Sustainability
Sustainability is in our DNA!
Brown’s started as a dairy farm in 1929 where respect for the land, the animals and the environment were essential to survive. In 2012 Phillip Brown founded a pilot project in Kingston Ontario that brought hundreds of sustainable projects, practices, processes and products to the main shopping street and put them all under one roof. The Kingston Sustainability Centre was a huge success and after two years contributed to the City of Kingston founding Sustainable Kingston and a goal of being Canada’s Most Sustainable City.
Today we build on that learning every day by working with our world class clients and learning what they know then sharing that information throughout our business. We also partner with leading companies that are pushing the boundaries of sustainability to enhance all of our lives. If we can buy it local and or from a Canadian source, we will!
Canadian Food & Local Suppliers
Given our deep roots in the farming industry and as a Canadian company, Brown’s is proud to support our Canadian food producers. When available we include local, organic and Canadian products into the mix, doing our part to support our communities and create a sustainable environment for everyone.
We buy local through safe sources such as Fresh Start, our produce distributor. They safely source local, in season, produce and deliver it right to our kitchens through a traceable supply chain.
We continually research local producers that supply product through our main distributor, Sysco Foods. Our suppliers all go through a strict quality control process developed to follow our environmental considerations and only select those who meet those criteria.
Community Involvement
All profits generated from The Goodway store are donated back to the Kingston community through partnerships with numerous local organizations. Since we opened in September 2015 more than $100,000 has been given back to support youth and mental illness related causes. Seven full time positions have been created and dozens of people in need of on the job training have passed through The Goodway to gain experience and join the work force.
From a qualitative perspective our history and our decades of experience benefit our clients socially, environmentally and financially each day through our interactions with them personally, in the use and care of their assets and products and the trust they can place in us to treat their assets as though they were our own.
Also, each year our local Tim Horton’s locations choose a local charity to donate all their smile cookie proceeds to. We routinely work with our clients to help with their initiatives such as United Way events.
Single Use & Biodegradable Packaging
Our new packaging and cutlery is all biodegradable recyclable, or compostable! We are introducing this companywide along with the introduction of paper straws, wooden stir sticks and made from recycled material water bottles.
Spotted Incentive Program
Another way we educate our customers is through our “Get Spotted” Program. Whenever a customer is seen composting or recycling correctly they get a voucher for a free treat at the café!