Archive for the 'Green Business' Category
As many of you may know, the 2011 tea harvest is well underway in Japan. With the devastating effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which badly damaged Japan’s Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant, there has been a lot of speculation in the marketplace regarding the safety of Japanese tea. While much of the fearful chatter over irradiated Japanese products has subsided in recent weeks, concerns still abound.
Arbor Teas has begun to receive Japanese tea from the 2011 harvest. We’ve pulled together some important facts which we hope will help our customers understand the status of this issue (and, without diminishing the significance of this event, perhaps relieve some concerns).
1) No Japanese tea – either freshly picked or packaged – has been discovered to be contaminated by radioactive particles. (Update 6/1/11 – Unfortunately this is no longer true. Radioactive cesium in newly harvested tea has been detected. Shipments of all the tea from the area were suspended pending additional tests. Please see comments below for more details. We are working with our suppliers to have samples of their 2011 crop tested for radiation and will post them when available.) continue reading »
May 16 2011 | Green Business and Miscellaneous and Tea and Health | 11 Comments »
It’s so easy nowadays- just point, click and buy. Depending on where you bought from and the availability, you could have your item delivered to your house in about a week. Sounds easy, simple and energy free, right? Well, sort of. While you didn’t necessarily power up your car and drive from store to store scavenging for the perfect item, a lot of fuel energy was probably used in your delivery. So, if an item is being delivered to you what is the best method and why?
Fossil Fuels: What & How
We use biologically-based fossil fuels to power most of our locomotive machineries. Fossil fuels are naturally made from the anaerobic decomposition of dead animals. In fact, the ones we use today are typically millions of years old (some fossils exceeding 650 million)! When animals and plants decompose, they release carbon into the atmosphere at an incredibly slow rate. However, when fossil fuels are burned in order to make fuel energy, the carbon from the decomposing organisms are released at a much higher rate. So, the amount of carbon that should have been released over the span of tens of millions of years is ultimately released in the span of a few hundred years. This extreme release of carbon as carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses drives the greenhouse effect responsible for climate change. While it would be difficult to regress back to environmentally “healthy” shipping options such as horse and buggy, it is important, as a consumer, to know your different shipping options and their individual impact on our fragile environment.
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March 18 2011 | Energy and Green Business and Sustainability | 1 Comment »
As an environmentally conscious consumer, it can be tough to reconcile the material excess of the holiday season with one’s concern for the planet. But how do you cut down on your environmental impact without sacrificing the joys of the season? It’s easier than you think, actually. Aside from sticking with gifts that are inherently more Earth-friendly (such as organic, recycled/recyclable, carbon-offset, etc.), here are some ideas to get you started:
Carpool and Minimize/Consolidate Trips
So you’ve decided to go to the mall – a popular activity this time of year! More than likely, your friends and neighbors need to do a little shopping too, so why not team up and carpool? They may even have gift ideas that you hadn’t considered. But if you already know what you’re going to buy, be sure to plan your route to minimize unnecessary, gas-wasting travel.
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December 03 2010 | Green Business and Sustainability | No Comments »
Earlier this week, NASA released a report confirming the meteorological speculations: 2010 is expected to be the hottest year on record, based upon the temperatures witnessed so far this year. NASA’s report, which can be found here, states, “2010 is likely, but not certain, to be the warmest year in the GISS record.” GISS refers to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA’s program for studying global change. This is bad news for tea lovers – whether you’re environmentally-minded or not! In recent history, the tea producing world has encountered serious trouble from the onset of global warming, from a variety of climate-related hardships. Here are a few examples from our prior post on the impact of global warming on tea production:
- Drought in China leaving low-lying plants covered in dust, blocking crucial sunshine;
- Intense rainfall contributing to erosion of slopes and loss of plantings in India;
- Unprecedented frost in Rwanda, causing loss of 70% of leaves;
- Erratic rainfall in Kenya, with drought occurring twice as frequently;
- Higher temperatures in China contributing to increased pest populations.
NASA has noted that the effects of La Nina (the counterpart to El Nino that causes some cooling effects) will probably muddle the data for the rest of the year, bringing the year-long average close to the record setting temperatures of 2005. If 2010 were not a year affected by La Nina, NASA scientists believe that it would undoubtedly be the hottest year on their records. But even with the cooling effects of La Nina, 2010 will at least parallel the temperature anomaly of 2005.
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August 22 2010 | Green Business and Sustainability | No Comments »
In today’s steadily expanding ‘green’ market, there is a lot of confusion among ethical consumers about what exactly some of the labeling means – and with good reason. There is an incredible amount of new terminology coming to the marketplace. A good portion of the terminology has to do with the packaging materials, which are a major concern now that the amount of waste being dumped in the oceans and third world countries has become public knowledge. To help clarify things, we’d like to explain the difference between ‘compostable,’ ‘biodegradable,’ ‘degradable,’ and the standard of our own packaging material, ‘backyard compostable.’
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June 30 2010 | Green Business and Sustainability | 9 Comments »
Beginning on Earth Day 2010, Arbor Teas became the first tea company to deliver its full line of organic loose teas in 100% backyard compostable packaging! With the release of this next generation packaging, we at Arbor Teas advanced our environmental mission, continuing to lead the tea industry through our staunch commitment to sustainable business practices. For the first time ever, tea drinkers are now able to compost their tea leaves AND tea packaging together in their home composting system!
ABOUT OUR BACKYARD COMPOSTABLE TEA PACKAGING
Our exciting new packaging is composed of a cellulose film made from wood pulp sourced from sustainably-managed trees. Most compostable packaging available in today’s marketplace is only truly compostable in industrial settings optimized for rapid breakdown. By contrast, the films used for Arbor Teas’ new packaging can actually breakdown in a backyard compost setting.
Because of greater variation in moisture and temperature, backyard composting environments have historically been incapable of breaking down so-called “compostable” packaging materials (e.g. corn plastic cups and take-out containers and the like). However, the material chosen for Arbor Teas’ new packages requires a less optimized environment for biodegradation, representing a major advancement in low-impact packaging. continue reading »
April 22 2010 | Green Business and Products and Sustainability | 4 Comments »
After a very rigorous screening process, we are pleased to announce that Arbor Teas is now a member of Green America’s Green Business Network! The Green Business Network is the green business program of Green America, the nation’s leading non-profit educator on socially and environmentally responsible consumption and investing. Green America’s mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, businesses and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Companies are only eligible for membership in the Green Business Network™ if they are found to be:
- using business as a tool for social change;
- “values-driven,” not simply profit-driven;
- socially and environmentally responsible in the way they source, manufacture, and market their products, and run their offices and factories; and
- committed to and employing extraordinary and innovative practices that benefit workers, communities, customers, and the environment.
We are deeply honored to be included in this select directory of the nation’s most progressive businesses, and view it as further validation of the intense focus Arbor Teas maintains on matters of sustainability and social justice. Arbor Teas is proud to be working with Green America to advance their mission.
September 30 2009 | Green Business and Media | 2 Comments »
So Earth Day 2009 is nearly upon us, and that seems like a good enough reason to show off what we’re doing here at Arbor Teas to reduce our impact on the planet. We’re not usually ones for the “hard sell,” but this may be the one time of year that we’ll make an exception. The degree to which we’ve minimized our environmental “footprint” is a real source of pride for us here at Arbor Teas, and every once in a while we can’t help but brag. So, in case you were looking for a few more reasons for Arbor Teas to become your tea source (or if you just want to take comfort in knowing that your source for tea is doing everything it can think of to reduce it’s envirommental impact), here you go!
Reason #1 – Exclusively Organic Teas: We are deeply committed to organic agriculture, offering an entire catalog of organic teas and tisanes. Organic farming excludes the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), resulting in a variety of benefits to flora and fauna, air and water qulity, and our climate. Arbor Teas offers one of the largest catalogs of USDA certified organic teas available.
Reason #2 – Green Packaging: Our packaging is specially designed to minimize its “environmental footprint,” relying on parchment-lined paperboard and glassine-lined kraft paper instead of tin-plated steel. This shift reduced the carbon emissions associated with our packaging by over 80%!
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April 21 2009 | Green Business and Sustainability | 1 Comment »
You know that saying about the postal service, “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night…”? Well the same can be said doubly for our package courier, Dave Askins (aka Homeless Dave) – because he does it on a bike! Every day, Dave and his bicycle-powered hauling company, HD Hauling, loads our outbound packages onto his industrial-grade bicycle trailer and hauls them to the post office and other shipping depots. And we’re not just talking 10 or 20. More like 60 to 80!
This holiday, Dave had to contend with somewhat more generous snowfall than we’ve seen in recent years. And of course, on the morning of our last day of shipping for Christmas Eve delivery, we got a major dump. Even before the City could clear the streets, Dave arrived to haul away the last of our holiday deliveries. And although many, MANY cars and trucks found themselves mired in the snowy mess that day, our packages made it through the first leg of their jouney to our customers safe and sound.
By hiring HD Hauling to help our packages reach their destinations, we not only support a cool local endeavor, but it stands as one more small way we’re working to reduce the carbon footprint of this little tea company of ours. So, next time you place your order with Arbor Teas, think of Dave!
January 06 2009 | Green Business and Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »
Arbor Teas has taken a variety of measures to reduce the overall environmental “footprint” of getting our teas to our customers. Among these is our annual contribution to CarbonFund.org to offset those carbon emissions generated by our business that we haven’t figured out a way to avoid (yet). We are very proud to offset the carbon emissions of our entire operation, including the shipment of our products from origin, to us, then out to our customers. CarbonFund.org has estimated that our “carbon footprint” for the coming year will be just over two tons of carbon dioxide. That sounds like a lot, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a drop in the bucket. So, to help shrink the size of that “bucket” even more, we just offset nearly 15 times our expected carbon emissions for the year – 35 tons in all!
June 30 2008 | Green Business | 1 Comment »
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