Our Historical Mission Statements

In 1988, after 18 years in business, the Tom's of Maine community realized that we needed to formalize our values and beliefs into foundational documents to help guide the future growth and management of our company. Led by Tom and Kate Chappell, our cofounders, the community met and grappled with such thorny philosophical concepts as ethics, science, legality, emotion, and morality and how it all applied to running a sustainable business eventually emerging with our Reason for Being.

Over time, we added other statements to more fully communicate how we try to run our business and make a positive impact on the world.

Our Reason for Being

  • To serve our customers' personal care needs with imaginative science from plants and minerals
  • To inspire all those we serve with a mission of responsibility and goodness\
  • To empower others by sharing our knowledge, time, talents, and profits
  • To help create a better world by exchanging our faith, experience, and hope.

Tom's of Maine Statement of Beliefs

  • We believe that both human beings and nature have inherent worth and deserve our respect.
  • We believe in products that are safe, effective, and made of natural ingredients.
  • We believe that our company and our products are unique and worthwhile, and that we can sustain these genuine qualities with an ongoing commitment to innovation and creativity.
  • We believe that we have a responsibility to cultivate the best relationships possible with our coworkers, customers, owners, agents, suppliers and community.Although our core values have remained the same, we've evolved our mission statement over the years. You can read some of our earlier statements here.
  • We believe that different people bring different gifts and perspectives to the team and that a strong team is founded on a variety of gifts.
  • We believe in providing employees with a safe and fulfilling work environment and an opportunity to grow and learn.
  • We believe that competence is an essential means of sustaining our values in a competitive marketplace.
  • We believe our company can be financially successful while behaving in a socially responsible and environmentally sensitive manner.
  • We believe that we have an individual and collective accountability to the Company's beliefs, mission, destiny, and performance goals.

Tom's of Maine Destiny

To become the trusted partner in natural care among consumers with whom we share common values.

Tom's of Maine Mission

  • To serve our customers by providing safe, effective, innovative natural products of high quality.
  • To build relationships with our customers that extend beyond product usage to include full and honest dialogue, responsiveness to feedback, and the exchange of information about products and issues.
  • To respect, value, and serve not only our customers but also our coworkers, owners, agents, suppliers, and community; to be concerned about and contribute to their well-being; and to operate with integrity so as to be deserving of their trust.
  • To provide meaningful work, fair compensation, and a safe, healthy work environment that encourages openness, creativity, self-discipline, and growth.
  • To contribute to and affirm a high level of commitment, skill, and effectiveness in the work community.
  • To recognize, encourage, and seek a diversity of gifts and perspectives in our worklife.
  • To acknowledge the value of each person's contribution to our goals and to foster teamwork in our tasks.
  • To be distinctive in products and policies which honor and sustain our natural world.
  • To address community concerns, in Maine and around the globe, by devoting a portion of our time, talents, and resources to the environment, human needs, the arts, and education.
  • To work together to contribute to the long-term value and sustainability of our company.
  • To be a profitable and successful while acting in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.
  • To create and manage a system of accountability which holds each person in the Company's employment or governance responsible for individual behavior and personal performance consistent with the Company's Beliefs, Mission, Destiny, Performance Goals, and Individual Work Plans.