Solar Power
Traditional Medicinals® is pleased to announce the completion of a large solar power system at our headquarters in Sonoma County, making us the largest solar powered tea factory on earth!
Check out our live solar monitoring and reporting below:
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This solar project incorporates 1,450 solar panels, generating approximately 430,000 kilowatt hours per year (about 75 percent of our energy needs), and will be supplemented with the purchase of wind energy credits. For years, we have offset 100 percent of our electricity usage with wind credits, and this new solar installation improves upon our low impact environmental objectives.
Since founding the company in 1974, we have always been committed to sustainable business practices that benefit our customers, trade partners, employees and our community” says Drake Sadler, co-founder and Chairman of the Board. “Our company operates according to a set of moral and ethical principles which embrace environmental stewardship, social sustainability (safe working conditions and fair wages), and cultural preservation (most species of plants are collected in the wild by local and indigenous people).”
Environmental stewardship at Traditional Medicinals® is certainly not limited to alternative energy. We’re committed to organic agriculture and sustainable wild collection, working with suppliers to ensure that their practices preserve and protect the environment. We’re always striving to improve upon our stewardship practices and are honored to have won California’s Waste Reduction Award Program (WRAP) for twelve consecutive years. We use recycled paperboard for tea cartons, shipping cases and use unbleached manila hemp fiber (Musa textilis) and cotton string (Gossypium spp.) for our natural tea bags. Our 8.5 acre facility in Sebastopol is nearly self-sustaining with its own septic system and water source, a large well stocked fish pond for fire suppression and landscaping with drought-resistant plants to minimize water usage.
“The healing nature of plants has captured our imagination with their beauty and efficacy,” says Sadler. “As a socially conscious green business, we have a deep respect for the earth and humanity... projects like this solar panel installation, simply reflect and deepen our resolve to service.”