​Learning More About Heaven Hill’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy​

Now that we have introduced the reasoning and vision behind our water and emissions goals, we will focus on the remaining two focus areas—waste and conservation.

Waste​

Every manufactured product has some amount of waste associated with it.  But the world’s landfills are not infinite, and neither are the resources that create the goods that end up in those landfills. 

Our targets in this area will focus on:

1. ​Increasing the recycled content of our plastic bottles:​​​​​​

Increasing the recycled content in our plastic bottles is an important way for Heaven Hill to both support the recycling market by providing a regional outlet for recyclables and also help reduce the amount of plastic that is not recycled or ends up in the oceans.

2. Reducing the amount of waste generated from our operations and visitor experiences. 

Recycling is an important first step in the waste reduction journey, and our plants have worked hard to recycle glass, plastic, cardboard, paper, and metal. But recycling alone will not solve our waste problem.  In our bottling operations, we can fix the issues that lead to bottles breaking or packaging materials being damaged.  In our visitor centers, we can reduce the quantity of disposable items that are provided to our visitors. In these ways, we will focus on preventing wastes from ever being created. 

Conservation

Our last focus area is conservation.  You can think of this as supporting the natural ecosystems that support our business.  

Our targets in this area will focus on the following:

1. Sponsor planting of trees in our local communities:

Trees provide many very important benefits to a community, including providing air quality improvement by filtering pollutants, reducing urban heat, mitigating pollutants from stormwater and runoff, and offering habitat for local wildlife.

2. Support a sustainable white oak supply by funding Master Logger certifications:

The wood used to build Heaven Hill’s barrels is purchased from thousands of log suppliers in several different states.  The way a logger harvests the wood from the forest can have a large impact on the regrowth of future white oak and maintaining a healthy forest.  Because many states do not require loggers to learn the techniques that promote white oak, Heaven Hill plans to partner with our barrel supplier to sponsor logger certification classes.

3. Support sustainable agriculture through partnerships with our grain suppliers:

Agriculture is at the heart of our products.  Since we do not grow the grains ourselves, Heaven Hill will partner with our grain growers and suppliers to encourage farming practices that promote healthy soils.  Healthy soils absorb more water during heavy rains and offer better resilience during periods of drought because the land holds more water. Healthy soils also naturally store carbon and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers.