At Brew Dr., transparency and accountability are two of our dearest values. We aim to foster an open and honest relationship with our customers and to use our business as a force for good.
As part of that effort, we strive to be actively anti-racist within our own walls and to support those working to dismantle racism in our community. We take responsibility for creating a supportive, positive environment for our Black and POC team members and for setting business goals that ensure continuous investment into the Black community.
Since voicing our support for Black Lives Matter last summer, we’ve made some changes within our organization, implementing new systems and initiatives. We wanted to give you an update on what we’ve done this year and where we currently stand.
We strive to include any and all voices across our company in setting goals and making changes. Leaning on our structure as a B Corp, we have initiated a series of independent committees of employees, called “Beehives.”
Our Beehives identify areas of improvement related to social and racial justice. Participation is voluntary and open to everyone, and employees are paid for their time working on these projects. We have three Beehives in specific areas: Governance, Education, and Community. Here’s what they’ve been up to:
Since 2014, Brew Dr. has been a proud member of 1% for the Planet. Through our commitment to donating 1% of Love sales, we support Ecology in the Classroom & Outdoors (ECO), a nonprofit organization focused on immersing children in outdoor education programs.
We realized our giving must go further and help dismantle systemic racism within our community. Since July 2020, we have committed 1% of our Uplift sales to BIPOC social justice organizations, as selected by employees. Our current partners are:
We strive to have transparency and accountability in reporting the diversity of our team. This past year, Brew Dr. has actively engaged third party consultation on building an anti-racist culture and hiring structure.
Our Governance Beehive employees searched and vetted candidates for two new seats on our Board of Directors. We ended up adding two new BIPOC members to our Board, which was previously comprised of 4 white men and 1 latinx man.
The Beehive is also working to improve our recruitment efforts to expose our open jobs to a more diverse pool of candidates.
We have enacted internal education within our company to continue to inform our own awareness of systemic racism. It is essential that we continue to learn and listen, both as individuals and as an organization. Some of our initiatives have included:
Brew Dr. is proud to support the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning) community. Since 2019, Brew Dr. has partnered with the Trevor Project, the world’s largest organization providing suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ young people, to release a yearly Pride edition of our Love kombucha.
There have been recent attempts to roll back protections for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly at the state level. We continue to stand with our LGBTQ+ employees and community in the fight for progressive and equitable legislation.
We will continue to update our customers and community as our internal committees designate new projects to support. We challenge ourselves and our community to look at antiracism work as more than a singular action or moment, but as an ongoing commitment to stay actively engaged with.
