Sustainability at GloryBee

• 46% of our products are certified Organic.
• We sold 136,284 pounds of Fair Trade Certified product in 2015.
• 30% of our suppliers have been surveyed for their sustainability practices.
• In 2015, we certified our Organic honey as Non-GMO Project Verified.

Ethical Sourcing Goals:

Increase responsible sourcing and traceability, and raise awareness for the positive impact of Fair Trade and Organic certified products.

Community Involvement

Through our 41 years of business in the Pacific Northwest, our company has held a resounding commitment to corporate and social responsibility. Our commitment to the highest moral and ethical standards is increasingly evident in our efforts to care for the people and environments affected by our business including our customers, employees, suppliers, as well as local and global communities.

• We partnered with Attune Foods and Food for Lane County to donate 1.2 million servings of nutritious, hearty cereal to children in over 146 school and childrens’ programs across the country.
• We provide people with more opportunities to engage with community partners. Employees are encouraged to take advantage of 4 hours of paid volunteer work in the community. 
• Throughout 2015, our employees donated over 238 volunteer hours providing community service to local organizations.
• We helped raise over $100,000 for Habitat for Humanity and 23 of our employees volunteered to help build the house that these funds were raised for on our first annual Day of Giving on September 12, 2015.
• In 2015, we hosted our first annual Save the Bee 5K event to increase awareness of honey bee health and donated all proceeds to our Save the Bee initiative, which helps to fund the research efforts of the Oregon State University Honey Bee Lab.

Community Involvement Goals:

Our goals for the future include increasing our community outreach through a variety of events and encouraging employee engagement in sustainability and healthy living practices. At GloryBee, we are proud that we have never had to lay off an employee, and look forward to continuing a culture of respect and responsibility.

• Lean more about Save the Bee 
• Learn more about Food for Health

Efficent Distribution and Production

GloryBee is dedicated to reducing energy usage and our production of greenhouse gasses to minimize our footprint. By producing and distributing our products as efficiently as possible, we are able to manage our resource consumption. In 2011, we consolidated five separate facilities into two locations, installed a photovoltaic solar system on the roof of our production facility in 2012, and in 2013, the energy from that system began to not only power our electricity needs but also provides heat to our water system. To fuel our vehicles, we use a 20% biofuel-diesel mix, and source this from recycled waste cooking oil.

• To help reduce our CO2 emissions, we have increased our employment of bicycle delivery services in downtown areas by 14% this year, delivering 61,676 pounds of product by bike.
• We completed the onboard installment of our recording devices in 2015 to more accurately measure our fleets’ fuel usage and found a fuel efficiency increase of 0.2% over 2014.
• In downtown Portland we use b-line bicycle delivery to help reduce our c02 emissions.
• 100% of our facility energy use is offset by Bonneville energy credits, which supports the generation of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
• Our rooftop solar power system currently generates 11% of our electricity to power our production facility.

Product Distribution Goals:

In March 2016, we added Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) dual fuel technology to two of the trucks in our existing fleet. These trucks are expected to burn cleaner fuel emissions, reducing up to 40% of the greenhouse gasses than our current BioDiesel trucks produce.

 

Environmental Responsibility

We strive to promote a culture of environmental stewardship and responsibility. Incentives to carpool, bus or bike to work are offered to employees. All of our break rooms have clearly marked recycling and composting containers, and all trash containers are labeled to remind employees that waste goes to the landfill. Our metal drums are recycled and plastic totes are re-sold in our factory store. In order to continue to improve our sustainability efforts and increase employee awareness, our Sustainability Manager is becoming more involved to help us on the road to becoming a “zero waste” company.

• Water use is 100% offset by the Bonneville Energy Foundation Water Restoration Credits. In our name, Bonneville is working to restore wetlands in the Eugene watershed.
• We recycle packaging materials, and provide an incentive for companies to return our empty honey totes. Plastic totes are washed out for reuse.
• GloryBee has a growing company-wide recycling culture. In 2015, we recycled 94% of all of our waste.

Environmental Responsibility Goals:

Our goal is to increase or recycling and composting efforts to become “zero waste” by 2020.

Track our Solar Stats

We've gone Solar and installed a two solar arrays that generate a total of 45.41 kWp at our production facility. You can view in real time how much energy we're generating along with the reduction in our carbon footprint. To see more detailed stats, click here for our first solar array or click here for the second array.