Sustainability at Glaslyn: Eco-Friendly Ice Cream & Pizza in Eryri

At Glaslyn, Eryri's oldest ice cream parlour and pizzeria, sustainability isn't a slogan, it's just how we've always tried to do things. We've been part of this community for three generations, and we want to still be here for a fourth, so running an eco-friendly, sustainable business in Eryri matters to us as much as the ice cream and pizza does.

What we've done so far to reduce our impact

We've tracked our carbon footprint, right down to scope 3, since 2021, so we know exactly where our impact comes from. We've cut single-use plastic from our takeaway packaging, swapping plastic bottles for cans and glass and using cardboard or home compostable cups where we can.

We were the first ice cream parlour in the UK to install an air-cooled gelato pozzetti. It keeps our ice cream fresh for 48 hours even without power, handy during outages, and customers can still see the product on display.

We buy local wherever possible. Our pizza lamb comes from one of our managers' own farms, and our milk comes from Plas Isaf dairy in the Conwy valley, delivered in refillable buckets to cut single-use plastic waste. In November 2024 we installed solar panels, so part of our energy now comes straight off our own roof.

Where we're at now

Our team trained for 938.25 hours in 2024-25 alone, because investing in our people is part of investing in the business. We have a period and menopause policy so women in our team feel supported and heard. We're now measuring our energy, water and food waste so we know where to focus next, and we donate 10 pence from every pot of wholesale ice cream to Cymdeithas Eryri (the Snowdonia Society), who do brilliant conservation and education work across the area.

Our sustainability goals for Eryri

We've aligned ourselves to three UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 8, decent work and economic growth: stable jobs, real upskilling, and more community events that bring people together.

Goal 12, responsible production and consumption: measuring and reducing our waste, energy and water use.

Goal 15, life on land: buying local, supporting Cymdeithas Eryri, and working with our suppliers on a purchasing policy that keeps us moving in the right direction.

Each month we focus on one part of each goal, tracking our progress against our own action plan.

Our promise

We know we're not perfect. We've stopped buying carbon credits so we can put that money into reducing our impact directly. Once we've done all we can ourselves, we'll look at offsetting what's left. For now, it's about small, honest steps, for the business, our staff, our community, and Eryri itself.

Want to see it for yourself? Visit us in Beddgelert, or read more about our story and where our ingredients come from.