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ETHICS
Although we are a vegan company, the food we serve is only one of many factors taken into consideration when trying to develop a ethical business model. Our company principles are :
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Kindess
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Transparency
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Humility
Anna, Happy Maki's founder has learnt the huge importance of these three values from the Divine Truth teachings and tries to apply them to all at we do as a company. Our goal is to design our structure, processes, and products around honesty, kindness and transparency and that what we feel an ethical company prioritises. Thats everything from choosing to be a vegan company, to how we interview new candidates and making sure our food is nourishing and benefiting people.
Doing honest work is very important to us. When making business decisions we ask "What would love do?" a lot of the time this takes us to an easy answer, other times we have to go against what we have been taught or what feels most comfortable, but that's the way change works.
We work on our environmental impact which includes everything from how we deal with our rubbish to type of energy we use in store. We work on self responsibility and equality within the company and with our customers. We aim to ensure that staff are self responsible in their job rolls. We don't serve alcohol out of care for our customers and were hoping that an alcohol free space for people to hang will help change the norm around eating out and what we need to have a good time.
SUSTAINABILITY
As the company was born out of a love of the ocean and a desire to provide environmentally friendly options for sushi, we are constantly looking for ways in which we can improve. What we currently do:
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Fully Vegan Menu
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Stores are powered by 100% green energy
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Stores are zero to landfill
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Zero plastic policy
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Minimal & compostable packaging
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We plant a tree and feed a child for each wrap we make
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Manual labour used over machines.
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No disposable cups are used - keep cups only for takeaway
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We offer free filtered water on tap
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All of our sauces and salads are homemade
WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON
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Reducing where possible buying in packaging
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Making instead of buying where possible e.g. sauces
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Creating a fully accounted for waste stream report.
WATCH ECOTRICITY'S FEATURE VIDEO ON US
VEGANISM
Personal note from Happy Maki founder Anna.
As I mentioned in "the story" Happy Maki went vegan for the positive environmental impacts. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of, deforestation, water pollution, habitat loss, species extinction, soil erosion and global greenhouse gas emissions. However as I'm sure you've heard by now it's also great for your health and most importantly and rewardingly it means you're no longer contributing to unnecessary killing and suffering of animals.
Although previously not top of the my priority list the benefits, on a “soul” level, turning vegan has been so overwhelmingly positive and rewarding. It's hard to put into words how your feeling towards food that you used to adore can change so drastically, rare steak or BBQ ribs used to be my favorite meal!
Once you are over the addiction to meat and I do feel 100% its an addiction (otherwise why would we do something so damaging) there is a lot of sadness and regret to deal with and overcome when you feel when you finally connect to your contribution to the suffering. It's quite common for people to go through an angry phase when this happens and look to take their frustration and blame out on others which isn't great. But on the other side of this and also immediately there is a huge relief and joy in knowing that you're no longer part of that industry. I would never have been able to kill a cow, pig, chicken or duck but the fact that I was willing to pay someone else to do that traumatic job shows a large issue of ethics in me. Going vegan in the western world is very easy and I think it can be so beneficial to address why we don't want to do something that:
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Hugely helps the environment
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Hugely helps your health if you’re eating mainly wholefoods
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Does not involve killing or exploiting an animal.
Before going vegan many feel that you're going to miss out on things but your taste buds and opinions change very quickly after making the switch. It is very rare for someone who has been vegan for more than 6 months to change back to eating meat and that's why veganism is on the rise, because it’s genuinely amazing.
I can only encourage people to try the experiment, 6 months or a year to get all the seasons in and give yourself time to get educated on the topic. I really do believe that kindness and reconnection is what is going to save the world, yes we can hugely help the environment and our bodies by going vegan but if we are not being kind to each other and the animals that we have dominion over then what's the point. So I just want to stress that whether you're looking to reduce meat intake, are vegan or just like good tasting sushi you're all equally welcome at Happy Maki. We look forward to serving you good wholesome healthy food and hopefully getting to know you and learning what your passions and talents are. For more information on the full environmental impacts of animal agriculture please check out the link below.
