{"id":19286,"date":"2016-05-20T11:08:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T15:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=19286"},"modified":"2016-05-20T11:13:27","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T15:13:27","slug":"how-ws-badger-uses-technology-to-green-their-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/how-ws-badger-uses-technology-to-green-their-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How W.S. Badger Uses Technology to Green Their Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Julia Marchand<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Monday morning and I\u2019ve just arrived at work. With hot coffee in my mug, I rush to make progress on my daily task list. Snatching a sturdy catalog from the corner of my desk, I dial a number quickly, eager to place this body care order for the independently-owned natural food store I help to manage. As the line rings, my mind jumps ahead to the list of items that are depleting from our shelves.<\/p>\n

But instead of a customer service representative, my dialing sends me to a recording: \u201cWe\u2019re sorry to have missed you,\u201d the cheerful voice on the line tells me, \u201cbut the Badger headquarters is currently closed so our team can pick up roadside litter.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when it really struck me that this family business was different. I have always loved the company for their organic, aromatic balms, lotions and soaps and for years their Headache Balm has been a staple in my purse and a friendly little badger illustration has smiled up at me every time I put on sunscreen. But until this moment, the depth of their benevolence hadn\u2019t really sunk in.<\/p>\n

W.S. Badger<\/a>, a more than 70 person B Corporation<\/a> nestled into my home state of New Hampshire, is truly using business as a force for good. As a B Corp (an already high-standard network of companies), Badger placed on the \u201cBest for the World\u2014Environment\u201d list in 2015 because of the environmental score they earned during the B Impact Assessment, which placed them in the top 10 percent of over 1,600 Certified B Corps.<\/p>\n

Badger states,<\/p>\n

We believe that a healthy business is like a well-tended garden. Our business, which began as a seed, has been nourished over the years with good intentions. To us, money is a fuel not a goal, just as sunlight is the fuel that allows a garden to grow and flourish but is not the purpose of the garden \u2026 And just as a garden is rooted to the earth, our business is connected to the natural world around us.<\/em><\/p>\n

But what does that root system look like in quantifiable business terms?<\/p>\n

To start, nearly all products are made in New Hampshire with the rest being made in other nature-focused facilities within the U.S. and Canada. Badger regularly looks at their supply chain under a microscope to zero in on the overall sustainability and social good of their products. Their exceptional ingredients\u2014right down the hand-picked blossoms that become their Organic Rose Oil\u2014are carefully selected from the purest sources on Earth. Almost all of their ingredients are certified organic which contributes to the natural health of air, soil, water and the people involved in planting, tending and harvesting. The lifecycle of their packaging is equally considered.<\/p>\n

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Beyond their products, Badger is consistently looking to improve their sustainability by harnessing the power of technology to reduce wastefulness. Here are some ways that Badger does just that:<\/p>\n