Washington, NJ—Herbalist & Alchemist (H&A) has settled into its new location, and now boasts increased production capacity to meet demand for its liquid and solid botanical extracts.
“As our business of providing the highest quality herbal products continued to thrive and demand outpaced supply, it was clear we had outgrown our current space,” said CEO Beth Lambert, in a press release. “After many months of searching for a new location, we chose to extensively refurbish a vacant space close to our previous location.”
The certified B corp had sustainability top of mind for the move. Reusable crates were rented rather than relying primarily on boxes, and boxes that were used were repurposed. Repurposing the building, which had been empty for more 20 years, brings new life into a long dormant area, H&A added.
Products formulator David Winston RH(AHG), noted, “The new, larger facility is phenomenal—a testament to all the hard work that that went into it. It is quite the transformation, turning a long-vacant concrete shell into a new, beautiful manufacturing facility almost triple the size of our previous facility.”
Highlights of the new Herbalist & Alchemist facility:
- Certified by OK Kosher
- Doubles the production capabilities for H&A’s Solid Extracts
- Each operational area now has dedicated space (rooms for garbling, grinding, calcining, equipment wash down, and more).
- Classroom space for David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies herbalist training program for those attending in person, and other education events.
H&A Reaches Zero Waste Milestone
In more big news from the company, H&A released its 2022 Sustainability Report, which recaps sustainability progress made in 2021 and outlines the company’s efforts, including reaching the milestone of zero waste.
“Much of the credit for our continued progress goes to the H&A Green Team, an internal coalition of employees working on sustainability in a more streamlined way,” said Lambert. “As companies try to find a way to seriously address sustainability programs, we found harnessing internal commitment works very well when we set up our Green Team.”
In 2019, H&A set the goal to become zero waste in operations. In 2021, the company reached the qualifications required before pursuing Zero Waste certification, which is less than 10% of waste goes to the landfill, with the other 90% diverted, reused, donated, or composted. The Green Team has done in-depth research into diverting materials usually landfilled, the company explained. This includes donating ice packs (used to keep herbs fresh in transport) to local children’s camps and food pantries, sending pallet straps to an artist who creates abstract works from debris, and donating and upcycling 55-gallon barrels into rain barrels, raised beds, and for equine activities like barrel racing. The company also uses smaller shipping boxes, substitutes bubble wrap with plant-based material for smaller items, and works with TerraCycle and SustainAbilities.
The payoff: The company’s total carbon emissions fell to 1% in the Scope 1 direct emissions category. By breaking down Scope 3 emissions into sub-categories, H&A shared that is has discovered further ways to reduce those emissions.
In addition, H&A has placed great emphasis on supporting growers who practice Regenerative Agriculture, Permaculture, Biodynamics, Regenerative Organic, Forest Grown, FairWild, Ecologically and Ethically Wildcrafted, Wild-Simulated, Non-GMO, Grown Naturally and Organic Compatible practices in sourcing raw materials for H&A products in the belief that carbon-storing, regenerative agriculture is essential in combating climate change.
“While it can be daunting for manufacturers to address some of these issues sustainably, there are tools out there to quantify and set a baseline,” Lambert said. “Once you have a baseline you can address improvements. For example, the B Corp carbon estimator is very helpful. And when you see the progress you can make over time, you see the impact one company can make.”
