label made... but we refuse to let such things go to waste. We fill the negative space around each label with other labelling elements and designs (serving suggestions, consignment blanks, media tags to go on bottles...and other things besides). And if, after that, any final remains of unused label remain they are used as packaging material.

 

BUYING LOCALLY MADE - Where possible we buy from local producers and suppliers rather than having things brought in from afar. If we can stroll across town to get it, well, on a good day it's a nice walk. It's also something to do with keeping money within the local economy, which sounds like a good idea, but we're no experts.

 

KEEPING THE COUNTRY WORKING - We like using locally owned service providers and producers, and even government-owned ones where possible. We like snail-mail because it's actually pretty competetively priced, has a convenient location to the Manufactory, and offers all the distribution services needed for a small, hand-made alcohol producer. They're also our bank.

 

SHANK'S PONY - If we can make a delivery just by walking it across town ...then why not (a spot of physical exercise is not to be sneezed at).

 

THE RICHES OF THE EARTH - ...and all of this is with the highfalutin ideal of keeping the riches of the earth in their proper place: the coal below the ground, the trees and animals on top of the ground, the fish in the sea... and all things in harmony.