People & Planet

Doing good

We’ve made a simple but bold commitment as a company. We make tasty, organic food, full of healthy things. So, just by nature (pun intended) of what we do, people and planet are getting something out of the deal. Yet while making tasty, organic food full of good, healthy stuff is a start, we’re constantly striving to do more. Here’s some of “the more” that we’re doing now.

Doing good for people

What’s good? If you ask our employees, they’ll tell you about the education grants and incentives to buy a hybrid car. The money to spend on wellness activities, whether it’s for a gym membership or a new commuter bike. Or the on-site organic garden and yes, even the occasional belly dancing at work. In our communities, we sponsor urban gardening projects, environmental education, and preservation programs. And for our customers, we’re making it hard not to eat healthy, with a product that’s as good for you as it is delicious.

Doing good for planet

While other kids were getting an earful about the dangers of running with sticks or faces freezing that way, Arran Stephens got another important message from his father: "Always leave the soil better than you found it." The idea stuck—and thankfully no eyes were put out in the process. It’s been our guiding principle, and organic agriculture is how we can make it happen.

We source our ingredients from organic farms, we’re buying up farmland and converting it to organic, and we’re trying to run our business with the health of the soil in mind at every step. Meanwhile, we’ve reduced the amount of paper in our packages, we compost like crazy, and even have an experimental green roof at our headquarters. We’re on the path to being zero-waste certified by 2010, and completely carbon neutral by 2020. And we never, ever run with sticks (at least not when anyone’s watching).

Thanks for noticing

We run our business this way because we believe it’s the right thing to do (and also more fun). While that’s reason enough for us, we must admit that it’s also nice to be noticed. So we are very proud to announce that we have been selected by Maclean’s magazine as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers 2009.

We’re doing just fine on our own, thanks.

We are a healthy (and profitable) company. In fact, some of the big corporate corporations have offered to buy us out. But we have no plans to sell—to do so would put us in danger of compromising our principles. We believe in our family, our people, our customers, and organic agriculture. And we believe in redefining what it means to say “business is good.”