Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

“Earth Day is the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord…”
—Margaret Mead

In 1962, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, made it his mission to raise political and social consciousness about environmental issues. After years of demonstrations and speeches in the turbulent 60’s, Earth Day arrived: April 22nd, 1970. Decades later, politicians and scientists are still working to raise our awareness of environmental issues, like Nobel Peace Prize Winner and former Vice President Al Gore, in his book, An Inconvenient Truth.

At Bigelow Tea, our respect for the environment is reflected in everything we say and do, which is why we established a Sustainabili-Tea program. As part of this program, we formed the Trash Hippies (named after the 60’s and 70’s green protesters), a team whose goal was to reduce (by 30%) the amount of trash going to landfill from the Boise Idaho facility. By saving, separating and categorizing all trash into recyclables and non-recyclables, we not only achieved our goal, but exceeded it by an additional 10% – recycling 57,700 lbs of product that would otherwise have gone to the landfill! We continue to recycle: white paper, material cores, brown paper and plastic bags — even utensils and plates in the lunch room! Going green has become a way of life for us.

In the sage words of famous anthropologist, Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.” We at Bigelow Tea are profoundly committed to sustaining the precious bounty that is our planet Earth. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.

We were recently contacted by the city of Fairfield to participate in their town’s Earth Day Celebration.  The town is trying to build the event so more people are exposed to what each and everyone can do to help make the environment better.  Recently we passed around the book “Stirring It Up” which talked about several companies and what they have been doing to make their companies environmentally friendly.  Being able to see what other companies are doing has helped us set higher and higher expectations and look for ways we can make more of an impact. 

As we have taken many steps in the company to be as “green” as possible some of the side benefits have been in our “away from work lives.”  For example, the company had an outside firm come in and offer compact florescent light bulbs for sale at a discount.  Most employees took the opportunity to at least buy one.  The other day one employee told me they were so impressed that they went out and replaced all their old light bulbs with the compact florescent bulbs.  Now they are seeing their electric bills being $30 per month lower, needless to say they are very happy.  The Earth Day celebration is another opportunity to expose people to practices and actions we have taken as a company and as individuals.  One by one people are making a positive impact on the environment and are raising the bar for all to follow.

Dean