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Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products

Environmental Record (10/10)

  • The company has a mission of stewarding and restoring 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest by 2020..
  • Not only is Guayaki Yerba Mate organically shade-grown in the rainforest and in reemerging forests, but the forest's growth captures enough carbon dioxide to make Guayaki's yerba mate carbon footprint negative over its production cycle.
  • Packages are made from renewable, non G.M.O. wood-pulp sourced from plantations employing Sustainable Forestry Management Principles.

Social Record (10/10)

  • The company was ranked in WorldBlue's "Most Democratic Work Place" for the years 2006 to 2009.
  • Guayaki has a goal of creating over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020.
  • The company received the 2001 and 2004 Socially Responsible Business Award at the Natural Products Expo East trade show.
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Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products full reports

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Full Environmental Record

Guayaki is dedicated to restoring the environment and driving social change. The company sells a product grown sustainably in the subtropical forests of South America and provides native growers with a monetary incentive to conserve the rainforest and to restore what has been lost. Guayaki claims that the forest growth alone swallows up more carbon than is produced by the processing, packaging, shipping, and other carbon-emitting aspects of its business, thereby making the entire business carbon negative. Moreover, it has purchased enough Renewable Energy Credits to offset the next two years of operation through Green Mountain Energy (an equivalent of 57 tons of CO2 annually), local to its Californian headquarters.

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Full Social Record

Ensuring that its product ingredients are sourced in an eco-friendly and socially responsible manner is of great importance to Guayaki; thus, the well-being of the people that supply its ingredients is also of paramount concern. “One of the things that Alex and I were really passionate about is we didn’t want to just create a business, make money, and give back a percentage of our profits. We wanted to do was create a new business model, and then that model would drive restoration and social development programs,” said co-founder David Karr.

Guayaki has been paying more than double the commodity price directly to small-scale farmers and responsible growers for its yerba mate. By paying a premium price, and now through fair trade certification, Guayaki drinkers can be assured their purchases are a driving force for conservation, reforestation and community development. When Guayaki learned about the Equilibrium Fund and its mission to support women in the impoverished region of Central America, where Maya Nut is sourced, the company worked with the non-profit on a paradigm-shifting project to purchase ingredients for its Guayaki's Java Mate beverages directly from an inspiring and pioneering women's business, Alimentos Nutri Nutrales, in Ixlu Peten, Guatemala.

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Short company info

Taking its name from the Ache Guayaki community, a group of 45 families that live in a reservation in the south of Paraguay, Guayaki began as a college senior project in 1996 and was founded by Alex Pryor and David Karr in 1997. The company provides loose-leaf, tea bags, and bottle-drink mate products as alternatives to coffee, as well as a way for consumers to support rainforest preservation. Yerba mate is abundant in antioxidants and naturally-occurring caffeine. Ingredients for Guayaki products are certified-organic, fairly traded, and rainforest-grown.

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