Business Practices
Q: How do you practice environmental stewardship in your business?
A: We practice environmental consciousness in many ways:
- We choose bottles that are easily recycled all over the country (many places DO NOT recycle clear plastic as of yet)
- We choose larger 32 oz sized and gallon sized refill bottles to save on packaging
- We recycle all of our cardboard, paper, plastic and glass at the shop
- We choose raw materials from socially responsible sources as well as environmentally friendly sources
- Once we profit, we will be giving 1-5% of profits to education as well as non-profits we believe are helpful to the planet and it’s people, we would like to include our employees and give quarterly with each employee giving to the place of their choice, educating others in the company and on our website where we give and why.
- Until we profit, we give to animal shelter fundraisers, woman’s health fundraisers, Children’s Health fundraisers and many others. We give product where we can in place of money for now.
- We choose to create non-toxic, natural and planet friendly products
- Our boxes, paper and brochures are all made from recycled materials. We use natural packaging where possible, for example, the Nature’s First Aid Kit bags are made out of hemp that has not been processed with any petroleum products and as we grow and can afford to tool our own bottles, they will be made out of recycled or PLA materials.
We choose to have strategic alliances with other companies such as www.terranaturals.com that have the same values and to stay away from stores or companies who do not hold those standards.
Q: Where do you stand on using recycled products in your packaging?
A: We use packaging that is widely recyclable, HDPE and PET. We use PET bottles as they most likely end up as an end product and HDPE as it is most widely recycled. We offer gallon sizes so you can refill easily. We do use a company that supplies bottles that other companies would have thrown out and we plan on changing our packaging to biodegradable packaging as soon as the technology is sound enough to hold our products and we are large enough to have a mold done.
Q: Do you take the bottles back and reuse?
A: No. We do encourage our buyers to buy in bulk (we are one of only a couple of manufacturers that supply the same cleaning products in gallons). You have to look at the cost of freight plus the carbon footprint left by shipping empty bottles around and the fact that we could never use the bottle as new because the label will most likely have some wear on it. This is why we offer gallons to our customers.
Q: I noticed that your products don't say that they have a "Green Seal" approval. Why is that?
A: We are not Green Seal approved because there are companies that are approved by Green Seal that are not all natural and non toxic (although they are working on this). We are approved by the Green Products Alliance and by Co-op America both of which have much higher standards for the planet than Green Seal. You can view their requirements by going to their respective websites:
www.coopamerica.com
www.greenproductsalliance.com
Q: Are your oils organic?
A: We are not certified organic. We use organic materials whenever they are available and the price is right. Organic can be very expensive and in many cases the raw materials are not available yet. Our plan is to continue to buy organic when we can and as we grow become more and more organic. We would also like to see the standards of natural and organic raised before we certify (Green Seal is working on that right now). We have been accepted and are members of both Coop America and The Green Product Alliance, and are truly honored to be!