Minor Figures

Minor Figures

Refill your oat milk to reduce your packaging waste

What does this brand sell?

Oat milk, iced coffee, chai and other drinks, barista accessories. Also merch consisting of candles, socks and bar towels

United Kingdom

Vegan/ vegetarian?
100% Vegan
Delivery
Delivery by truck
Transportation mode
Unknown
Vegan / vegetarian
100% Vegan
Delivery
Delivery by truck
Transportation Mode
Unknown

Does this brand offset carbon emissions and/or implement circular business practices?

They have been carbon neutral since 2018

About The Company

Get the ins and outs

Minor Figures is a company that started out as a cold-brew company by coffee fanatics, but turned into a company with a full-on sustainability mission after their head product guy went vegan.

From reducing their carbon footprint to offsetting the greenhouse gasses emitted, they’re committed to reducing the harm done to the planet and finding ways to create a world we want to live in, supporting communities, restoring ecosystems and biodiversity.

  • Becoming Carbon Neutral
  • Becoming B-Corp certified
  • Reducing shipping emissions to Australia by 27% since 2021
  • Developing a way to upcycle used oats
  • Eliminate all single-use plastic from shipping packaging, in partnershp with Noissue (fully-compostable packaging)
  • Various plans regarding their governance, workers, costumers, environment and community as described in their impact report, for example: provide diversity and inclusion training to their staff, improving carbon efficiency and have 80% of products produced in the consuming country
  • Expo East 2022 NEXTY Awards finalist
  • ‘Best Beverage’ Award at the Naturally Good Expo 2016

Product details

Find out more details about the products

Store locator

Across the UK: Sainsbury's, Ocado, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic, As Nature Intended, Sourced Market, Selfridges. Refill Stations can be found using the store finder

Independent retailers across Europe can stock up Minor Figures too, however there is no store finder for this.

Delivery To* (Website)

Delivery within the United Kingdom

Subscription

You can get a subscription on various types of oat milk while getting 10% discount, plus 15% discount on merch

Store locator

Across the UK: Sainsbury's, Ocado, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic, As Nature Intended, Sourced Market, Selfridges. Refill Stations can be found using the store finder

Independent retailers across Europe can stock up Minor Figures too, however there is no store finder for this.

Delivery To* (Website)

Delivery within the United Kingdom

Packaging/packaging materials

Packaging consists of recyclable cans and Tetra Paks.

Donations / partnerships

  • Partnerships for offsetting carbon emissions with e.g. Ecofye,  Climate Partner and TreeApp, who conducted a circular assessment of their business operations and carbon footprint
  • Noissue for packaging

Subscription

You can get a subscription on various types of oat milk while getting 10% discount, plus 15% discount on merch

Ingredients

Oats, no added sugar, stevia plant extract in chai concentrate and mocha cold brews.

Fully sourced and manufactured in Europe?

No

Certifications

  • B-Corp Certified

Ingredients

Oats, no added sugar, stevia plant extract in chai concentrate and mocha cold brews.

Fully sourced and manufactured in Europe?

No

Packaging/packaging materials

Packaging consists of recyclable cans and Tetra Paks.

Donations / partnerships

  • Partnerships for offsetting carbon emissions with e.g. Ecofye,  Climate Partner and TreeApp, who conducted a circular assessment of their business operations and carbon footprint
  • Noissue for packaging

Certifications

  • B-Corp Certified

in depth production details

Analyze their supply chain: from the sourcing of raw materials to the people who make the product

Oats are sourced from the UK and other Northern European countries

 

The United Kingdom

6 x 1L Barista Standard Oat M*lk = GBP 12.00

12 200ml oat latte cans = GBP 22.00

Minor figures became Carbon Neutral by offsetting their carbon emissions in partnership with Climate Partner. They use carbon credits to support carbon offset, reduction or removal programs such as the bamboo afforestation project in Nicaragua and providing clean cookstoves in Peru.

By choosing oats over dairy, Minor Figures costumers have saved 21,919 tonnes of CO2 emissions since July 2018.

In the financial year 2019-202, they produced a total of 2,896.10 tonnes of CO2 emissions, as reported in their 2023 impact report. The majority of their footprint comes from packaging and outbound logistics. Over the years, they have focused on reducing their emissions at the source, and

 

 

Their UK offices and manufacturers use 100% renewable energy. They also have smaller operations in the USA and Australia and are working towards using green energy there too.

Within London, deliveries are done with zero-emissions through their partnership with HIVED, saving around 988kg of CO2 emissions.

Minor Figures consumers have helped save 5,601,412,028L of water from being wasted since 2018 alone – drinking an oat latte over a dairy latte saves enough water to run an entire bath.

Minor Figures costumers have saved 6,765 acres of land since July 2018, as a glass of oat milk from Minor Figures uses about 1/10th of the land that dairy milk requires.

Currently, the leftover insoluble fibre that is left as the byproduct of their oat milk is used as livestock feed, reducing the land used for livestock feed.

In addition to their oat residue, all packaging is recyclable (cans and Tetra Paks) and across various local stores, you can fill up your glass bottle at an Oat M*lk Dispensers using their BIBs (bag in box). Since March 2020, this has saved over 180,000 cartons! They recollect the used BIB bags by postal service. Using the BIBs creates 42% less carbon emissions compared to the same amount of oat milk packaged in TetraPaks, as well as 76% less packaging material.

No information on this is provided by the brand.

Although they do not have a Fairtrade certification for their coffee – as this label cannot guarantee the quality standard required for specialty coffee – Minor Figures works with a specialty trade model that guarantees a living (not just minimum) wage for coffee farmers. They are partnered with Raw Material, who source green coffee directly with farms all over the world and guarantee a fixed, premium margin for their coffee, regardless of the constantly fluctuating market price. In 2019, Raw Material generated an average 5.1x higher profit for families in Colombia.

The plant-based ethos is important for Minor Figures and therefore, they promote a plant-based diet among their staff (although they don’t expect all staff to be vegan unless they want to), by offering them free vegan lunch and do not expense any non-vegan food on work trips. Staff also gets paid on time away from the office to engage in activism – whether for environmental, animal or social justice.

Further reading

  • Check out their 2023 impact report that includes details on their carbon footprint, plus achievements and goals over the years
  • In 2022 they also brought out a sustainability report
  • Check their details on carbon offsetting and product sourcing (i.e. coffee beans) on their website

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