Bigelow Tea celebrates B-Corp Month with a focus on employee sustainability training
Image: Bigelow Tea
In recognition of B Corp Month, Bigelow Tea, a certified B Corp and the US specialty tea market leader, is encouraging its employees to “B the Change” through a commitment to more sustainable practices at work and at home.
The company recently launched a new training initiative across the organisation that focuses on sustainability education for both the workplace and home. Integrated into the traditional training modules, the Sustainability Training is a year-round educational programme that equips employees with the most up-to-date best practices for reducing their impact on the environment. It also gives employees a voice to suggest additional measures to further that goal within the organisation.
“We saw an opportunity to provide our employees with the knowledge they need to be champions of sustainability in all facets of their lives,” said Cindi Bigelow, third generation president & CEO of Bigelow Tea.
“Our goal at Bigelow Tea is to continually strive to be a more eco-conscious company as a whole. Empowering our employees to be champions of this change in their work and home lives was a natural extension of this goal,” said Bigelow.
Some of Bigelow Tea’s most recent efforts to reduce its impact on the environment include a partnership with Fermata Energy, installing a bidirectional charger at their Louisville location and adding the company’s first electric vehicle. In addition, Bigelow Tea was recently certified by Green-e Energy for using 100% renewable energy across all three of its locations, and also completed a four-year energy audit which enabled the reduction of energy usage ranging from 2%-14% across its three locations.
Sustainability has long been a guiding principle at the organization. At Bigelow Tea’s Fairfield headquarters, the company installed 870 solar panels on the roof of its corporate building in 2007 and has been certified as a Zero Waste to Landfill company since 2012, diverting 95.3% of its solid waste companywide through composting and recycling programmes.
“We want our employees to be sustainability champions, to mentor others, collaborate on efforts and to share their successes with us,” said Bigelow. “We are constantly searching for and evaluating opportunities that allow us to reduce our impact on the environment, and we encourage other organisations to do the same. If everyone just gives one inch, you do move mountains together.”
One of the four principles of the company mission statement includes a commitment to being a good corporate citizen, a principle originally laid out by company founder Ruth Campbell Bigelow over 75 years ago. Said Bigelow, “We’re following her lead, to do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do.”