Sustainability Profile: Verde Tea

1. What is your company's brand promise, vision or statement of values, and how does it relate to sustainability?
At Verde Tea, our vision is to be recognized as the finest, handcrafted, ethically sourced tea on offer in Calgary while embodying the goals of environmental sustainability and fair trade practices.

We believe in ethical tea. This means supporting local and foreign farmers through Fair Trade practices. Our commitment to this process allows us to provide some of the best quality tea in the world. For us, tea is more than a beverage; it is a representation of the conscious choice to live simply, and to live each day with integrity.
2. How are your products or services environmentally and socially sustainable?
Our teas are organic and fair trade certified ensuring that we respect the land and the people that provide them.
3. How does your company give preference to suppliers who create positive social and environmental benefits either through their products and services or through their community partnerships?
We buy from companies that sell fair trade and organic wherever possible. We are intentional in buying large quantities to minimize transportation impacts. To offset the environmental impact of transporting our tea, we purchase carbon offsets. Two of our distributors have programs with tea farms whereby they educate village children and help to build schools in the communities where the tea is grown and harvested.
4. How does your business minimize the environmental impact of its operations?
• Waste reduction: We offer a discount for people who bring their own mug and always ask whether our customers would like their tea “to stay”. We offer discounts for customers who bring their tea tins in for refilling. And we compost our used tea leaves.
• Recycling: We recycle everything possible.
• Energy efficiency: Our warehouse will be wind powered.
• Water efficiency: We use a tap aerator to conserve water.
• Paper products and administrative supplies: We are currently looking into compostable food storage containers.
• Hazardous materials and cleaning products: We use Small Planet Cleaning Supplies to ensure a non toxic environment for our employees and customers.
5. How does your business demonstrate ethical business conduct?
We are just starting out and are not big enough yet to warrant a Board structure or third party procedures. However, we are committed to working with integrity in all aspects of our business.
6. What strategic community partnerships does your company have in place?
We volunteer our time with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) to help build a strong arts community in Calgary. When our teahouse opens this spring we will be a member of the local community association in which we operate (West Springs/Cougar Ridge). We are proud to be a member of REAP Business Association.
7. What policy or guidelines exist to support charitable contributions?
We donate 10% of our profits to Opportunity International, which is a non profit microloan program that helps give a hand up to women entrepreneurs in developing countries.
8. How many people do you employ locally?
5
9. In what ways does your business demonstrate its commitment to employee health and safety?
When our teahouse opens this spring we will offer training for our employees to protect their health and safety and that of our customers.
10. In what ways does your business demonstrate its commitment to employee development and job satisfaction?
We are just starting out, but we intend to offer professional development opportunities for our employees as we grow. For example, we would like to create a career path for employees, providing them management training and skill development as well as training on fair trade practices and environmental stewardship. Our goal is to bring our staff to training events at the Canadian and World Tea Expos. It is important that our staff's values align with Verde's and that they are ambassadors of conscious living.
11. How does your business support employees to lead balanced lives and be active participants in their communities?
To promote family life and personal balance, we define our full-time positions as 30 hours per week.