Celebrating Earth Day!
For over half a century, Earth Day has served as a time to reflect on the amazing biodiversity of our planet and our impact on the environment. It’s a time when we show gratitude for all that the Earth gives us and try to give back. Now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.
What is Earth Day?
An annual global event, that celebrates the environmental movement and raises awareness about pollution and ways to maintain a clean habitat. Celebrated on April 22nd each year in the US. The first Earth Day was in 1970 went global in 1990. Earth Day led to the foundation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the eventual passing of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes.
An Eco-Conscious Company
As an eco-conscious company, we try our best to implement as many eco-friendly business practices as possible. The most obvious to our customers is that we try our best to help YOU choose reusable, recyclable, and biodegradable products to keep your love of tea eco-friendly too! Most of our merchandise is reusable with eco-friendly packaging, and all our teas are of course biodegradable! Our shipping cartons and envelopes are 100% recycled and recyclable as well.
Reusable Merch!
We have a carefully curated list of reusable teaware and tea related merchandise for sale to keep our customers environmentally conscious too! From our reusable glass and stainless steel flasks, and our Steepster - stainless steel infusers – we happily source our products’ materials to be long-lasting in order to reduce waste.
We also offer a handful of bamboo products like our Japanese bamboo matcha spoon and matcha whisk. Bamboo is an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to many other materials. Bamboo grows extremely fast! Even though it appears like wood, bamboo is a type of grass and is incredibly renewable and versatile.
Our tote bags are made from jute fiber (a versatile fabric) that uses way less water to produce and is much more eco-friendly than any other fabric. Most jute comes from the bark of the white Jute plant, or Corchorus capsularis. 90% of the world's jute comes from Bangladesh. Jute thrives on rain, and with enough water, there's little need for fertilizer to help it along. Nor does it need pesticides. It's one of the world's most eco-friendly fabrics to produce, has an excellent cost-to-outcome ratio, and is sturdy too.
A Solar Powered Warehouse
A big milestone to continue our eco-conscious initiative - we are happy to let you know that our facility runs fully on solar power! Since recently expanding into a larger warehouse facility, where all of our daily tea operations and order fulfilment take place, we have been planning more long term, environmentally friendly business practices. Solar power is a pollution-free, renewable, clean power which causes no greenhouse gases to be emitted after installation.
Being Locally Conscious is Environmentally Conscious!
We have a lot of love for our local customers which are able to enjoy the ambiance at any of our 3 Whistling Kettle restaurant locations. We would be remiss to not give a huge shoutout to our local community, including all of the support they have provided us over the last 20 years. By shopping or dining locally with us, our community has minimized their carbon footprint in more ways than one, and we are happy that we could be a part of that positive action.
Our roots in the Hudson River Valley, one of the most environmentally driven river valleys in the country, has worked had to see that the Clean Water Act of 1948 be accomplished. Our beautiful Hudson River would not be as clean or safe to access if it weren’t for the help of the late legendary folk singer and Hudson Valley resident, Pete Seeger, who launched his 110-foot boat in 1969 and a huge grassroots movement.
The message we can take away from our local environmental stewards is that every action counts.
Learn more about how to lead a more proactive environmentally friendly lifestyle, grassroots organizations near you and Earth Day by visiting www.earthday.org.
