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Our Values
When Axel and Sophie Steenberg founded Steenbergs in 2003, they wanted to source high quality herbs, spices and teas and to do this in a way that was good for both people and the environment. These values remain core to our philosophy - great quality spices and teas done ethically and sustainably.
Quality
You can rest assured that your culinary ideas will taste amazing with Steenbergs, because we source only the finest quality spices and teas we can find, hunting for the best in organic and Fairtrade. We get our spices and teas from long-term partners who we check meet our requirements, so you can be confident that you’re buying the best there is. Everything is tested to ensure they deliver the right flavours and sensory cues and have an authentic taste, as well as using third party laboratories to test that they meet all safety requirements.
Sustainability
Steenbergs has a deep commitment to protecting the world in which we live and work. We are clear that how we work cannot compromise future generations from enjoying the same spices, herbs and teas just like we can today. That's what we mean by sustainability. At Steenbergs, we're focused on plant-based products that are farmed in an organic way and we process these as little as possible, without using artificial chemicals like flavourings and presevratives. For us, it's about operating with a light a touch on nature as possible.
Ethics
Steenbergs operates its business as fairly as it can. We treat our staff and suppliers properly, with respect and decency. It's important for us that we can demonstrate that our actions match our words. So, we've been Fairtrade certified for spices and teas since 2005, the first Fairtrade UK spice business, and BCorp certified since 2022. At Steenbergs, we see social exclusion and inequality as being inextricably linked with depletion of natural resources - they're both parts of the same problem and need to be tackled at the same time.
Fairness and respect are core to Steenbergs. Our suppliers should make enough money from growing organic spices and tea to improve their standards of living, as well as those of their workers and their families. It’s about being responsible in ho we source spices and teas, paying the right price and building long term relationships with our suppliers that are resilient through the ups and downs.
Organic food is about respect for the consumer and nature, making food the way consumers expect it to be made without harming, damaging or polluting our environment or adding any unnatural ingredients into the foods we consumer.
'Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful.' (Ernst Schumacher, 1973, Small Is Beautiful, Chapter 2)
The Steenbergs Way
When Axel and Sophie Steenberg founded Steenbergs in 2003, they wanted to source high quality herbs, spices and teas and to do this in a way that was good for both people and the environment. This remains our core philosophy – great spices and teas done ethically and sustainably.
For us, this means Steenbergs is an organic spices and teas business, with some Fairtrade as well. That’s our focus, that’s our DNA.
Drilling into this, Steenbergs operate its business as fairly as it can. We treat our staff and suppliers properly, with respect and decency. Then, Steenbergs’ products have been organically certified since we started and were the first Fairtrade spices anywhere, having literally worked with Fairtrade to develop the original Fairtrade spice standards back in 2005.
But for, fairness and a fairer world will only come about by treating nature fairly and sustainably. We see social exclusion and inequality as being inextricably linked with depletion of natural resources. The biodiversity crisis, climate change, air and water pollution, etc., are all symptoms of an unfair social structure, of living in a society that does not look to its future, sees nature as an inconvenience and so fails to maintain a resilient natural environment.
Steenbergs focus is on working with a light environmental footprint and on repairing the damaged natural world through how it operates. Only a healthy environment gives sustainability for humanity and will reconfigure social injustice.
So, as a business, we’re focused on plants that are farmed organically and sustainably, and we keep away from artificial flavours, preservatives and functional ingredients in the products we create. And we have a wood in Wales and, as we grow, we’ll do more environmental projects in the UK. These are all long term commitments that will pan out on hundreds of years rather than in the short term.
We continually strive to improve our actions to meet this core ethic. So, Steenbergs two premises incorporate many eco-features – low water usage toilets, green energy including solar panelling, solar tubes and sky lights, natural linoleum and as much insulation as possible. Steenbergs recycles all corrugated packaging, paper, glass and metal, and continuously tries to make our transit packaging greener, by using paper-based materials.
We are a small, family-owned business. This has disadvantages in that we have no direct leverage to make big changes in the world we live in. But it gives us great advantages because we are not tied to the rules imposed on most suppliers that are enslaved by the standards of big retailers that merely seek to maximise profits, to maintain the status quo and to minimise genuine change.
So, we are focused on achieving real results that change the way business is run, working for social and environmental good. That’s who we are as people, so that’s how we do business.
Putting this onto a theoretical basis, we have been applying something called the Triple Bottom Line (TBL or 3BL or the three pillars). This means we think about people – planet – profit in our business, rather than being in it for a quick buck for ourselves and flipping the business for someone else. We have to make enough money to be profitable, sustainable and resilient but we’re not driven by growth nor pushing for top-line sales at all costs. Small is enough, so long as we can keep on going.
The Triple Bottom Line is a better way to run a business, being a virtuous circle of slow but constant improvement in how ‘good’ we carry out our business operations and the impact we have as a business on the world, the environment and people within Steenbergs and those who we work with as supplier, buyers or just interested people.
