OUR IMPACT
A healthier planet with every cup
Every choice we make – whether it is the food we eat, the clothes we buy or the tea we drink – has a far-reaching impact on the health of our communities and of our planet.
With this in mind, Charity Tea™ is so much more than a healthy organic tea supplier. We exist to create social and environmental change for the better – and for everyone.
Learn more about our ethical business practices and the impact you are making when you choose Charity Tea.
Each bag of our premium-grade organic tea helps to feed hungry children the world over.
We are also committed to putting people and the planet before profit.
We use ethical sourcing, employ those normally disadvantaged in our communities, utilise sustainable carbon offsetting, and apply strict green packaging and waste reduction practices.
New Zealand’s favourite ethical tea supplier
Our commitment to sustainability and green practices has been officially recognised.
We are a Certified B Corporation helping to transform the global economy to meet high standards of social and environmental performance.
As an NZ social enterprise, we are certified on the Akina Foundation’s supplier list for sustainable social procurement.
Feeding hungry children
Driven by our mission of creating a world of zero hunger, every tea you buy feeds a child who doesn’t have access to regular meals.
Crucially, your purchases are helping to keep families together so they can live with more dignity.
Meals for New Zealanders living in poverty
Hunger affects a child’s ability to learn and access the school curriculum. Alarmingly, it is estimated that nearly one in five children live in food insecurity here in New Zealand.
We partner with churches and other NZ charities to provide nutritious meals to children living below the poverty line.
Contact us if you would like to become a charity partner and tell us about the impact you’re hoping to make.
Feeding programs in Haiti
Haiti is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to natural disasters.
Over recent years the Caribbean country has been ravaged by earthquakes, droughts and floods. This has contributed to mass poverty and displacement, an increasingly unstable political environment and soaring levels of gang violence.
While humanitarian aid has increased, much of the money goes to the capital in Port-au-Prince. Elsewhere, it is usual for children to eat once a day, or once every few days. As you can imagine, this has a devastating impact on each child’s learning and overall wellbeing.
Our grassroots feeding program uses a volunteer on the ground in the villages who purchases, prepares and distributes healthy meals to children in need.
With your help, we are filling hungry tummies and creating a better future for all in the country.
Organic tea, sustainably sourced
Growing organic tea is not only better for you – it’s better for the soil and for the farmers who grow it. We choose only the finest premium ingredients, focus on teas with health-boosting properties and always ensure fair wages for our suppliers.
Premium organic tea
Drinking organic tea nourishes our bodies rather than filling them with chemicals.
Our imported teas are all Certified Organic and externally tested for purity. Homegrown New Zealand tea leaves and herbs are all organically grown.
With no harmful chemicals, our tea range contains no nasties such as additives, preservatives, dyes, toxic inks or plastics.
Each tea is externally tested for purity.
Local farms, local teas
We invest in Aotearoa. Where possible, we source our tea leaves and herbs from farmers working the fertile pastures of New Zealand. It’s not just about reducing air miles, but it’s also about the delicious taste of our harvests.
But there are teas unable to be grown in our NZ climate. Darjeeling, rooibos and earl grey teas, for example, are all sourced through ethical supply chains using suppliers that ensure fair wages.
We also opt for supporting smaller farmers whenever we can.
Sustainable packaging practices
We’re passionate about doing our bit to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Rather than pass wasteful items onto the consumer, we go the extra mile to limit our packaging and promote a reuse culture.
Eco-friendly packaging
No single-use plastics are used in our packaging. Each Charity Tea tin is doubled-lidded for freshness, and we encourage you to buy refill bags to top-up your teas. All refill bags are either compostable or recyclable.
Each of our tea tins are fully recyclable. Saying that, we’re sure you won’t be recycling them due to the elegance they add to any tea cupboard.
We are happy to supply missing parts for your tins, or receive back your tins or other packaging for recycling.
Plastic-free tea bags
Our green focus extends to our tea bags too.
While opting for loose-leaf tea involves less wastage, our tea bags are compostable and feature no strings and no tags with toxic inks.
All tea bags are heat-treated to seal in their freshness, and contain no microplastics.
Reducing our business waste
We choose to minimise waste through all of our business practices. We even go as far as counting the waste our operations produce. It’s between just two and four black bags of rubbish each year.
In 2019 alone we prevented over 10,000 plastic bags ending up in landfill by choosing to have our tins wrapped in tissue paper.
A climate positive business
Limiting our own impact on the environment in terms of the carbon our operations produce is also high on our list of priorities.
We were one of the first New Zealand businesses to offset their carbon through EKOS, according to their Gold Standard of ethics. For four years, the carbon we produce as a company would be offset by investing in conservation projects to plant more trees.
Today, although we no longer use EKOS, we still invest in valuable tree-planting projects to swallow-up any carbon we produce. Our carbon footprint is still minimal, at around 7 tonnes per year. Despite this, we are still focussing on reducing it as much as possible.
Employing disabled people
Choosing Charity Tea is also about giving back to our local communities here in New Zealand.
We employ those who are normally disadvantaged, including Maori and those with disabilities.
Feel-good vibes, from our business to yours
Free social impact reports
Your business can share in the good that our social enterprise is doing. In fact, making strides in ethical procurement can be as simple as changing your tea supplier.
By switching to Charity Tea, alongside our great-tasting tea, you’ll receive a detailed summary every quarter of the difference your purchases have made – in terms of meals donated, waste reduced and carbon offset.
Stats from these social impact reports can be shared with your customers, board of directors and shareholders. They can even be listed as positive outcomes your business has made in your annual report.
The tea that nourishes
Charity tea sells ethical organic tea with feel-good vibes, in loose leaf and plastic-free compostable tea bags.
All our packaging is either refillable, compostable or recyclable, and we are proud to be leading the way for other sustainable businesses in NZ.
Charity is at the heart of what we do. Every tea we sell feeds a hungry child who is living below the poverty line.