SUSTAINABILITY

Le Marché is committed to providing best-in-class educational materials on seasonality for both our customers and the wider public as this lays the foundation for any decisions about what to buy and eat. We support our customers to source locally by showcasing local suppliers. We produce specific resources to aid in this process, such as specific UK produce guides and seasonal calendars. We also proactively remove items from our product range when they are available but out of season. A chef may order Kentish apples in April, for example, but these will have spent six months in refrigerated cold store – so we refuse to buy and supply the fruit.
Le Marché publishes a wide range of digital resources. This includes a monthly Market Report, a mid-month update and a suite of monthly Menu Planners.
We provide daily updates on social media, where a single post on our channels can have more than 1 million views.
Le Marché funds and resources an educational programme for young learners of primary school age to increase awareness of issues relating to seasonality, food miles, nutrition and food waste.

Le Marché consciously partners with growers who demonstrate innovative techniques in their production. Our primary strawberry grower, for example, is B-Corp accredited, operates a certified net-zero framework and uses waste berries to manufacture byproducts or to produce energy via anaerobic digestion for their packaging supplier. Our grower of micro-herbs uses vertical farming and low-energy LED lighting systems to produce year-round crops with minimum inputs.

We partner with the charity City Harvest which collects and redistributes surplus produce – i.e. food that is edible but unsalable due to cosmetic damage. In addition, all food waste is processed via anaerobic digestion and turned into digestate and biogas, which is sold to the gas grid.
Le Marché has provided 8.1 tonnes of surplus food or the equivalent of 19,278 meals which have been donated to local charities. If this food was sent to landfill, it would have created 5.6 tonnes of greenhouse gases. (Source: City Harvest Impact Report for period 16th May 2024 – 13th July 2026).
Operating from New Covent Garden Market enables us to integrate directly into their site-wide sustainability infrastructure, which in the last accounting year diverted 4,591 tonnes of organic material and recycled 1,735 tonnes of wooden pallets. (Source: Covent Garden Market Authority).

Our business has taken the strategic decision to minimise the miles travelled by our fleet of delivery vans in order to reduce emissions and energy use. Le Marché currently makes approximately 80% of deliveries within a 5-mile radius of our headquarters in SW8.
We are in the process of converting our entire fleet to EVs as soon as vehicle availability and charging capacity within New Covent Garden Market allows.
In Spring 2024, Le Marché took delivery of the first commercial electric van model of appropriate size available in the UK. We now have three electric vans with a further three due for delivery in late 2026. Two electric cars for customer visits will also be supplied at this stage.
All delivery vehicles are fitted with a stop/start facility to reduce emissions and fuel consumption.
We have invested in tracing and navigation technology to allow drivers to use the most fuel-efficient routes.

Our warehouse has been designed to incorporate energy-saving features such as Lux LED lighting systems and modern refrigeration units.
We also work in partnership with New Covent Garden Market which has a zero-to-landfill waste operation. For example: all cardboard/paper, plastic and pallets are sent for recycling; wooden produce boxes are crushed and chipped to make bedding for poultry farms. In the last accounting period of 2025-6, the whole New Covent Garden Market estate recycled the following: 4,591 tonnes of organic material; 1,735 tonnes of pallets; 1,537 tonnes of cardboard and paper; 160 tonnes of plastic. (Source: Covent Garden Market Authority).
Le Marché offers delivery in returnable plastic crates for any customer who has the facilities to store and return them.
All primary cardboard distribution packaging is fully recyclable and manufactured from a minimum of 70% recycled content. Where flexible bags are required, we use certified home-compostable materials.
We use tablets which allow our packers to communicate order amendments directly to our office via tablet screens rather than paper.
All reports and minutes for meetings are produced and viewed/distributed digitally.
Where clients have the capability, we offer paperless invoicing.