NEW REPORT FINDS HONEST TEA® PURCHASED 4.4 MILLION LBS. OF ORGANIC AND FAIR TRADE USA CERTIFIED INGREDIENTS IN 2011
Third Annual Company Mission Report Outlines Practices for Sustainability, Growth & Innovation
(Bethesda, Md. – December 18, 2012) - Honest Tea®, the nation’s top-selling organic bottled tea company today released its 2012 mission report, “Keeping it Honest.” The third annual report details how the company is working to live up to its mission - “to create and promote great-tasting, healthier, organic beverages” – and extend economic opportunities to help communities in need. Keeping It Honest, which examines data from June 2011 – May 2012, is part of Honest Tea’s ongoing quest to live up to its mission and to be transparent about progress and setbacks toward this goal with respect to all aspects of the business.
“Keeping It Honest helps ensure that all of our major decisions are reviewed annually through the lens of our mission,” says co-founder and TeaEO Seth Goldman. “We’d like to think that we always have our mission in mind as we operate, but it’s helpful to have this annual report to hold us accountable.”
Highlights include:
● 354,322 lbs. of wood pulp and other natural resources conserved as a result of reducing the amount of cardboard in each Honest Kids carton by 0.56 oz.
● 1,300 metric tons of CO2 emissions projected to be saved by transferring bottled-beverage production to a facility 500 miles closer to the warehouse.
● 325,000 lbs. of Fair Trade USA certified ingredients purchased. Fair Trade premiums go directly to the communities where the ingredients are sourced and invested in schools, better roads and electricity, vaccines, computers and busses.
● 4,367,000 lbs. of organic ingredients purchased in 2011 an increase of 13% over 2010, and up from 790,000 lbs. in 2007. This growth is a result of the company’s efforts to democratize organics via expanded distribution.
The report also highlights a variety of mission-related initiatives, including an award-winning recycling initiative, The Great Recycle, community programs and partnerships, and more.
Honest Tea’s Vice-President and Deputy Chief of Mission, Cheryl Newman says “this Mission Report is our most comprehensive to date. We were able to review a recent shift in our West Coast production through the lens of our 2011 Life Cycle Analysis. It’s a great example of being able to manage what we measure, and more clearly understanding the environmental benefits of our decisions.”
Dan Forman
301-652-3556
About Honest Tea
Founded in 1998, Bethesda, MD based company Honest Tea is the nation's top-selling organic bottled tea company specializing in lower calorie beverages that are ‘just a tad’ sweet. Honest Tea's product lines include: Honest Tea ready-to-drink bottled teas, and Honest Ade and Honest Kids organic thirst quenchers. All varieties are USDA-certified organic and all tea varieties are Fair Trade Certified™. In addition to receiving an “A ” and being named one of The Better World Shopping Guide's "Twenty Best Companies on the Planet based on overall social and environmental record," Honest Tea was also listed as one of PlanetGreen.com's "Top 7 Green Corporations of 2010," and was ranked by The Huffington Post as one of the leading "8 Revolutionary Socially Responsible Companies." Honest Tea was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company in March 2011 and operates as an independent business unit.