Why social entrepreneurship?
I have always had a personal interest in social causes, and incorporating that passion into my business came naturally — tea is a beverage that we recognized had a “natural” link to everything we wanted to accomplish — a healthy product with a strong connection to the environment. The other interesting thing about tea is that it is consumed by some of the world’s wealthiest cultures but consumed by its poorest, so there were clear and immediate opportunities for creating community wealth. How can a company have a social impact? Honest Tea was created to be an agent of environmental and social change, but what I’ve learned is that different people answer this question different ways. Our consumers will say that they’ve benefitted from a healthier product for themselves and their kids. Workers in the tea gardens we source our tea leaves from will say that they have benefitted from our Fair Trade and organic purchasing, and the eco-systems of our supplier communities (if they could talk)
