Honest Tea’s fifth annual Mission Report reveals a marked increase in the amount of organic ingredients purchased by the company from 2007-2013. In 2013, Honest Tea purchased 6,536,948 lbs., up from 790,000 lbs. purchased in 2007, the year prior to the investment by The Coca-Cola Company. This eight-fold increase in seven years is in line with the tremendous growth of Honest beverages sold in the U.S. that enabled the mission-driven company to hit a major milestone in early 2014 with the sale of its one billionth beverage. 

“It’s exciting to see how our growth is starting to have an influence on the decisions our supplier communities make about whether they should choose organic and/or fair trade practices,” explained Honest Tea’s co-founder & TeaEO Seth Goldman. “While we’ve made a lot of progress, this mission report helps us understand how much more we have to do.”

The report explores topics such as the social investments in communities where ingredients are sourced; examination of continued efforts to reduce environmental footprint through packaging changes and resource management; and the role of engagement and communication with consumers in an effort to move the mission of democratizing organics forward. Report highlights include:

• An increase in the annual pounds of Fair Trade Certified™ ingredients purchased from 72,000 in 2007 to 550,853 by the end of 2013—a seven-fold rise.

• The Assam Eye Care Initiative, which brought together non-profits VisionSpring & Fair Trade USA to provide eye screenings and corrective lenses for more than 5,100 tea pluckers and community members in Assam, India where Honest Tea sources its black tea leaves.

• A partnership with National Park Foundation to encourage people to #ParkYourThirst and get outside during Earth Month via an integrated social media campaign.

• A doubling in the number of beverage containers collected and recycled as part of the Great Recycle tour in 2014, rising to a collective 537,000+ since the program’s launch in April 2012.

• A partnership with the organization How2Recycle on its program to assist in clarifying the recycling process with simple, standardized consumer recycling instructions. In conjunction with the initiative, a more detailed recycling logo has started to appear on labels and should be completed by the end of 2015.

• Participation with 1% for the Planet, which commits Honest Tea to donate the equivalent to 1% of the sales of its newly refreshed glass-bottled tea line to nonprofit organizations focused on environmental causes.

The entire 2014 Mission Report is available here: http://bit.ly/2014HonestMissionReport.