Baby Steps to a More Sustainable Lifestyle by Learning from Bigelow Tea’s SustainabiliTea Program #AmericasTea

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Spring, I think it missed us here in South Dakota.  We went straight from winter to summer.  From 0 degrees to 90 degrees just like that.  And isn’t it great that you can adjust your beverage drinking to accommodate those literally overnight weather fluctuations?!  Hot herbal teas to soothe the sore throats and aches and pains of winter, and an iced herbal tea to energize or relax in the warmth of a summer day.  I’m so glad that I have an assortment of boxes of Bigelow Tea to drink whatever the season might be.

While you may find me talking a lot about coffee on my blog, I’m not a stranger to tea.  It was my mom’s go to drink for us kids when we weren’t feeling well, a cup of Cozy Chamomile with a drizzle of honey in it would always seem to make things better.  Just out of high school, I ventured to India, being steeped (pun intended ) so much in the British culture still, everything shuts down in the afternoon to observe tea time.  I really came to appreciate that relaxing time each day, and missed it when I came back to North America.  Getting accustomed to “American Iced Tea” took me a number of years (just ask any Canadian you know about the difference between iced tea here and iced tea north of the border!), but now I can’t imagine a hot summer day without #AmericasTea.

But despite all that tea history, I just found out that Herbal Tea isn’t actually “tea” at all…well let me explain (thanks to what I learned on Bigelow Tea‘s website).  Herbal teas aren’t actually made of any tea leaves!  They actually contain peels, grasses, berries, leaves, flowers, and flavorings from a variety of plants.  Who knew?!  Well maybe you did, but I didn’t (but I do now!).  Because they are packaged, steeped and consumed like tea, they’re classified as teas too. 

The properties of many of the herbal teas that Bigelow Tea produces are beneficial to the body too.  Like they’re great for before going to sleep because they’re naturally caffeine free, especially the Sweet Dreams tea which combines chamomile & mint.  

Peppermint tea can help to relieve nausea, and the I Love Lemon tea can can soothe the symptoms from a cold or flu, plus it has an added bonus of Vitamin C!  One of my favorites is the Bigelow Tea flavor Pomegranate Pizzazz because of its taste and the powerful antioxidants it provides the body.  I love it brewed up in conjunction with green tea for a refreshing iced tea (see below).

Do you know what I love most about Bigelow Tea though?  It’s the way they wrap their teas in individual fresh packs.  

Because of their sealed packaging they stay fresh and I can store all my teas in the same container but have none of the scents or flavors mix with each other.  Plus I can throw a few in my handbag when I travel so I can always have my favorite flavor ready to brew when I get to my destination.   

Bigelow Tea is a company that strives to be good stewards of the Earth, and does so with their SustainabliliTea program.  They are serious about protecting the environment, giving back to their community and taking care of their employees and their families, not just now, but for future generations.  It’s really impressive how much they have done to be ‘green’ and conserve energy. Some of their achievements include:

⁍ 900,000 kWh of solar energy their solar energy panels have generated to date – that’s enough to power 70 homes for a year!
⁍ Bigelow Tea holds 347 acres of land to prevent it from being developed for future real estate.
⁍ They have 0%  (Yes ZERO!) of wasted going to landfills from Bigelow’s three facilities,through composting, recycling and by sending the remains to a local Trash to Energy plant. ← I’m pretty sure this is the fact that astonished me the most.
⁍ Bigelow Tea is part of the Ethical Tea Partnership, an organization that works with tea growers to establish methods for responsible conservation of the world’s tea fields and improve the lives of the people who work them.

So if a big company like Bigelow Tea can do that for our Earth, surely my little family should try and be more sustainable in our daily living as well, right?! 

If someone would have asked me before I took inventory of my home if I was eco-friendly, crunchy or green I would have said no.  But after taking what I learned from Bigelow’s SustainabiliTea program and as part of our homeschool day we did a bit more research on the internet of what a “sustainable” household looks like, I was surprisingly shocked at how much we actually do to live more sustainably in our home already.  I’m sure there’s always going to be something to add to my list that I can do to further save energy or have less of a carbon footprint, but I’m taking baby steps here!

So we already take re-usable bags with us shopping, we have a recycling center, we use CFLs, we don’t buy bottled water, we eat leftovers rather than buying more meat and/or throwing the food out, and I brew at home leaving less of a carbon foot print with gas and paper products.

A number of things we found in our research that we could do inspired by the SustainabiliTea program is use a smart power strip to conserve energy (I usually leave my phone and iPad plugged in all the time even when they’re fully charged), wash my clothes in cold water with eco-friendly detergent, and use cloth napkins.  We don’t have a yard right now or a place to compost, but I’m keeping it in mind for when we move.

So I headed off to Walmart to purchase some products that would help us live more sustainably and of course to pick up some Bigelow Herb Teas.  If you want to see my entire shop in pictures visit my Google + album.

My baby steps toward being as great a SustainibiliTea home as Bigelow Tea is a company are:

⁍ Getting an energy efficient auto power off outlet, which after 6 hours automatically turns off the outlet to eliminate standby power
⁍ Using cloth napkins to eliminate paper waste and bringing a portable recycle bin with us when we go on picnics so we don’t throw recyclables in the garbage. 
⁍ Using a cup that’s made from recycled materials (and can be recycled when it’s served its use) to drink my Bigelow Tea in!
⁍ Having enough re-usable bags even for our frozen items so we don’t need to use paper or plastic bags at the grocery store.
⁍ Going through our home and giving items to charities so others in our community can reuse or upcycle what we no longer need.

Phew, although it doesn’t seem like much, shopping for those items and stopping at Goodwill tuckered me out – time to energize with a Pomegranate Iced Green Tea!

Easy to make, delicious to drink.  You just need 1 Bigelow Green Tea K-cup (or 1 bag of Bigelow Green Tea if you don’t have a Keurig machine), 1 bag of Bigelow Tea Pomegranate Pizzazz, and 2 teaspoons of sugar (or 1 packet of no calorie sweetener).

Brew the Green Tea K-cup on a 6 oz setting and then steep the Pomegranate Pizzazz tea bag in the brewed green tea for 3 minutes.  If using 2 Tea Bags, just brew them in 6 oz of hot water together.  Add the sugar and stir until mixed in.  Pour the tea over ice.  Kick up your feet, relax and enjoy!

To see more of what others are doing with Bigelow Tea visit the Bigelow Tea Aggregator site.

Check out this E-Guide full of great summer ideas for your family and entertaining needs.

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