Tom's of Maine environmental practices

Tom’s of Maine is based on the central belief that the company can be financially successful while behaving in a socially responsible and environmentally sensitive manner. These values are at the heart of every Tom’s of Maine business decision, and we continually strive to improve our environmental stewardship. Here are some of the ways we try to lessen our impact on the earth.

Our Stewardship Model
The Tom's of Maine Stewardship Model sets out our definitions for natural, sustainable, and responsible. All of our decisions are made in reference to these policies.

Renewable energy
Since 2006, 100% of the electricity consumption at our factory has been offset by wind energy supplied by Green-e, a certified, nationally recognized symbol of independently verified renewable energy. This eliminates production of 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually—the equivalent of planting 214 acres of trees! We also purchase renewable energy (hydro and biomass) for our offices.

Energy-efficient lighting
Our factory and warehouse use sensor-controlled fluorescent energy-saving fixtures, which saves 250,000 kilowatt-hours per year.

Recycling
We recycle aluminum tubes, cardboard, folding cartons, mixed paper, and even challenging items such as shrink wrap. Our program now recycles 200,000 pounds per year, and with the recent purchase of compacting equipment we will recycle an additional 12,000 paper raw material sacks per year. This has resulted in the elimination of half of our dumpsters and weekly trash pick-ups.

Using recycled and green materials
Tom’s of Maine products and packaging are designed to be sustainable and recyclable. Each year, we use packaging made of 100% recycled paper board. As a result, we save or prevent:

• 0.5 million pounds of solid waste
• 2.8 million gallons of wastewater
• 7 billion BTUs of electricity— that’s 70 years of electricity as required by the average U.S. home.
• 1 million pounds of greenhouse gases—that’s 1 million miles traveled in the average U.S. car
• 6,000 pounds of air pollution (HAPs, VOCs, TRSs combined)
• 26,732 pounds of hazardous effluent (BODs, TSSs, CODs, AOXs)

We also:

• Use vegetable-based inks on all of our professionally printed materials and packaging
• Wrap our bar soaps in biodegradable cellulose made from wood fibers
• Created a deodorant stick made of just a single plastic (#5 polypropylene) so that it can be recycled—the first of its kind in the industry and a container that is even stronger and more reliable than the old nonrecyclable version!

Green facility policies
We use green cleaning products as a safer alternative for our cleaning partners and employees. We also use recycled and recyclable materials as much as possible in our offices—for example, toilet paper made from recycled paper (not from trees) without chlorine bleach, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and pens made from 81.6% recycled content. Our use of earth-friendly office items is at 69% and we hope to get that number even higher!

Rivers Awareness Partnership™
Our Rivers Awareness Partnership™ draws attention to our nation’s troubled rivers and encourages people to volunteer in their own communities. Over the last two years alone, over 30,000 volunteers at roughly 30 different events removed an estimated 400 tons of trash from our nation’s rivers.

Hybrid car purchase
Tom's of Maine supports innovative technologies and processes that increase fuel efficiency and lower emissions. For this reason, we provide employees with a $4000 benefit when they purchase a new hybrid vehicle.

Environmental audits
When we work with a vendor, we perform an "audit"—in other words, we draw up a list of the ways that Tom's and the vendor can best partner together while upholding our values and achieving an efficient business deal. It's not a confrontational process, but rather a way to ensure that everything Tom's and the vendor does together is high quality, efficient, and in accordance with our shared values.

Support for environmental groups and projects
We donate 10% of our pre-tax profits to organizations supporting, among other things, the environment. In 1998, Tom’s of Maine donated $500,000 (to be paid out over five years) to The Nature Conservancy to help purchase and preserve 185,000 acres along the undeveloped St. John River. In 2003, Tom’s gave $150,000 to The Nature Conservancy’s Katahdin Forest Project, a 241,000-acre conservation initiative. And in 2006, we gave $100,000 to The Trust for Public Land to help purchase and preserve Katahdin Lake and 4,000 acres of forest and lakes with views of Mt. Katahdin. Read more about our work to preserve the Mt. Katahdin region.

Preserving green space in our own community
In 2006, Tom's donated 38 acres of land to the Kennebunk Land Trust to create the Mousam River Wildlife Sanctuary. The donation protects community access to the land for recreational uses.

"Our mission calls for us to be distinctive in products and policies that honor and sustain our natural world. One of the ways we accomplish this is by continually evaluating our business practices to ensure they are environmentally sound, and by drawing upon our innovation and creativity to make them even better.""



Tom Chappell
Cofounder and President