For 25 years, Harvest Market has supported organizations that steward our land and water resources. In the current era of climate change, our continued support of these partners has never been more important. That’s why we’ve added the Climate Collaborative to our list of partner organizations, and will be implementing as many of their recommendations in the coming years as we are able.
The Climate Collaborative is a non-profit organization leveraging the power of the natural products industry to reverse climate change. The Climate Collaborative was born from a belief shared by natural food leaders that our industry has great potential to do much more to reverse climate change by working together. We are grateful to have their guidance, resources and support, all of which are available for FREE to anyone willing to make a change! (Hint hint, nudge nudge…)
The Climate Collaborative promotes taking action in the following nine areas:
From our very start, Harvest Market has had ecological consciousness in our DNA–our reliance upon the natural world and our very part in it makes us inherently interdependent; we are not separate, we are nature and nature is US. It is this awareness that informs nearly every decision we make and that’s what distinguishes us from many other for-profit businesses.
Some of our current environmental practices include:
- Using energy efficient light bulbs and light sensors in bathrooms
- Composting kitchen and produce scraps
- Rewarding customers who bring their own bag with $.10 per bag rebate
- Issuing paperless e-receipts upon request (click here to sign yourself up for paperless e-receipts!)
- Sourcing eco-friendly office supplies, paper products and cleaning materials for store use
- Providing complimentary compostable utensils for customers
- Upcycling building materials for construction projects (ex: customer service desk and register wraps)
- Purchasing non-toxic (low/zero VOC) paints
- Choosing Energy Star appliances whenever possible
- Providing spring water for staff to refill their own bottles
- Maintaining and promoting our native pollinator garden adjacent to parking lot
- Sourcing organic and fair trade apparel for staff
- Providing bike rack parking at entrance
- Collecting glass bottle returns for local milk products
- Donating to local, regional and national non-profit organizations with focus on sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship and community engagement (read more about that here)
- Selling, promoting and educating about the environmental benefits of organic, grass-based, wild and regeneratively cultivated food products
- Sourcing locally whenever possible
- Using organic and fair trade ingredients in Harvest Market Kitchen recipes
- Serving as a community resource for environmental initiatives, events and dialogue
- Recycling what can be recycled, including spent waste oil through Waste Oil Recyclers
- Selling and promoting products that are reusable and reduce single-use waste
- Providing socially and environmentally responsible 401K investments to staff
