How Redmond Life's Green Team is Creating a More Sustainable Tomorrow

Redmond Life’s R&D Operations Lead Danielle Falkenstein has always been passionate about reducing her environmental impact. “I love the outdoors, and it really upsets me to see our planet not respected the way it should be,” Danielle says.

In 2022, she began researching ways Redmond Life could become more sustainable. She compiled a proposal of initiatives and started talking to her coworkers for more perspectives. She quickly discovered that many others were passionate about the environment and wanted to make improvements. Together, they formed the Redmond Life Green Team.

Since August 2022, this group of like-minded coworkers has worked together on a wide range of sustainability initiatives, and in under a year, they’ve already helped inspire lots of eco-friendly changes at Redmond Life’s Heber City headquarters. “The drive and enthusiasm of this team have been so motivating! We are working together starting at our Heber offices, and then in the future, hopefully branching out to help other Redmond locations adopt these projects,” Danielle says.

The Green Team is Making Waves In Waste Reduction

The Green Team has made big waves in waste reduction at Redmond Life. They’ve helped initiate changes in the way we operate everywhere from the Accounts Receivable Department to the warehouse to the communal kitchen.

A Push for Paperless

Many departments at Redmond Life had already started making efforts to reduce their use of paper. But the Green Team helped push these efforts further along. The Accounts Receivable Department is now 100% paperless, and the Accounts Payable Department isn’t far behind. The Production, Warehouse, and LTL Shipping Departments have made big reductions in paper use too. The Redmond Life office has reduced paper usage and switched to recycled paper for what it does use.

Sayonara, Single-Use Plastic

The Green Team also helped make a dent in Redmond Life’s use of single-use plastic. They inspired our decision to eliminate the plastic shrink sleeve on Re-Lyte Jars. They also removed single-use items like cups, plates, and plastic cutlery from our kitchens and replaced them with reusable options.

Smart Shipping

Thanks to the Green Team some of our bulk products are now shipped in large totes. These products used to be shipped in small boxes (that were eventually thrown out) and put into totes once they arrived at Redmond Life.

Food for the Farm

When it comes to reducing waste, the Green Team knows we can’t ignore food scraps. They make up about 30% of all the waste that’s sent to landfills. Office food scraps are now collected and used to feed pigs and chickens at Redmond Heritage Farm, and coffee grounds are made available to associates who garden and compost or composted at the farm.

The Team Turns Trash into Treasure

Sure, the Green Team has already made a lot of progress reducing waste, but they haven’t forgotten about the “reuse” and “recycle” parts of the sustainability equation either.

Cardboard in the office, production areas, and warehouse is now collected, bailed, and used by a local company to make new products. Large canvas super bags used to store salt are collected by a local company and made into new products as well, and broken pallets are refurbished and made into new pallets.

The Green Team also launched the Heber Campus Recycling Program, partnering with local recycling services to reduce our impact on landfills.

Coming Together for the Greater Good

Some of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of the Green Team’s work are raising awareness among fellow associates and giving back to the community.

The team has already done simple things like creating reminders in the office and meeting rooms to turn off lights, fans, heaters, and close windows when meeting spaces are not in use.

They’ve also gotten creative by hosting eco-friendly events like “Bring Your Own Mug Day,” where Green Team members make lattes, chai teas, and hot chocolates for associates who brought in their own reusable mugs. In addition, they've hosted lemonade and kombucha stand events where they donate all the proceeds to a local food pantry.

In 2023, the Green Team spearheaded our first-ever Redmond Life Volunteer Day, where we cleared 1.5 miles of trails and donated $3,000 in-kind volunteer hours to the Wasatch Trails Foundation.

Elevating the Future Experience

The Green Team’s work is an important part of Redmond’s overall mission to “Elevate the Human Experience.” It’s also a continuation of an ongoing legacy at Redmond of working toward environmental sustainability.

Redmond Life’s parent company, Redmond Inc., set up its first solar project in 2013. That project consisted of 972 solar panels on 1.25 acres of land. This project was soon followed by four more, with project five going live in 2015.

There are numerous other examples of environmental stewardship throughout the Redmond family of brands, though the Green Team has certainly taken these efforts to a new level. The Green Team’s work ensures that Redmond will not only elevate the human experience in the present but in the future as well.