Sustainability Roadmap
We believe in 100% natural, healthy, tasty, and locally produced dog treats that don’t hurt the earth.
That’s why we’ve developed the Oh My Paws sustainability roadmap. This roadmap will guide our business activities and structure as we continue to grow.
Some things are achievable immediately, and in these cases we have already taken action to reduce our impact on the earth.
Other things come with challenges, take more time, and simply require scale to achieve. But with careful planning we WILL achieve all of these goals, and continue to update you here as we progress.
Electricity Needs
All electricity required for our warehouse and office is 100% Renewable Energy through RED Energy’s Accredited GreenPower program.
Signing up to use Renewable Power contributes additional funds to the renewable energy revolution which will ultimately replace coal and gas to deliver clean energy to the world.
Product Packaging
Our treats pouches are 100% recyclable as recycling code number 7 (material PET/PE).
Through our partnership with REDcycle, our pouches can already be recycled in dedicated soft plastics recycling bins at Woolworths and Coles stores. We are in the process of having the official logo included on our packs.
Funds allocated through this partnership contribute to the upcycling of our packaging materials into equipment like agility training parks for dogs, and outdoor gyms.
The printing of our product labels on the pouches is 100% Carbon Offset with a local printing partner based in Melbourne. We will also use the same Carbon Neutral printing partner for all future printing needs.
Our goal: to achieve 100% compostable / biodegradable packaging by mid-2024. There are significant challenges associated with the printing process, and minimum order quantities are extremely high, but we are determined to get there. If you are a compostable packaging supplier, feel free to contact us with further information.
Shipping
Our shipping partner of choice is AusPost, who since 2019 is 100% Carbon Neutral. This means all delivery involved in getting orders from us to your dog is also 100% Carbon Neutral.
Shipping Cartons
Our cardboard shipping cartons are 100% recyclable (we recommend recycling) and biodegradable. As much as possible we aim to use brown/unbleached shipping cartons.
We have switched to thermal paper labels to cut out the use of ink, and waste ink cartridges, and have already made the change across to 100% biodegradable packing tape.
Our goal: to do more to protect the world’s forests and use only FSC certified cardboard and paper materials by July 2022. If you are an FSC certified materials supplier, feel free to contact us with further information.
Natural Meat Products
While produced as human grade, the majority of our treats range does not directly compete with human food consumption. Chicken Necks, Chicken Feet, Beef Lung, Beef Liver, Pigs Ears, Goat Horns, Cow Hooves, and many other items are all commonly seen as by products of the food humans eat, helping to avoid this going to waste.
Fish based treats are currently all wild caught, however, we continue to assess whether sustainable fish farming might be a more environmental approach moving forwards.
Whether a primary food source or not, we recognise that the meat industry is intensive on power, water, and the land. Therefore, we will not stop here, but aim to exceed with the following goals.
One Tree Planted: we’re planting trees through “One Tree Planted” starting with 100 trees per month and continuing to adjust as our business grows. Planting trees works towards increasing the earth’s biodiversity, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and developing healthy native forests. We will shortly be launching the “trees planted” counter for you to join in on the progress.
Our goal: (1) to accurately quantify the carbon impacts of producing meat for our treats, including the dehydrating process, and offset these entirely by the end of 2023 through a combination of tree planting and carbon offsets.
