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HerbalEGram: Volume 6, Number 1, January 2009
Traditional Medicinals Tea Company
Becomes 75% Solar Powered
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With 1,450 panels soaking in the sun’s warm rays atop the company’s headquarters building in Sebastopol, California, Traditional Medicinals is the largest solar-powered tea factory on Earth.1
“This solar energy system simply reflects the principles of sustainability that Traditional Medicinals always strives to uphold,” said company co-founder Drake Sadler (oral communication, December 22, 2008). The panels fuel 75% of the approximate 600,000 kilowatt hours used by the company each year. To cover the remaining 25%, the company will continue to purchase wind energy credits, which support wind farms across the United States.
After a year of planning, designing, and building on 80,000 square feet of roof, the tea company completed the installation of its solar project last September. The system currently generates more energy than the facility needs for its daytime operations. This extra energy is sold to the power grid and repurchased when the sun sets to fuel Traditional Medicinals’ nighttime operations.
Now in the fifth month of production, Sadler reports they are quite pleased with the system. With the help of a $500,000 rebate from California’s Solar Initiative, the entire $3 million project will be paid off in 5 to 7 years. After that, Traditional Medicinals will generate its own power for decades at almost no expense.
Not at all alone on the company’s 8.5 acre business park, the solar addition joins other self-sustaining features, such as a fleet of hybrid and biodiesel cars, motion-detecting energy efficient lights, low-flush toilets, a sophisticated waste management system, and a large well-stocked fish pond for fire suppression and landscaping. Utilizing these green business practices, it is not surprising that Traditional Medicinals has been a recipient of California EPA’s Waste Reduction Award for 11 consecutive years.2
When Traditional Medicinals embarked on its solar journey, it departed from its long-time commitment of purchasing wind energy credits to offset 100% of its energy consumption (D. Sadler, oral communication, December 22, 2008). Because sunlight is more abundant than wind in their region of Northern California, using solar energy made more sense to fulfill the company’s needs, Sadler said.
Eventually Traditional Medicinals hopes to be 100% fueled by solar power. The only obstacle standing in the path of complete energy independence is a simple lack of roof space on which to install more panels. In fact, the recent solar panel system had been envisioned for a long time, Sadler said, but the company waited until the completion of a large warehouse to provide adequate roof space for the many panels.
Public response to the solar panel system has been significant. More than 150 news outlets have reported on the panels, and Traditional Medicinals’ Web site has had an increase in activity. Each month, the site has about 25,000 new visitors, with about 5% of them viewing the solar panel story for an average of 2 minutes.
“Many people now want to know more about companies and their commitments to sustainability,” Sadler said. “Our consumers are interested in medicinal plants, plant conservation, responsible business practices, and environmental stewardship.”
With all of these interests guiding Traditional Medicinals’ unique business model, the company operates with a deep respect for the Earth and draws together people to do service-based work in a socially-conscious way. It is this collaboration, Sadler said, that made the solar project a reality and will preserve the company’s mission throughout the future.
—Lindsay Stafford
References
1. Solar Power. Traditional Medicinals Web site. Available at: http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com /solar_power. Accessed December 23, 2008.
2. Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) 2007 WRAP winners search results. California Integrated Waste Management Board Web site. Available at: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WRAP/search.asp?VW=APP&BIZID=1225&YEAR=2007&CNTY=. Accessed December 23, 2008.
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