Last year, Mette is Baking worked alongside a group of international students as part of RMIT’s Virtual Industry Experience Program, providing hands-on experience and real-world impact.

The group embarked on a two-week virtual micro internship, collaborating with Mette is Baking to develop a research report enabling us to gain valuable insights into how to make our Perth based artisan bakery more sustainable.

“Participating in this invaluable program has made a real difference to how e do things at Mette is Baking so we continue to align our business practices with eco-friendly principles and create a positive impact on our environment,” says Mette, Owner and Founder.

“The team of students analysed where we are currently at with our sustainability practices, they completed an analysis of what our local and national competitors are doing and made recommendations on other initiatives we can implement to help us further improve our sustainability credentials. It was a fantastic opportunity to get anoter perspective.”

All research gathered and advice given by the team of students was based on the United Nation’s seventeen sustainable development goals including responsible consumption and production, climate action and life on land.

“Having meticulously researched sustainability strategies, the team explored innovative solutions and developed a comprehensive roadmap to help guide us towards a greener further,” says Mette.

“The students brought in-depth research and fresh ideas to the project. I really appreciated their attention to detail and willingness to clarify feedback. While the competitor analysis, which the group developed, has helped me to understand where my business stands in comparison to our competitors. I have been using the sustainability scorecard the students developed, across my business to implement changes - it really has been very beneficial.”

How we are making a difference

At Mette is Baking we challenge ourselves to reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle items from our bakery each day to help make a positive change for generations to come.

“Our bakery has made a concerted effort in our daily routines to ensure we use best practices in our approach to waste,” says Mette.

“As well as connecting and collaborating with other likeminded people and businesses in the community to help advance sustainable practices, we have adopted a number of different ways we can make a difference,” says Mette.

• Mette is Baking operates a bake to order business model - our Nordic artisan crackers are handcrafted in small batches by our team of bakers each day. We reduce our waste, because we only bake enough crackers to fulfill our orders.

• Being located in the City of Melville, in Perth - we have access to the 3-bin FOGO waste system which enables us to separate our waste between food scraps, organic waste and items that can be recycled. Helping to reduce landfill, increase recycling rates and makes for cleaner compost.

• We have teamed up with local organisations, childcare centres and businesses to ensure our waste can either be reused or recycled. For example, hairnets used by the baking staff each day are donated to the Rare Fruit Club and other fruit growing enthusiasts to be used to protect ripening fruit from fruit flies. While bottle tops, cardboard tubes and other reusable items are repurposed by our local childcare centre who use them for craft projects.

• We have ensured our retail packaging can be recycled. The outer cardboard sleeve, which comes from sustainably managed forests and is processed using Environmental Management Systems.

• For our food service customers, we deliver our crackers in two-kilogram packs in resealable and reusable containers and have no packaging waste from this initiative.

• Our bakery has solar panels installed to power the bakery to reduce energy consumption. LED globes are used in all our lights in the bakery, plus the water heater is turned on only for the hours required.

• We have been able to reduce our water consumption by only using our dishwasher once at the end of each working day and our washing machine is used once at the end of the working week to launder the baker’s aprons and other items used by the bakery.

• With the use of planning software our drivers delivery routes are optimised to ensure they are spending less time on the road, using less fuel, less wear and tear to our vehicles which intern reduces our pollution and carbon emissions.

“We are working towards also introducing recommendations from the RMIT Virtual Industry Experience Program to further our positive impact on the environment. The choices and actions we make today will have long term effects for future generations,” says Mette.