Frontier Co-op Illustrates That Doing Good Works With The Release Of Its Biennial Corporate Social Responsibility Report; The Company Donates $1 Million Annually

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Mar 04, 2021, 10:45 ET

NORWAY, Iowa, March 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 1976, Frontier Co-op has been showing the world that doing good, works. Now with more than 40,000 member/owners, the company remains dedicated to sourcing the highest quality spices, herbs and botanical products through their Frontier Co-op, Simply Organic® and Aura Cacia® brands — all while creating life-changing opportunities for growers, employees, and their families, and maintaining its commitment to being environmentally conscious.

Released today, Frontier Co-op's biennial Corporate Social Responsibility Report, detailing their commitment to helping farmers worldwide, has resulted in a deep understanding of organic spice sourcing and production and its impacts on the environment.

The report outlines the many accomplishments that the Co-op has achieved over the last two years. The Well Earth program was one of the industry's first in-house impact sourcing programs that Frontier Co-op launched in 2007. The Co-op is on track to meet its goal of sourcing at least 80% of their products from Well Earth partners by end of their fiscal year 2022. In addition, 89% of the company's packaging is recyclable, and more than a third made with recycled content, and its transition to solar energy has generated approximately 500MWh of energy per year, providing an environmental benefit equivalent to avoiding the burning of 5,429 tons of coal or avoiding consuming 1,136,586 gallons of gas.

Frontier Co-op and its brands, Simply Organic and Aura Cacia, give over $1 million in grants, sponsorships, and donations annually. The Co-op's two giving programs focus on supporting human services, a focus area hard-hit by increased need and decreased resources in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aura Cacia's Positive Change Project strives to help women and girls make transformational changes in their lives, which is especially pertinent today, as domestic violence has increased across the country in the last year. Meanwhile, the Simply Organic Giving Fund is committed to addressing systemic food insecurity and food justice by providing access to healthy, organic food options. Frontier Co-op's business for good approach brought Bedard to the company over 30 years ago, and it is the main driver in what keeps him looking ahead to the next 45 years.

"Frontier Co-op's biennial report comprehensively and transparently details our history, our products, and our operations," CEO Tony Bedard said. "This illustrates how we approach our sourcing partnerships with farmers around the world, what we're doing to push the envelope on product packaging, an accounting of the energy we use, and the work we do to divert our waste from landfills. It highlights our relationships with, and our responsibility to, our employees, our customers, and our communities both here at home in Iowa, as well as across the country and around the world."

Frontier Co-op's business for good approach brought Bedard to the company over 30 years ago, and it's what keeps him motivated today.

In the future, the company plans to build upon the milestones it has already achieved.
Forthcoming goals include:

Source 80% of botanicals from Well Earth Partners by the end of the fiscal year 2022
Maintain recycled content of packaging at 36%
Maintain recyclability of packaging at 88%
Divert more than 90% of waste from landfills from each of their four Iowa-based facilities
100% of Scope I and II emissions produced through renewable means or offset through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) or Verified Emission Reductions (VERs)
Increase female and minority management

The full sustainability report can be found here https://www.frontiercoop.com/community/about/sustainability-0.

About Frontier Co-op

Now more than 40,000-member owners strong, we're dedicated to sourcing the highest quality spices, herbs and botanical products through our Frontier Co-op, Simply Organic® and Aura Cacia® brands — all while creating life-changing opportunities for our growers, employees and their families. We're driven by a simple purpose: to do good by our people and planet. And to create a stronger company built on a commitment to quality and sustainability.

Frontier Co-op was one of the first suppliers to actively advocate organic products and organic agriculture — and we're thrilled with the strong and steady growth of organics in the natural products, and now mainstream, marketplace. We carried our first organic products in 1978 and became a certified organic processor as soon as that program was available.

SOURCE Frontier Co-op