How Green is Badger?

Ingredients
Badger supports organic, healthy, sustainable agriculture through our purchasing practices. Organic buying means healthy air, healthy water, healthy earth, and healthy people. For example, our main ingredient, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is organically grown and processed by an organic farmers’ cooperative in Spain, Soler-Romero. We use enough olive oil to represent approximately 10,000 naturally cultivated trees basking in the sun. Badgers at home and at the Mines cook with the same olive oil that goes into our products!

• Our ingredients are 100% natural. By this we mean that they come directly from nature and are not chemically processed or extracted. We do not use any artificial ingredients - period. Virtually all of our products currently contain more than 85% certified organic ingredients by volume and some products already contain 100% certified organic ingredients.
• Our goal for 2008 is to become a USDA Certified Organic company and bear the '100% organic ingredients' statement on the bulk of our products. Many of our ingredients are ecologically harvested, wild-crafted, and/or fairly traded.
• We do not test any of our products on animals, just look for our Leaping Bunny logo.
• We consistently evaluate the sustainability of all ingredients and we regularly review each of our suppliers' practices. We are seeking to use only ethically sourced ingredients.

Energy

• We use energy efficient compact fluorescent CF light bulbs wherever possible, and set our coffee machine and water coolers on timers to reduce unnecessary energy use.
• We are working on an energy policy that will include measuring and planning to reduce our energy use and educating our employees.
• As we plan our new facility, we are considering generating some of our own electricity, purchasing our remaining electricity from renewable sources and eliminating the need for climate control by super insulating and building sensibly.

Paper and Supplies

• In the office, Badger is working toward paperless ordering and message delivery. We ask people to think before printing e-mails and other files. We are also working towards faxing to/from computers instead of paper faxing and we use both sides of our paper!
• We use 100% post-consumer, non-chlorine bleached paper for our office and catalogs. Our marketing materials are typically printed on FSC-Certified, 100% recycled papers. The use and purchase of Forest Stewardship Council certified papers contribute to conservation, responsible forest management and community-level benefits for people near the forests that provide our papers.
• All of our cleaning supplies and soaps are biodegradable and our toilet paper and paper towels are also made from post consumer waste in a chlorine-free process.

Reuse and Recycling

• We always find a use for the plastic bags, cardboard boxes, glass containers and packaging materials that our supplies come in. Even the Styrofoam peanuts get reused!
• Our employees use non-disposable glasses, mugs and plates whenever possible.
• Any material that we can’t reuse or give away gets recycled whenever possible, including damaged tins, glass and metal containers, cardboard boxes unfit for reuse and all of our office paper waste.

Packaging and Shipping

• Our famous tins are made from 89% post consumer recycled 'tin plated steel', the same material as soup cans. We hope you will find a way to reuse your empty tins (to store buttons, safety pins, etc), otherwise they are 100% recyclable.
• Our recyclable in store display boxes are made of 100% recycled newspaper and are clay coated.
• We recently changed our packing material from plastic bubble wrap to paper packing material which is recyclable and biodegradable.
• We have many different sized shipping boxes so that we can always find the best fit (to not ship excess box space, extra packing materials or extra weight) and we reuse cardboard boxes we’ve received to ship our products when possible.
• We continuously seek more environmentally friendly packaging materials and shipping methods. We are currently working to remove plastic from as much of our line as possible and we plan to replace plastic packaging with recycled metal and other alternatives as soon as possible.

Smart Partners

• We try to use local companies whenever possible. This includes hiring local artists, purchasing local goods and using other local businesses.
• We love developing partnerships with businesses that do their best for the environment and people. These include companies from whom we purchase ingredients, supplies, and services.

Employees and Community

• We believe that supporting our employees and our community is a responsibility of a sustainable business.
• Every day we have a chef cook a free lunch for all of our employees made from 100% organic and mostly local foods. The last two seasons our lunch has included and will continue to include produce purchased from a local farm through our share with an organic certified Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
• Badger employees are paid to volunteer their time for environmental and community projects.
• Each year we donate 10% of our before tax profits or $10,000 (whichever is greater) to non-profit organizations supporting children, education, our local community and peace.

Badger and Climate Change
The W.S. Badger Co. takes our role in climate change very seriously. We recognize that as an industry leader we are responsible for taking action and setting a positive example for others. We are currently working towards drafting a comprehensive position and plan of action to address this issue.