Grounds for Change is proud to be a business member of 1% For The Planet. We donate over one percent of our total annual sales to environmental non-profit organizations in support of their missions and have been doing so since our inception in 2003. 1% For The Planet is an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet. Members recognize their responsibility to and dependence on a healthy environment and donate at least 1% of their total annual sales to environmental organizations worldwide. The alliance aims to prove that taking environmental responsibility is good for business.
Our 1% for the Planet Commitment
Kelsey Marshall, Co-Founder
Grounds for Change, Member #30
I spent several years of my childhood living in the Pacific, specifically Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. The communities on these islands were much more connected to the Earth and its living systems than we are in the industrialized parts of the world. Witnessing this intense human connection to the the Earth left a lasting impression on me at a very young age and helped to shape my interests in conservation and sustainability.
My wife, Stacy (business co-founder), and I wanted to start a business that would allow us to live out our values relating to social and environmental justice so we began Grounds for Change as a small fair trade organic coffee roasting company in 2003. We joined 1% for the Planet immediately after starting the business because we felt very strongly that businesses should be accountable to an “Earth Tax” and 1% for the Planet was just getting started as an organization to oversee that exact process.
Grounds for Change partners with a wide range of non-profit organizations, from conservation organizations like Rainforest Trust to habitat restoration organizations like Save Our Wild Salmon to global climate change organizations like CarbonFund.org. We put the largest percentage of resources towards our partnership with CarbonFund.org to plant trees in proportion to the amount of carbon that is generated by the full lifecycle of our product, allowing us to maintain our CarbonFree Certified product status.
Carbonfund.org is the nation's leading non-profit carbon offset provider and is the only organization in North America to provide full CarbonFree Certification that meets recognized international standards for Product Life Cycle Assessment and Greenhouse Gases Inventory and Product Carbon Footprint analysis. Our quarterly donations to Carbonfund.org support reforestation and avoided deforestation projects around the world; these forestry projects absorb carbon emissions now and for decades into the future. We appreciate the fact that they fight global warming, protect biodiversity and help communities all at once.
As long-time members of 1% for the Planet, we are excited to expand the reach of our donations and continue supporting great organizations doing important work that we believe in. We spread the message whenever possible to like-minded businesses so that they might consider joining this coalition of businesses working together with non-profits to help combat all of the enormous pressures on our Earth’s climate and living systems.
The History of 1% For The Planet
1% For The Planet was launched by Yvon Chouinard, environmental activist and founder of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, Inc., and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies in 2001. Chouinard and Mathews, both astute and visionary businessmen, had empirical experience with the great success environmental commitment had brought to their businesses. They wanted to unify other companies to help solve the environmental crisis and build successful companies at the same time.
