Nothing feels better on a hot summer day than a cool refreshing iced tea, so this summer quench your thirst in an eco-friendly way with Honest Tea. From small beginnings in Bethesda, Maryland, this company has grown big by producing amazing, organic tea while staying Earth friendly. Honest Tea is very straight forward about their company, giving clear information about their Product, Packaging, Planet, People, and Partnerships, so you can drink delicious tea without worrying about harming the environment.

Product

Honest Tea makes amazing tasting tea that is easy to find in most supermarkets. One of their most popular flavors, Honey Green Tea, has a strong flavor without being overly sweet like many bottled teas. Rather than using sugar, a hint of honey is used, which lets the real taste of great green tea come through. As well as being delicious, this tea is also good for you. Beyond the usual health benefits of tea, Honest Tea is also chalk full of antioxidants. And, for those of you trying to stay fit for swimsuit season, you’ll be happy to know that Honest Tea is low in sugar with an average of 14 grams less than other bottled teas on the market.

Packaging

Honest Tea is constantly making changes to their packaging to make it more green – and the changes are working. They recently performed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on their two top products. This analysis tracked the product from cradle to grave to determine how much carbon emissions each bottle caused, and which components needed the most work. The LCA found that .34kg of CO2 is released per plastic bottle, but .37kg per glass bottle. Honest Tea is also constantly finding new ways to reduce carbon emissions caused by packaging. One way they did this was by decreasing the height of their plastic bottle trays from three inches to two, which reduced the amount of material needed for trays by 22%. This reduction is estimated to save about 1,300 trees every year.

Planet

Honest Tea uses many different and innovative techniques to reduce their carbon footprint. For example, they recently made their bottles 22% lighter. The lighter bottles contribute to a 600-pound weight decrease in every full truck, meaning that the trucks can go much further without refueling. In 2008, the company also started buying renewable energy credits, which are applied to wind farms in Iowa. Even the cars they use to promote their product are Saturn VUE hybrids. Honest Tea also encourages their customers to be eco-friendly in other ways. During Earth Month 2011, Honest Tea gave a free reusable shopping bag to anyone who purchased four Honest Tea products, as well as giving customers the opportunity to plant a tree in the US, which resulted in nearly 6,000 trees being planted, with an additional 44,000 to be planted in the future.

People

As well as treating the environment kindly, Honest Tea also respects their employees. They are Fair Trade certified which means they have to meet lots of working condition criteria like fair wages for the workers picking tea leaves and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices.

Partnerships

Honest Tea also has many great partnerships with foundations like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Autism Speaks, and Girls on the Run. One particularly eco-friendly foundation that they support is Bethesda Green. Through this foundation, Honest Tea has helped set up solar powered recycling bins throughout Bethesda, Maryland, and they hope to continue installing recycling bins in other cities.

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Image Credit: Honest Tea