English Tea Shop is a leading sustainable and organic tea producer, with manufacturing operations in Sri Lanka, and distribution and marketing functions headquartered in the UK.
Committed to sustainable and organic practices, English Tea Shop works closely with everyone in the value chain to make the planet a better place for all living beings.
With strong ESG credentials already in the public domain, including Certified B Corp status, 46% female employees, and a 30% employee-owned business model, English Tea Shop is certainly leading the way when it comes to sustainable practices, and strives to do even more to continually improve.
Here we explore why English Tea Shop chose to complete the Authenticate ESGnius Assessment, and spill the tea on how they achieved the highest score of all Authenticate member companies.
The ESGnius assessment, explained
The ESGnius assessment was developed in partnership with leading global sustainability consultancy, Anthesis, and was launched in November 2021 as a standardised template to help businesses understand the ESG performance and maturity of their organisation.
With 75 simple-multiple choice questions, the assessment is free to access for all Authenticate member companies and provides insightful overall score and maturity levels upon completion, with the option to pay a small one-time fee to unlock further insightful, personalised results and reports.
The detailed reports provide a breakdown of performance within each pillar (environmental, social and governance), in addition to scores against strategy, execution and result areas to help give businesses a steer on where to focus attention to accelerate progress against ESG ambitions.
Speaking of the ESGnius Assessment, Suranga Herath, CEO of English Tea Shop shared:
“The ESGnius Assessment from Authenticate offers a simple, user-friendly way to assess and measure key areas of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. It provides insightful reports and scores, guiding meaningful improvements across crucial ESG topics. Each year, we look forward to participating in this assessment, as it allows us to compare results, track performance, and monitor growth effectively. It aligns with our core values of sustainability at English Tea Shop to establish transparency throughout our value chain.”
Results – Spilling the tea on English Tea Shop’s ESGnius assessment performance
English Tea Shop first completed the ESGnius Assessment on the 24th February 2023, and repeated the assessment the following year on the 25th February 2024.
Below, we share key result highlights, both comparing English Tea Shop’s performance YOY, and their most recent performance against all other Authenticate members completing the ESGnius Assessment in the prior 12 months (1,868 companies to compare to in total). All ESGnius assessment results included are from 29th August 2024.
English Tea Shop ESG maturity progress – 2023 vs. 2024
Despite scoring very highly in both years, when comparing English Tea Shop’s ESGnius assessment results for 2023 and 2024, it’s encouraging to see a top performing business can still demonstrate ESG progress. Increasing their overall score by 1.53%, the biggest improvement can be seen within the environmental pillar (+3.87%), with the execution element of this section up 13% vs. 2023.
English Tea Shop ESGnius Assessment results vs. Authenticate member companies
With an overall maturity level of Transformational, English Tea Shop is amongst only 4.34% of other Authenticate member companies achieving the same outcome. Even more impressive is the Transformational maturity level outcome within the Environmental pillar. Only 1.34% of other Authenticate member companies also achieved this maturity level based on answers to questions in the environmental section of the ESGnius assessment.
Key findings – Why the top scorer?
English Tea Shop holds sustainable, ethical practices at the heart of everything they do, and this is reflected in the high score and maturity level results they received. Below, we explore which areas English Tea Shop performed particularly well in, compared with Authenticate member businesses to highlight where those seeking a top score should be concentrating.
- Certifications – English Tea Shop achieved 100% of the available certifications score, holding Certified B Corp status, Sedex membership and organic certifications amongst others. This score was +62.08% difference vs. average.
- Environmental Public Pledge – By sharing an environmental commitment in the public domain, English Tea Shop achieved 100% of available score for this question, +49.81% higher score compared to the average.
- Environmental Policies – With policies in place for sustainable procurement, water resource, biodiversity management, carbon reduction and much more, English Tea Shop attained 66.67% of the total available score for this question, +44.33% difference to average.
- Energy Use & GHG Emissions – English Tea Shop achieved 100% of the available score for this question by purchasing renewable energy, conducting energy audits, implementing low carbon transport options and producing renewable energy. The score was +69.52% higher than the average.
- Carbon Calculations – Receiving 100% of the available score, English Tea Shop calculates full scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions vs. 62.9% of Authenticate member companies not calculating any emissions.
- Additional Employee Benefits – By providing additional benefits outside of legal requirements including additional leave, health care cover, childcare services, overtime premium etc. English Tea Shop achieved 94.12% of the available score, +67.11% vs. average.
- Workplace Diversity – With ethnic minorities and women in executive positions, English Tea Shop attained 100% of the available score, +77.33% compared to other Authenticate member companies.
- Procurement Processes – Optimising processes to monitor social and environmental practices within sourcing including supplier onboarding, risk assessments, performance reviews and supplier incentives, English Tea Shop received 100% of the available score, +61.34% against the average score.
- Sustainability Frameworks – Working to guidelines including the Global Reporting or the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board enabled English Tea Shop to achieve a full 100% score, +80.68% compared with other Authenticate members.
- Published Sustainability Report – Compiling and circulating an annual sustainability report ensured English Tea Shop received 100% of the available score, +79.19% vs. average for the question.
Further ESG improvements for English Tea Shop
English Tea Shop achieved a Transformational maturity level in all areas of the assessment, except the Governance Results section, highlighting a potential area for the business to prioritise to achieve an even higher score next year.
Relationship – English Tea Shop & Authenticate
First completing the ESGnius assessment in February 2023 as a basic Authenticate member, English Tea Shop became an enterprise client in December 2023 in order to map supply chains for raw materials, packaging and finished goods, back to the source. The team is also exploring implementing the audits and assessments module to move annual supplier questionnaires from spreadsheets to a centralised compliance and risk solution. They have recently started using ESGnius with their suppliers too, to gain insight into their ESG performance.