LittlePod wins the King’s Award for Enterprise

©LittlePod

 

LittlePod is celebrating this morning having been named amongst the first-ever winners of the King’s Award for Enterprise (Sustainable Development). 

Since its launch in 2010, the natural ingredients company has used its Campaign for Real Vanilla to support farmers in the Equatorial regions, helping communities to sustainably farm the fragile rainforests that surround them, whilst encouraging consumers to purchase the precious crops that are grown there. 

Led by Managing Director and founder Janet Sawyer MBE BEM, LittlePod are previous winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Sustainable Development), receiving the UK’s most prestigious business accolade in 2018.  

In an announcement made this morning (21/4/2023), LittlePod was amongst 148 businesses and organisations across the UK to be recognised with a King’s Award, becoming one of the first to receive the newly renamed honour and sparking celebrations at the company’s HQ in Farringdon.

“This is a momentous occasion and a red-letter day in the history of LittlePod,” said Ms Sawyer, who was awarded an MBE in 2020 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of her company’s continuing contribution to international trade, exports, and sustainability. “It is a great honour to receive the King’s Award and is a testament to LittlePodders both here and abroad, who support our campaign for REAL vanilla as 97% of vanillin sold in the West is artificial".

In 2014 LittlePod began a collaborative project with their vanilla farmer in Indonesia. After reviewing much research and methods of growing vanilla, the LittlePod community orchard pioneered the idea that vanilla cultivation could ensure a multifaceted income stream for the farmers thereby growing vanilla in a polyculture system rather than the monoculture system practised at the time, by mimicking forest ecology in this way. The benefits aren’t just for the farmers who depend on this high-value commodity but also for the environment; soil preservation, forest regeneration and biodiversity.

“It is crucial that we continue to underline vanilla’s value to the world, encouraging the indigenous farmers on the Equatorial Belt to preserve and protect the rainforest regions and doing our bit to aid biodiversity, protect the planet and tackle climate change and its impacts. Winning the King’s Award will help LittlePod a great deal as we continue to press ahead with our Campaign for Real Vanilla, and here at our HQ in East Devon, the team couldn’t be more thrilled this morning.”

 

If you would like to find out more about LittlePod, please contact them directly.