Sustainability
Committed to doing the right thing; today, tomorrow and for generations to come.
Our Sustainability Journey
Our purpose is to create daily moments of care and joy today, tomorrow and for every generation to come.
Sustainability, defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs , is therefore embedded in our purpose.
Just like a comforting cuppa has the power to brighten your day, our goal at Ringtons is to ensure that everything we do contributes to making life better for everyone we serve.
Elliot Smith, Ringtons Director
As a long-established family business, our purpose is clear: To create daily moments of care and joy today, tomorrow and for every generation to come. This purpose goes beyond the products we deliver. It shapes how we operate, how we make decisions, and how we think about our long-term impact on people and the planet.
Our values: Do what’s right, Build collaborative relationships, and Support growth and take ownership, are central to how we approach sustainability. Doing what’s right means acting with integrity across our supply chains and reducing our environmental impact. Building collaborative relationships reflects our commitment to working closely with suppliers, partners, and communities to create shared value. Supporting growth drives our investment in our people and the communities we are connected to, while taking ownership reinforces our responsibility to be accountable for our actions and transparent in our progress.
Sustainability at Ringtons is not a separate agenda, it is integral to how we operate and how we plan for the future. By working collaboratively with our colleagues, suppliers, and partners, we are committed to creating long-term value while contributing positively to the environment and society.
People & Planet
Our Sustainability Strategy encompasses three streams: People, Planet & Policy
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People
Under the people pillar of our Sustainability Strategy we are focusing on embedding human rights (and environmental) due diligence approach across the Ringtons business. We aim to continue to mature our human rights (and environmental) due
diligence approach, ensuring that we are acting as a truly responsible business. -
Planet
Within the planet pillar of our Sustainability Strategy, we are focusing on our packaging and our energy and emissions (carbon) as priority areas for the Ringtons business. There is also a close link with our people pillar, as we also embed and mature environmental due diligence across the Ringtons business to assess the environmental impacts in our supply chains.
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Policy
Our policy pillar encapsulates our
work to strengthen our governance, formalising what makes Ringtons,
Ringtons. Here we seek to ensure we are consistent in our approach across the Ringtons business, as well as ensuring that Sustainability is appropriately reported on at Board level.
You can read more about our commitments and our progress in our Sustainability Report below.
Our Supply Chain
We’re proud to source many of our teas and coffee from producers that we have strong and long-term relationships with, having worked closely with them for many years, often decades.
At Ringtons we recognise that sharing our tea and coffee suppliers’ information is important for greater confidence and transparency, both for our customers and the producers themselves. This openness allows greater collaboration and helps us to build more sustainable supply chains. It also helps us to collectively tackle systemic issues that can occur across global supply chains with other stakeholders. We proudly publish our supply base on our website.
By knowing where we source our tea and coffee from, we can understand the risks and challenges our producers are facing.
Our Partnerships
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Members of ETP
The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) is the tea sector’s global membership organisation working to improve the lives of the people and communities who rely on tea for their livelihoods. We are proud to be active members of ETP, contributing at Board Level and through member working groups to help build a tea sector that works for everyone.
Many of the challenges facing the tea sector are deep rooted and systemic and no single organisation can address them alone. Meaningful progress requires collaboration and the combined efforts of partners across
the sector – together we can achieve far more than any one actor could independently.
Through partnerships, ETP works to address the most pressing human rights and environmental challenges in the global tea supply chain – from improving livelihoods and working conditions to advancing equality and climate resilience.
We work alongside ETP and fellow members with the aim of creating a fairer, more sustainable tea industry for workers, farmers, and the environment. -
Members of World Coffee Research
World Coffee Research (WCR)is a global, non-profit research organization dedicated to securing the future of coffee through science based agricultural solutions. It develops improved coffee varieties, strengthens global bredding netowkrs, and advances knowledge of coffee genetics, quality, and climate resilience.
By collaborating with research institutes, governments, and industry partners worldwide, WCR drives innovation to improve farmer livelihoods, ensure supply stability, and enhance cup quality.Its work includes breeding programs, variety trials, and the development of global reference collections—helping the coffee sector adapt to challenges such as climate change, pests, and disease while promoting a sustainable and equitable coffee value chain.
Ringtons has been a member of WCR since 2019 and supports their work by contributing 1p on every kilogram of green coffee purchased. This is match funded by our green coffee supply partners to create additional impact.
Our Communities
We care deeply for our communities, from tea and coffee growing origins all the way to our local doors. We’ve always been committed to supporting these communities through our charitable endeavours and will continue to do so long into the future.
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Ringtons Tea Growing Community Charitable Trust
Founded in 2013, the Ringtons Tea Growing Community Charitable Trust makes grants to organisations tackling issues that affect smallholder farmers and workers in the tea industry across the world. We are proud to have supported multiple industry programmes and projects via this fund. Funding does not exclusively support communities and workers directly in Ringtons’ supply chain; the fund exists to benefit all tea growing communities.
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Ringtons partnership with the Community Foundation North East
The Community Foundation North East is a charity that has guided effective giving to support causes across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and the wider region, since 1988. They invest in communities and influence change to build a thriving, generous and inclusive Northeast today and for generations to come. Ringtons has partnered with the Community Foundation since 1996, and to date we have supported 250 causes across the Northeast, with a cumulative contribution of over £800,000.
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Ringtons Environment Fund
The Ringtons Environment Fund seeks to protect and restore the natural environment in the North East of England – our doorstep. It is the youngest of our charitable trusts and has supported the work of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust since its formation, and who we continue to partner with on long term projects.
We are Planet Mark Certified
Ringtons have successfully become a Planet Mark Certified Business for the third year, for the reporting period 1st July 2024 – 30th June 2025. Planet Mark is an internationally recognised leader in carbon reduction certification, with over 12 years of experience in helping 700+ Member organisations reduce carbon emissions, set and achieve net zero targets and generate long-term operational and commercial value.
The Planet Mark measurement methodology is fully aligned to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. To retain Planet Mark Certification, Members must demonstrate continuous improvement in line with the Planet Mark Net Zero Certification Scheme Rules. We are committed to reducing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 5% annually and expanding our measurement boundary year-on-year.
Our Packaging
As a business, Ringtons commits to using packaging materials that can be disposed of responsibly, via a proven waste route, and aim that all our packaging can be recycled. This is still a work in progress, but something that is prioritised by our product teams.
We also commit to inform our customers how to responsibly dispose of our packaging. On our newly designed packaging, we are using the On-Pack Recycling Labels to inform how to dispose of each packaging item.
You can find out more about our tea bags and packaging here - Talking Plastic