Never Look Away

For us, sustainability is key and every small change accumulates to make a larger environmental impact. At Lebkov, over the last ten years, we have been moving slowly towards more and more organic (and local) products. Last June (2023), we began serving organic coffee; a year ago we started using organic eggs (no small feat considering we get through 80.000 eggs per year); and we have already been using organic farmers cheese for over 10 years.

Lebkov has been offering 5 different types of alternative milk - organic almond, soy & coconut, Oatly & Sproud - at no extra charge for a year and a half. However cow milk is still our 2nd most used ingredient, we serve around 80.000 liters of cow milk a year and we wanted to do better! On National Animal Day (4 October 2023), we started serving biodynamic (organic) milk, from the brand Kalverliefde.

We are proud to be the first chain in The Netherlands to do so. With this step more than 50% of the ingredients that we use are organic. Most people are not aware of the fact that a cow needs to deliver a calf every year in order to produce milk. In (almost) all of these cases, the calves are separated directly at birth from their mothers, as the milk is considered for “human consumption”.

Kalverliefde, in Dutch: “calf-love” or "puppy-love", is an organic biodynamic dairy milk from farmers who don’t separate the calves directly at birth. For the first three months the calfs have the opportunity to grow socially, to run and play & feel safe and happy with the comfort of their mothers.

Every small step, contributes to a bigger impact: sustainably shaping tomorrow!

We serve in paper cups, yet we prefer it if you bring your own!

Paper cups are an issue. But so is the production of ceramics. We believe firmly in re-using sources and recycling products. We haven't found the perfect solution yet. What works for us, is if you bring your own cup. You'll receive a discount on your beverage and no waste is produced. In the meanwhile we are searching the planet for the best options to re-use, reduce and recycle.

We only use recycled plastics (rPET)

Google 'plastic' and the results project pure evil. As a company we see we are part of the problem. And we want to be part of the solution. This requires a sober approach and a keen eye for promising developments. Wherever possible Lebkov avoids using plastic, and if we do, we stick to rPET (recycled plastic). In general, we have a strong focus on recycling, with our plastics, but also with our sandwich left-over tomato-butts, we don't throw these away, but we use them in our homemade tomato soup. Or take our carrot rasp, that we use from our juices, inside our homemade Lebkov carrot cake.