For more than 40 years, we've made all-natural teas that are good for our people and good for our planet. The philosophy of doing business in ways that are both people-friendly and planet-friendly is known as corporate social responsibility, and it is at the very core of the Celestial Seasonings story. We’ve always made doing business the right way a priority – from our humble beginnings in a Boulder barn to today serving more than 1.6 billion cups of tea per year. 

 

We are confident that all Celestial Seasonings Teas deliver on the high quality, safety and taste that consumers have expected from the brand for over 40 years. Celestial Seasonings employs a rigorous testing protocol to ensure all products adhere to strict industry standards. Celestial follows regulations set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition, when a standard has not been established, Celestial utilizes standards set by United States Pharmacopial Convention (USP), the European Union Pharmacopial Convention (EU), and CODEX Alimentarius International Food Standards (established by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Our testing methodology covers three times the recommended agricultural residues tested in the USP standard.

 

Please explore the words and pictures contained on these pages to learn what corporate social responsibility means to us!

Celestial Seasonings was founded in 1969 by a visionary group of young entrepreneurs with an ambitious goal: to make the world a better place by sharing their knowledge of the health benefits of herbs. They were determined to find success while making their new company "an example that business can work in peace and harmony with the planet."

 

Forty years have passed, and Celestial Seasonings remains true to our founders' mission to consistently provide, in their words, "superior products" that help people live healthier lives, while still maintaining "high ideals" like farmer-friendly trading practices and the use of sustainable materials. 

 

Our ingredients come from all over the world these days, but our all-natural teas have always been created in our hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Our passionate employees formulate the recipes, blend the ingredients, design the boxes and package the tea – just like when our founders dried handpicked herbs in a Boulder barn.

 

Our commitment to authenticity has made us one of the largest Specialty Tea manufacturers in the North America, serving more than 1.6 billion cups per year, and one of our very first blends – Sleepytime – is still the most beloved herbal tea in the world. We know that our success is due to the millions of tea enthusiasts who share our belief in the truly original blend of "superior products" and "high ideals" that those young entrepreneurs began more than four decades ago.

Our natural fiber, chlorine-free tea bags don't starch or gluten and are biodegradable and compostable – making them better for you and for our planet. Best of all, because our unique pillow-style tea bag doesn't need a string, tag, staple or individual wrapper, we save 3.5 million pounds of waste from entering landfills every year!

 

We think our boxes are just as important as the goodness they hold, so we've always created beautiful packaging adorned with commissioned works of art and thoughtful, inspiring words. But with a tea box that uses 100% recycled paperboard, including 35% post-consumer waste, and can be recycled again when empty, the beauty of our boxes isn't limited to appearances.

 

We put as much thought into the retail displays in your store as we put into our boxes and tea bags. Our natural brown craft paper displays are made with 100% recycled paperboard, including at least 90% post-consumer content, and our display headers are made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Mixed Sources Certified material. We also encourage our retailers to re-use or recycle our displays again when the tea is gone! 

 

We're continuing our efforts to make our production facility as earth-friendly as our packaging. We recycle more than 700,000 pounds of material every year, including paperboard, shrink wrap, scrap metal, pallets and other materials. In fact, we've reduced the amount of waste we send to landfills by more than 60% in just the past few years! 

 

From our increasing use of wind-generated electricity to power our factory, to expanded recycling and efficiency efforts in our office, to using compostable and biodegradable items in our tour center, café and tea shop, we're extending our commitment to the environment to every corner of our building.

Because we believe that the best ingredients come from the best farming and sourcing practices, and because our founding principle is to always do business the right way, we purchase each of our core botanical ingredients in accordance with our Ethical Trade philosophy.

 

Each of our signature botanical ingredients (including chamomile, spearmint and peppermint, lemongrass, hibiscus and many others) is purchased directly from the farmers and communities that grow them. Going “straight to the source” allows our botanicals purchasers to personally select only the highest-quality ingredients, and also means that more of the benefits of agricultural production stay within the local communities that grow our ingredients.

 

Many of our ingredient suppliers have been part of the Celestial Seasonings family for more than 30 years – and they’ve grown as we’ve grown. By returning to the same farming families and communities year after year for our core ingredients, we provide our farming partners with the stability of a guaranteed market for their crops in the years to come. Long-term relationships also ensure a consistent, reliable and high-quality source for our most important botanicals.

 

Our Ethical Trade partners use their expertise to produce the highest quality botanical ingredients while also being responsible stewards of the land. They choose to meet our strict standards for purity, quality and consistency by using sustainable agricultural practices that are better for the land, produce better ingredients and result in better teas. In addition, Celestial Seasonings does not use GMO ingredients in any of its teas, and our parent company, Hain Celestial, supports mandatory labeling requirements for products that do contain GMOs. 

 

Quality ingredients are important, but we also rely on a team of quality people to make our delicious, all-natural teas. Many of our key Research and Development employees have each been with the company for almost 40 years and are recognized as experts in their fields – ensuring that every cup of Celestial Seasonings tea meets or exceeds our rigorous standards.

 

From our Senior Blendmaster, who tastes each batch of tea to make sure it’s just right, to our globetrotting botanicals purchasers, who have spent decades traveling the world finding the best herbs, teas and spices and discovering exciting new ingredients, these passionate experts – and many more just like them – personally ensure that the world's best ingredients come together perfectly every time to create the world's best teas.