Bigelow Tea’s Sustainability Journey: Programs, People, and Progress

Updated: October 20, 2026

Bigelow Tea is a Certified B Corporation powered by 100% renewable energy which is Green-e® certified, with Zero-Waste-to-Landfill facilities since 2012 and a B Impact Score of 103.1 as of 2025. Sustainability has been part of the company’s DNA since Ruth Campbell Bigelow founded the business more than 80 years ago.  Bigelow Tea has held Certified B Corporation status since 2019.

At Bigelow Tea, honoring and executing sustainability practices is not just a daily or month-long event, it's a commitment ingrained in our culture. Under Cindi Bigelow’s leadership, third generation president and CEO, and WBENC-certified woman-owned business owner, Bigelow Tea has developed environmentally measurable practices that are carried throughout the organization which ranges from maintaining Zero-Waste-to-Landfill operations since 2012 and earning the designation of being a Green-e® Certified company in 2020 to being a Certified B Corporation since 2019.

Cindi Bigelow pursued B Corp certification for one reason: to provide a blueprint for being the most sustainable company possible.

Bigelow Tea has since recertified as a B Corp in 2022 and again in 2025, achieving a B Impact Score of 103.1, well above the minimum score of 80 required to gain certification and the median score of 50.9 for businesses that complete the B Impact Assessment. 

As part of its B Corp commitment, Bigelow Tea maps its global carbon footprint annually and has been a member of B Local Connecticut since 2021, a collective of Connecticut-based B Corps. 

Bigelow Tea’s commitment to environmental stewardship has been part of the company’s DNA since the tea business was founded by Ruth Campbell Bigelow over 80 years ago. Today, these efforts are supported and driven by the Bigelow Green Team.

What Sustainability Certifications Does Bigelow Tea Hold?

Bigelow Tea holds the following third-party verified sustainability certifications:

• Certified B Corporation, first certified 2019, recertified 2022 and 2025, B Impact Score 103.1
• Green-e® Certified, 100% renewable energy across all facilities
•  Zero-Waste-to-Landfill, maintained across all manufacturing facilities since 2012
  

Bigelow Tea is one of a small number of tea brands to hold Certified B Corporation status and has held it since 2019.

What Is a Certified B Corporation?

B Corp certification is awarded by the nonprofit B Lab to companies that meet rigorous standards of accountability, environmental and social performance, and transparency. Companies recertify every three years. For the full story on what B Corp certification means and why it matters to Bigelow Tea, read This Is Why It Matters: Bigelow Tea Is B Corp Recertified. 

In 2022, Bigelow Tea underwent an in-person audit during which B Lab auditors met at HQ in Fairfield, CT with our executive team, sustainability lead, and employees to evaluate our practices. In 2025, we completed a virtual audit to review our progress. Bigelow Tea is also a Benefit Corporation, a separate legal designation that requires consideration of employees, communities, the environment, and other stakeholders alongside financial interests in business decisions.

B Lab’s previous standards, measured through the B Impact Assessment, evaluated a company’s impact across five areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers. Following Bigelow Tea's 2025 recertification, B Lab introduced new certification standards, shifting from a points-based system requiring a minimum score of 80 to specific requirements across seven impact areas: Purpose & Stakeholder Governance, Climate Action, Human Rights, Fair Work, Environmental Stewardship & Circularity, Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and Government Affairs & Collective Action. The new standards require companies to meet foundational requirements at Year 0 and demonstrate additional progress at Years 3 and 5, establishing a roadmap for continuous improvement. Bigelow Tea is currently evaluating these standards and will be required to meet the new requirements during our next recertification.

Since 2021, Bigelow Tea has been an active member of B Local Connecticut, building strong relationships with other purpose-driven businesses. Our inaugural event featured Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's Director of Philosophy, discussing how businesses can be a force for good. Since then, we've hosted an event at the Connecticut State Capitol featuring a panel of B Corp leaders and a press conference to engage policymakers on responsible business practices. Together, we've also hosted educational events, networking, and community initiatives, exploring purpose-centered leadership with a variety of influential keynote speakers. Bigelow Tea’s team also consistently attends the B Champions Retreat, connecting with B Corp leaders from across the U.S. and Canada to exchange ideas and advance responsible business practices.

What is the Bigelow Green Team?

The Green Team supports the Greening pillar of Bigelow's Greening, Wellness, and Community (GWC) program, a concept created by Cindi Bigelow to act on environmental stewardship, employee well-being, and community involvement. Through GWC, employees are encouraged to adopt sustainable practices at work and at home, with opportunities to earn points and rewards for participating in activities.

Every day is Earth Day at Bigelow Tea, thanks to the Green Team. Comprised of passionate employees from every department who are committed to driving real change, the Bigelow Green Team not only represents a culture of environmental consciousness throughout the organization, but also actively spearheads sustainability efforts year-round. Recurring meetings across all facilities serve as a platform for brainstorming, implementing, and tracking the success of strategies in order to reduce Bigelow Tea’s environmental footprint. The result? A greener workplace that not only encourages employees to adopt sustainable lifestyles but also ensures that Bigelow Tea as a whole minimizes its environmental impact. 

Each trimester, our Green Teams introduce a shared sustainability theme that guides employee education and activities across all facilities. Plant locations take turns selecting shared themes, creating a consistent company-wide focus while allowing each location to develop its own activities. Past themes include Farm-to-Table, encouraging local food choices; Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine, promoting waste reduction and creative reuse; and Every Day Is Earth Day, inspiring environmental stewardship and community involvement. Our FY27 themes began with Grow Green Together!, with energy efficiency planned as the next focus.

Sustainability training at Bigelow Tea has achieved 100% plant employee participation, ensuring that environmental knowledge is understood and owned across every department, not just by environmental specialists.

Bigelow Tea received a 2026 Aquarion Environmental Champion Award in the Large Business category. This is Bigelow Tea’s second Aquarion Environmental Champion Award, following its first in 2018. The award recognized Bigelow Tea’s Zero-Landfill operations and its Green-e certification for renewable energy. Members of Bigelow’s Green Team and Building Maintenance Team accepted the award on behalf of the company at Aquarion’s annual ceremony at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo.

Green Team Highlights: Actions That Make An Impact 

How does Bigelow Tea engage with nature and local communities?

From nurturing pollinator pathways at Bigelow Tea's headquarters in Fairfield, CT, which provide flowering plants and habitat for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, to organizing community clean-up events with River Discovery and Idaho Rivers United, the Green Team is at the forefront of helping employees engage with nature by cleaning up local waterways. Employees also roll up their sleeves in the fall for community initiatives like Rake Up Boise, helping neighbors in need with fall yard cleanup. 

The Green Team also inspires employees to be green at home. For Earth Day, the team has distributed flower seeds and encouraged employees to share photos of their gardens, showcasing their own garden harvests and blooms on TV monitors at work. Employees also put their sustainability knowledge to the test with EcoTrivia each trimester, including activities like matching native plants to their environmental benefits

Additionally, our community garden at headquarters in Connecticut has become an example of giving back by donating fresh grown produce to local charity, Bridgeport Rescue Mission (BRM). Employees and interns come together to grow and harvest vegetables, supporting their community while enjoying time outdoors and the wellness benefits of gardening. This commitment is growing alongside Bigelow Tea. At our Louisville facility, space for a community garden was incorporated into the original site plans, with irrigation infrastructure installed during construction, even before the facility opened its doors.

Through initiatives like the annual Bigelow Tea Community Challenge, the company has raised more than $3 million for local charities since 1988. Sustainability is also built into the event through a waste management plan with dedicated recycling, composting, and trash streams. Announcements and volunteers at waste stations help attendees sort properly, while recyclables and compostables are brought back to Bigelow Tea's headquarters for processing. This approach extends to other off-site events, including employee picnics and holiday parties, where waste management is a standard part of event planning.

How does Bigelow Tea support land preservation?

Bigelow Tea is committed to land preservation by sustainably preserving the Charleston Tea Garden. Located on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina, the 127-acre garden is home to over 320 varieties of the Camellia sinensis tea plant and is the largest producer of tea grown 100% in America. 

Preserving the natural heritage of the land is central to how the garden operates. All weeds are removed by hand every day, every season. Waste from tea processing is reused as mulch in the tea fields, promoting a circular approach to land management. The Charleston Tea Garden is also Green-e® certified. 

How does Bigelow Tea reduce and manage waste?

Maintaining Zero-Waste-to-Landfill facilities since 2012 means at least 95% of our waste has been diverted from landfills through methods like composting food scraps in the cafeteria, recycling everyday and hard-to-recycle materials, and donating reusable shipping boxes to food pantries. 

There's always room to improve. When we identified inconsistencies in waste management practices across our plants, we launched a company-wide effort to make the program easier and more consistent for employees to sort waste correctly. To understand where improvements were needed, our employees worked on verifying materials to make sure they ended up in the right places. We photographed and mapped every waste container, partnered with Marketing to develop clearer signage, and relied on employee feedback to make the improvements work. Today, regular waste audits and meetings we call Trash Talk, help us analyze our practices and continually make improvements. 

At our Louisville facility, we're building a comprehensive zero-waste program from the ground up, from designing waste collection systems and equipment to collaborating with waste vendors and engaging employees. The facility also gives us an opportunity to explore innovative recycling solutions for hard-to-recycle materials. Our pilot program in the warehouse is helping us refine the program as we work toward expanding zero-waste-to-landfill operations throughout the facility.

Green Team-led waste-sorting initiatives have delivered measurable results: cafeteria waste-sorting accuracy at Bigelow Tea’s Fairfield facility improved by 30% following the introduction of Trash Madness, a company-wide competition that gamified proper waste sorting. When ongoing waste-sorting challenges sparked conversations about how to improve, our Green Team came up with a fun solution inspired by March Madness: employees studied a Waste Cheat Sheet before racing to sort waste into the correct streams. Music, cheering, and friendly competition filled our plants as employees came together to have fun and learn. It was such a hit that the Green Team held the competition for our Board of Directors and visiting Sales team members.

Trash Madness was also accompanied by EcoTrivia, a trimester-based activity that tests employees on matching materials within our facilities to the correct waste stream. Green Team members grade the responses, reinforcing proper sorting practices. Together, these activities achieved 100% employee participation across our plants.

See Trash Madness in action: Our Board of Directors joins the fun and Bigelow Tea employees take on Trash Madness.

Our Green Teams also find creative ways to give materials a second life, from upcycling supply chain materials into winter decorations to collecting old holiday cards for donation and reuse. Employees have transformed surplus materials into ornaments for winter holidays, floral arrangements for Valentine's Day, and Kentucky Derby hats. They’ve exchanged leftover gift-wrapping supplies and even turned old paperwork into holiday garland. Through our partnership with Revive Art & Craft Supply Shop of Middletown, CT, a store that supports the arts, reduces landfill waste and celebrates community-driven creativity, hundreds of holiday cards are also collected annually from employees and upcycled into art projects.

How does Bigelow Tea manage energy use?

Bigelow Tea is powered by 100% renewable energy!  Our commitment to renewable energy is supported by Green-e® certified across our facilities in Idaho, Kentucky and Connecticut. 870 solar panels on the roof of our Connecticut headquarters, for example, convert sunlight into electricity.

Beyond renewable energy, we're continually looking for ways to reduce energy consumption across our operations. From upgrading and installing energy-efficient HVAC systems and air compressors to improving lighting, we're investing in improvements that help our facilities operate more efficiently.

At our Louisville facility, we're incorporating energy efficiency into the building from the start, including the installation of a Building Management System to help monitor and manage energy use. We're also expanding access to EV charging, with four charging ports already available at our Connecticut headquarters and four more planned for Louisville.

Within the workplace, the Green Team collaborates with the IT department to educate employees on energy-saving practices including switching computers to dark mode, which uses less energy on certain types of screens, and raising awareness periodically about vampire energy devices, which continue to draw electricity even when turned off. Examples include phone chargers, computer cords, and electric tea kettles and more. Through seasonal office audits and departmental competitions, the team encourages corporate employees to take proactive steps towards conserving energy by shutting off their computers. Raising awareness has effectively changed employee behavior as data from each internal audit shows an increase in the number of employees who turned off these devices.  We have also hosted lunch and learns for employees to hear from our local utility companies about reducing energy consumption and cost at home. 

In addition to responsibly recycling our own electronic waste (e-waste), such as old computers, monitors, and other electronic devices, Bigelow Tea hosts monthly collections where employees can bring broken electronics from home. Bigelow Tea takes care of recycling these items on employees' behalf, making it easier for everyone to dispose of electronics responsibly.

Bigelow Tea’s Green Team Best Practices Tips

• Schedule recurring meetings, structure is important.
• Build a flexible and diverse team so every department is represented; all voices matter and provide valuable insights.
• Include interns by educating them on all sustainability programs and engage them in hosting sustainability-focused activities. This includes harvest produce for donation at our community garden weekly. Great ideas emerge through our collaborations.
• Divide and conquer all tasks. Every Green Team member brings strengths and each department has ideas on how to execute the greening ideas that have been accepted. This is not a one-person effort. With everyone being fully committed to the sustainability programs, we have achieved great success over the years.

More Insights From The Bigelow Tea Green Team

Three generations of the Bigelow family and 450 employees which includes the Bigelow Green Team are deeply committed to a purpose far beyond making profits, where the aim is to always do better through good citizenship, ethical business practices, accountability and transparency, protecting the environment, and supporting communities local to all Bigelow Tea facilities.