Good Earth

How ethical and sustainable is Good Earth?

Good Earth is an established tea brand and features on our Ethical Tea Ratings Table. Unfortunately, Good Earth receives an extremely low rating, which is one of the lowest scores across our entire research. If you are looking to purchase ethical tea, recommend choosing a different brand.

To find out more about the issues of ethics and sustainability that the tea sector faces, read our article on Ethical Tea.

What is Good Earth and what does it do?

Established in the 1970s Good Earth was born in Santa Cruz. The team created many flavours of tea and bubbly kombucha products. The brand was one of the first American herbal tea companies. Good Earth’s tea blends are made with high-quality ingredients. The brand claims to make sure it is doing the best it can ‘to make sure the planet is happy too. Because it’s the right thing to do.’ (Claims such as these demonstrate why it’s vital that organisations such as The Good Shopping Guide exist to fact-check these statements, so consumers aren’t solely relying on brand marketing and greenwashing.)

Where does Good Earth score well as a brand ethically?

Good Earth ranks highly in our Animal Welfare category of ethical assessment. This means that the brand has no claims of animal cruelty or animal testing launched against it, and found to be true.

Unfortunately, this is the only research category that Good Earth scores well in.

Where does Good Earth score poorly?

Good Earth receives a bottom rating in almost all of the research categories within our Ethical Tea assessment, which is why the brand receives such a low GSG score.

Good Earth’s low rating is primarily due to its ownership by Indian conglomerate, Tata Group. Tata is involved in Nuclear Power, Fossil Fuels and Armaments, leading to a low rating in all three of these categories.

Additionally, Good Earth receives a bottom rating for Public Record Criticisms, due to Tata Group’s unethical activities. This includes issues such as poor safety measures in factories, working with suppliers linked to human rights abuses, having links to military dictatorships and more.

Ethical Accreditation and Ethical Tea companies: Sustainability & Ethics Certifications

There are numerous ethical and sustainable tea brands available, and therefore Good Earth needs to change its business practices to be eligible for The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Accreditation and compete with other ethical tea brands. The tea companies that have earned this certification for business sustainability and ethics can be seen in our Ethical Tea Ratings Table. Why not get in contact to learn more about Ethical Accreditation if you own or work for a tea company where ethics truly matters? To get started with your journey toward Ethical accreditation, complete our short assessment form.