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Project
Traditional Medicinals Solar-Powered Tea Factory
Credits: ©2009 Traditional Medicinals
Traditional Medicinals has a large solar power system at its headquarters in Sonoma County, California, making it the largest solar powered tea factory on earth. This solar project incorporates 1,450 solar panels, generating approximately 430,000 kilowatt hours per year (about 75 percent of its energy needs), and will be supplemented with the purchase of wind energy credits. For years, TM has offset 100 percent of its electricity usage with wind credits, and this new solar installation improves upon its low impact environmental objectives. TM tracks its energy usage and visitors to its website can see daily output and input data in its monitoring and reporting graphs posted online. With its 344.0 kW system, Traditional Medicinals will save a lot of operating costs over the next 30 years. Its electric bills before adding the solar installation were $7,500. After installing the solar panels, the electric bill is $2,500. The estimated savings over a 30-year period is $10,000,000. Another bonus is 9.4M lbs in CO2 offsets.
With its 344.0 kW system, Traditional Medicinals will save a lot of operating costs over the next 30 years. ©2009 Traditional Medicinals
Environmental stewardship at Traditional Medicinals is certainly not limited to alternative energy. Committed to organic agriculture and sustainable wild collection, Traditional Medicinals works with suppliers to ensure that their practices protect the environment. Always striving to reduce its environmental impact, Traditional Medicinals incorporates an integrated packaging and recycling plan, which includes using recycled paperboard for tea cartons, shipping cases and using unbleached manila hemp fiber and cotton string for its’ natural tea bags. The company has won California’s Waste
Reduction Award Program (WRAP), for eleven consecutive years and owns a fleet of hybrid vehicles. Its 8.5 acre facility in Sebastopol is nearly a self sustained facility with its own septic system and water source, a large well stocked fish pond for fire suppression and its landscaping with native drought-resistant plants to minimize water usage.
For more than thirty years, Traditional Medicinals has valued choosing ways in which it can leave a lighter footprint. This is why it purchases renewable wind energy to offset all of ita electricity use not supported by the solar panels recently installed at our headquarters in Sebastopol, CA. Additionally, the company headquarters contains a self-sustaining water source and purification system, a large fish pond for fire suppression, and a border of drought-resistant landscaping.
Though roughly 75% of TM's energy comes directly from its own roof top, to ensure that the rest of the mix of power it draws from the system is replaced with 100% wind energy, TM purchases green tags. Matching each kilowatt-hour it consumes with a kilowatt-hour of renewable wind energy neutralizes the impact of its electricity use and makes the system a little bit more sustainable for everyone.
Since founding the company in 1974, it has been committed to sustainable business practices that benefit customers, trade partners, employees and its community” says Drake Sadler, co-founder and Chairman of the Board. “Our company operates according to a set of moral and ethical principles which embrace environmental stewardship, social sustainability (safe working conditions and fair wages), and cultural preservation (most species of plants are collected in the wild by local and indigenous people).”
Environmental stewardship at Traditional Medicinals® is not limited to alternative energy. It’s committed to organic agriculture and sustainable wild collection, working with suppliers to ensure that their practices preserve and protect the environment. TM is always striving to improve upon its stewardship practices and received California’s Waste Reduction Award Program (WRAP) for twelve consecutive years. It uses recycled paperboard for tea cartons, shipping cases and unbleached manila hemp fiber (Musa textilis) and cotton string (Gossypium spp.) for its natural tea bags. The 8.5-acre facility in Sebastopol is nearly self-sustaining with its own septic system and water source, a large well stocked fish pond for fire suppression and landscaping with drought-resistant plants to minimize water usage.
“The healing nature of plants has captured our imagination with their beauty and efficacy,” says Sadler. “As a socially conscious green business, we have a deep respect for the earth and humanity... projects like this solar panel installation simply reflect and deepen our resolve to service.”
Akeena Solar of California assisted Traditional Medicinals with construction of its solar power system.
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