Regenerative Organic Agriculture & Environment

Dr. Bronner’s is committed to reducing our global human footprint and fighting climate change. Our current primary objectives are:  

• to reduce, reuse, and recycle unsustainable petroleum-based materials (i.e. plastic) and support alternatives that will make this material obsolete 
• to promote earth-healing regenerative organic agriculture as the most responsible form of land stewardship  

These objectives are born from our commercial ties as a soap company to those materials and industries and our ongoing mission to find more sustainable alternatives throughout our supply chain: in packaging, transportation, and growth of raw materials. To do our part in the greater movement towards climate justice and environmental health, we support and strategize with key allies to create alternative solutions on small and industrial scales to move away from dominant processes which have accelerated climate change, destroyed communities, and poisoned environmental systems around the world.   

Farming is the largest human industry worldwide with the biggest land impact on our planet and is therefore a major site of both environmental devastation and potential regeneration! For more than twenty years, our battle to help transform global agricultural systems has evolved as our knowledge has increased and the political landscape has changed. In 1999, Dr. Bronner’s began transitioning to certified organic ingredients. In the 2000s, we sued companies who cut corners and misled customers in their use of organic ingredients (called “greenwashing”). In the early 2010s, we led the charge on campaigns to mandate the labeling of products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). We believe customers have the right to know what’s in the products they put in and on their bodies. GMOs then and now are tied to increased use of dangerous agricultural chemicals—some of which are now known to cause cancer.  

Since then, we’ve learned that curbing pesticide use through organic and GMO-free crops is only the tip of the iceberg to truly sustainable farming. This has led us to support a new standard for stewarding the land: regenerative organic agriculture.  Modern industrial farming techniques—in both crops and livestock—have contributed to widespread deforestation, water pollution, soil depletion, and an enormous amount of greenhouse gas emissions that threaten our climate. But agriculture also offers the greatest potential solution to mitigate our effects on the planet. By doing away with extractive and poisonous methods and investing in models that promote soil health, emphasize biodiversity, sequester carbon, treat farmers and farm workers fairly, and set a high bar for animal welfare, we have a chance to regenerate our ailing planet. 

Read on to learn more about a few of the amazing organizations we support and a few of the projects and campaigns we are part of!

Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA)  

The Regenerative Organic Allianc (ROA) was formed in 2018 to administer and continuously evaluate the Regenerative Organic Certified® standards—a revolutionary new certification for food, textiles, and personal care products. Regenerative Organic Certified farms and products meet the highest standards in the world for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness. The certification launched in 2017 after being developed by Dr. Bronner’s, Patagonia, Rodale Institute, and other expert agricultural organizations, and the USDA was consulted and approved use of the federally defined term “Organic”. By the end of 2023, the ROA has certified over 1.15 million acres of regenerative organic farmland worldwide, licensed 114 brands, and certified more than 800 products. 

Mad Agriculture

Mad Agriculture is bent on starting the next revolution in agriculture and addressing humanity’s sickened relationship to the Earth around us. They take a holistic approach by 1) providing farm equipment and real estate loans for small-scale regenerative-minded farmers to expand and experiment, 2) supporting scientific, ecological land stewardship research and development, and 3) connecting small farms with values-aligned buyers to sustain them.  The name and spirit of the organization is inspired by Wendell Berry's Mad Farmer poems, which call on us to rework society and agriculture with love, community, and lots of radicalism. 

Grow Ahead 

Grow Ahead is a crowdfunding platform supporting those working to address the most pressing concerns around food and the planet: climate change, community preservation, income security and food sovereignty. It connects individuals, businesses, organizations, and grants with opportunities to fund small-scale, community-led, fair trade projects, and small-scale farmers aligned in this mission. Their current funding focuses on farmer-led agroforestry projects that mimic nature by planting a diversity of trees, understory, and root crops together in a mixed system. This approach increases biodiversity, food security, diversified income streams for farmers, ecological resilience, and reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through plant’s natural photosynthesizing abilities (aka carbon sequestration).  

Philosopher Foods 

Philosopher Foods is a small-batch nut butter company located in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2013, they’ve been on a mission to transform the toxic landscape of almond farming in America. Each year, almonds in California are doused with 39 million pounds of pesticides and other fumigants. Glyphosate, the herbicide most commonly sprayed on almonds, has been proven to cause cancer and is found in unsafe levels in several conventional almond butters. In response, Philosopher Foods became the first and only nut butter company to be certified Glyphosate Residue Free. In their ongoing mission to become the most ethical and sustainable nut butter company and lead by example, they are committed to becoming the first Regenerative Organic Certified business in the nut butter product category.  

Sun+Earth Certified

Sun+Earth certifies cannabis grown under the sun, in the soil of mother earth, without chemicals by fairly paid farmers. The certification aims to create a world where cannabis is grown regeneratively and organically for the well-being of all people, farmers, and the planet. It was created in partnership between the International Cannabis Farmers Association, Cannabis Conservancy, and Certified Kind as a response to ongoing federal prohibition of cannabis agriculture that prevents the crop from being certified under the federal USDA Organic standard.  

Coextinction (2021) 

In partnership with Coexistence Films, we funded Coextinction (2021), a film about the interconnected issues threatening the existence of the Southern Resident Orca. Threading through the ways our industrial extractive practices and centuries of colonial oppression of Indigenous peoples have all contributed to the species’ struggle to survive, the film ultimately points to how the problems and solutions for protecting the environment and creating social justice are deeply interconnected. In support of the project, we created limited “Protect the Orcas” labels on our 4oz and 32oz bottles to raise awareness of the film. 

OSC Packaging Collaborative 

We are proud to be part of the OSC Packaging Collaborative, created by One Step Closer (OSC), a collective of mission driven business leaders with the goals of zero waste packaging, reversing climate change, conscious leadership, and a just and regenerative society. The Packaging Collective is focused on reducing the plastics going into our landfills, oceans and earth by developing and securing a supply of alternative compostable packaging solutions that work on an industrial scale. It has funded studies, fostered key partnerships in sustainable supply chains, and launched the Zero Waste Campaign. 

Grove Collaborative’s Plastic Working Group 

The Grove Collaborative is one of our natural product retailers, whose goal “Beyond Plastic” is to become a plastic-free seller by 2025. To achieve this, they created Plastic Working Group, an alliance of more than 85 brands sharing their plastic reduction best practices and innovative solutions. Collectively, we have launched 293 products free of plastic waste. Since launching the project, Grove has eliminated 9.90 million pounds of plastic from the earth, and they aren’t done yet!