Tuesday - March 09, 2010

Doing Our Part for the Environment and for Society

Check out the Greener Side of NSP

by Darlyn Britt

From the beginning, NSP has dedicated its efforts to giving people the natural products and information they need to improve their physical and financial health. As part of our commitment to making the world a healthier, happier place, we strive to find ways to lessen our environmental impact and contribute to the health and well-being of those in great need! This article presents a few more reasons why you can be proud to be part of Nature’s Sunshine.

—Greg Halliday, President, U.S. Division

Nature’s Sunshine Products is proud to be both environmentally and socially conscious. We’d like to illustrate this with some examples.

Packaging

Bottles. All of our plastic bottles—including our polycarbonate water bottles and those used for supplements—are recyclable. Our glass bottles are made from 40% recycled glass.

Shipping boxes.

Our shipping boxes are composed of 30–40% post-consumer recycled material. All corrugated cardboard that doesn’t leave the plant (e.g. shipped to customers) is used for storage or recycled (375,000 lbs. yearly). Molded pulp cushions that protect glass bottles are made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Revamped Packaging.

We recently changed the containers for Nutri-Burn® and SynerProTein® from hard plastic jars to gusseted plastic sacks. These bags protect the product inside and use less of the earth’s resources. They also take less fuel to ship because they are lighter and take up less pallet space. These new bags also feature water-based inks. Some companies in the industry use solvents to manufacture this type of bag. Solvents can impact the earth when emitted after use. NSP contracts with manufacturers that do not use solvents.

Stuffer paper.

We stuff our order boxes with paper that is 50% post-consumer recycled material.

Products

NSP Sunshine Concentrate all-purpose cleaner contains a biodegradable surfactant. That means that the product does not contain ingredients that can accumulate in the environment (like phosphate- containing soaps).

Manufacturing

Our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility boasts:

• Energy-efficient lighting that is controlled by motion sensors and turns off when not in use
• Skylights in the warehouse areas that provide natural light during the day
• Effective insulation (to help control heating and cooling costs)
• A white, reflective roof membrane (to keep cooling costs down in the warmer months)
• Timer-controlled heating and cooling that keeps buildings from being heated or cooled when not in use

Water

Nature’s Sunshine conserves water in various ways:

• Our Liquid Line rinsing equipment only sprays when bottles are present to avoid wasting water.
• We use motion-activated hand-washing facilities.
• We have timers on our outdoor watering system and lock our outdoor spigots.

Other

• We reuse wooden pallets hundreds of times.
• Our storage barrels are cleaned, sanitized and reused several times before they are retired.
• We recycle gear oil and hydraulic oil used in warehouse forklifts.
• NSP participates in the Shred-it program, where waste paper is shredded on-site and then recycled. Each year, the company saves approximately 244 trees using this program.
• NSP offers paperless paychecks (direct deposit and online statements) to employees and managers.
• We recycle aluminum cans in both the Provo and Spanish Fork lunchrooms.
• We will soon offer fully biodegradable plastic customer bags that degrade in less than five years.

We Are Socially Conscious Too

As a company, and often with the combined support of NSP managers, Nature’s Sunshine has provided financial or other aid for:

• Victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua, October 1998
• American Red Cross after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. (NSP matched employee donations 100%.)
• Indonesian/Thailand tsunami disaster relief (December 2004)
• Relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina, which struck Aug. 26, 2005. (Donations were accepted and matched at our National Convention in Salt Lake City just days after the hurricane hit.)
• Victims of other natural disasters including the recent earthquake in Haiti

Nature’s Sunshine also oversees and supports the Health Freedom Fund—a lobbying group that acts as a watchdog for natural health issues on both federal and state levels. At certain times of the year, the company matches manager contributions/increases.

We are partners with the Little Heroes Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting children throughout the world. With NSP’s help, Little Heroes has built school houses in Mali, refurbished and re-supplied hospitals in Russia, provided Silver Shield to clinics in Ghana and Mali, and more. A portion of every purchase of Sunshine Heroes children’s supplements supports this terrific organization.

Nature’s Sunshine holds semi-annual blood drives at our Home Office in Spanish Fork and Provo. NSP is constantly working to positively impact our environment and to make a difference in people’s lives throughout the world.