Featured Company: Honest Tea

I am going to try to feature a new company every Sunday, when possible, that demonstrates a commitment to social responsibility. This week, I'd like to draw attention to Honest Tea, a Bethesda, Maryland-based beverage company that sells bottled teas and 'ades'.

Here is Honest Tea's "Statement and Aspirations for Social Responsibility":

"We will never claim to be a perfect company, but we will address difficult issues and strive to be honest about our ability or inability to resolve them. We will strive to work with our suppliers to promote higher standards. We value diversity in the workplace and intend to become a visible presence in the communities where our products are sold. When presented with a purchasing decision between two financially comparable alternatives, we will attempt to choose the option that better addresses the needs of economically disadvantaged communities."

Some examples of what Honest Tea does: all of their products are USDA-certified organic; they were the first US-based bottled tea manufacturer to market a Fair Trade certified product - they now market several; through their First Nation Peppermint product, they support I'tchik Herb, a woman-owned company based on the Crow reservation; through their Community Green product, they support City Year, "an AmeriCorps program uniting diverse 17-24 year olds with communities in need"; they help to promote the Ford Escape Hybrid by using one as their marketing vehicle to deliver product samples to various events; they use much less sugar in their products than most other comparable products on the market - a healthier alternative for all; and while individual bottled products certainly are not ideal, they have improved on their packaging by using PETE 1 plastic bottles, which are fully recyclable, do not leach, and require less energy to produce and ship.

I have been a fan of the Honest Tea product prior to knowing about the many great things they do. I only tried the products because of their low sugar content. The taste, in my opinion, was far above the other high-sugar, artificial tasting tea products I had in the past (and sent me to drink primarily water). I cannot vouch for any of the "ade" products (ex. Limeade) at this point, as I have not tried any, but I expect them to be great as well.

After learning about their social responsibility, I became very interested in pursuing an internship with them this past summer, the summer between my first and last years in my MBA program. Unfortunately for me, I was not selected to work with this fantastic company, but Seth Goldman, the co-founder, President and 'TeaEO' of the Honest Tea, was open to letting me down easy himself!

Lastly, I wanted to say that Honest Tea is a supporter of Net Impact, whose mission is to "improve the world by growing and strengthening a network of new leaders who are using the power of business to make a positive net social, environmental, and economic impact." Seth spoke at last year's Net Impact conference and they recruited at the conference's career fair. I recently called Honest Tea in hopes of getting a discount for a case of tea I wanted to purchase for the first meeting of the upcoming semester of NC State's Net Impact chapter, which I co-founded and currently serve as president. I spoke to Leslie, a very friendly representative of Honest Tea. Three days later, I received a generous donation of a free case of Honest Tea for the meeting.

I do hope that people will support this great company. If you do not know where to find their products, Check Here.