If you’ve been reading along on the Mountain Rose Herbs blog, you know we’re always looking for ways that we can make smart business choices that address climate change and invest in the health and wellbeing of our community and our planet. Committing to our alternative-fuel and electric fleet of company vehicles is one key piece to this commitment. In 2007, we realized our company had grown to a point that we could no longer function efficiently without a company delivery van. This created a real conundrum for us because we also want to mitigate the problems that are feeding climate change, and big delivery vans are notoriously fuel-inefficient. Indiscriminately spewing particulate matter into the environment of our hometown in order to deliver organic herbs was a hard-no for us. So, we started looking at alternative-fuel options.
SeQuential: Fueling Our Biodiesel Delivery Fleet
Our first company vehicle was a biodiesel-fueled Sprinter van that still remains part of our fleet today. We have the good fortune to live in the Willamette Valley, which is also home to SeQuential, a large-scale biodiesel producer and one of the leading used-cooking-oil collectors in the nation. They collect used cooking oil from business partners throughout our region and take it to their facility in Salem—just an hour up the interstate from our facilities here in Eugene—to transform it into biodiesel. Biodiesel made in this manner is nontoxic, renewable, and is a significantly cleaner fuel source than petroleum diesel. It gives us a 50% reduction in hydrocarbon emissions and other harmful particulate matter and reduces the overall carbon footprint of our delivery fleet by more than 80% compared to petroleum-based diesel.
Because of our proximity to SeQuential, biodiesel-fueled vehicles make a lot of sense for us. Although they are not entirely particulate-free, they are significantly cleaner. Supporting SeQuential also checks another box on the Mountain Rose Herbs must-do list: we are supporting a local industry that is making significant changes in how we use and re-use resources and they continually reinvest in doing that better so that this business model remains sustainable into the future.
In the fifteen years since our first company vehicle purchase, we’ve had to expand our fleet multiple times. We are pleased to say that our options are getting more diverse. Now our entire fleet runs on alternative fuels, is plug-in electric, or a hybrid vehicle.
Most recently, we added two Arcimoto electric vehicles to our fleet, including an Arcimoto Deliverator. This little delivery “van” is built for small parcel cargo delivery in high density cities and, because it features an enclosed cargo area, it also has the added advantage of offering a perfect place to feature company logos, etc. that are highly visible as we travel. It’s not large enough for big deliveries and certainly can’t replace our beloved Sprinter van, but this cutie fills an important niche in our fleet needs.
For us, the decision to commit to an alternative-fuel and electric fleet is all about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combatting climate change. It is the same reason we invest in our Alternative Commute Program, because we want to encourage everyone to reduce their carbon emissions, and we want to lead by example.
Along the way, we’ve discovered that there are benefits we hadn’t anticipated. When we send our team members out into the community in one of our electric vehicles, they inevitably end up in conversations about our company’s commitment to do everything we can for the planet. Our fleet helps us spread the word that companies can do good for the environment and still be successful. We call that a win-win.
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Topics: Inside Mountain Rose Herbs, Sustainability
Shawn is Mountain Rose Herbs' owner and CEO. He first became involved with Mountain Rose Herbs as a passionate young idealist with a fervent desire to change the world. He was a notorious rabble-rouser, always petitioning for mandatory labeling on genetically modified food crops, encouraging people to support a strong conservation ethic, fighting for the protection of endangered or threatened species, and the protection and enhancement of our riparian areas. When Mountain Rose Herbs came into his life, Shawn saw it as an opportunity to change the way business is conducted on this planet. To this day, the revolutionary business principles that Shawn initiated have been used as a successful model by countless other organizations. Since becoming a co-owner of the company in 2001, he has continued to initiate bold and daring changes, most notably the eradication of all conventionally grown products from our product line, introducing the first line of fair trade certified medicinal herbs in the United States, implementing the design and deployment of our web presence, launching our zero waste program and our charitable giving program, and more. In his spare time, Shawn can be found deep within Oregon’s wilderness system, or lost in the pages of any book about ecology and the environment. He currently retains one of the nation’s largest collections of rare and antiquarian books that deal exclusively with nature writing and outdoor literature. With Thoreau, Abbey, and Muir being his favorites, of course! "All of our environmental issues can be connected to the embarrassing way that business abuses this planet. My objective is to stop this destructive pattern by offering an alternative modality and sharing that modality with others so we can all lead the change necessary to heal the planet"
If you’ve been reading along on the Mountain Rose Herbs blog, you know we’re always looking for ways that we can make smart business choices that address climate change and invest in the health and wellbeing of our community and our planet. Committing to our alternative-fuel and electric fleet of company vehicles is one key piece to this commitment. In 2007, we realized our company had grown to a point that we could no longer function efficiently without a company delivery van. This created a real conundrum for us because we also want to mitigate the problems that are feeding climate change, and big delivery vans are notoriously fuel-inefficient. Indiscriminately spewing particulate matter into the environment of our hometown in order to deliver organic herbs was a hard-no for us. So, we started looking at alternative-fuel options.
SeQuential: Fueling Our Biodiesel Delivery Fleet
Our first company vehicle was a biodiesel-fueled Sprinter van that still remains part of our fleet today. We have the good fortune to live in the Willamette Valley, which is also home to SeQuential, a large-scale biodiesel producer and one of the leading used-cooking-oil collectors in the nation. They collect used cooking oil from business partners throughout our region and take it to their facility in Salem—just an hour up the interstate from our facilities here in Eugene—to transform it into biodiesel. Biodiesel made in this manner is nontoxic, renewable, and is a significantly cleaner fuel source than petroleum diesel. It gives us a 50% reduction in hydrocarbon emissions and other harmful particulate matter and reduces the overall carbon footprint of our delivery fleet by more than 80% compared to petroleum-based diesel.
Because of our proximity to SeQuential, biodiesel-fueled vehicles make a lot of sense for us. Although they are not entirely particulate-free, they are significantly cleaner. Supporting SeQuential also checks another box on the Mountain Rose Herbs must-do list: we are supporting a local industry that is making significant changes in how we use and re-use resources and they continually reinvest in doing that better so that this business model remains sustainable into the future.
In the fifteen years since our first company vehicle purchase, we’ve had to expand our fleet multiple times. We are pleased to say that our options are getting more diverse. Now our entire fleet runs on alternative fuels, is plug-in electric, or a hybrid vehicle.
Most recently, we added two Arcimoto electric vehicles to our fleet, including an Arcimoto Deliverator. This little delivery “van” is built for small parcel cargo delivery in high density cities and, because it features an enclosed cargo area, it also has the added advantage of offering a perfect place to feature company logos, etc. that are highly visible as we travel. It’s not large enough for big deliveries and certainly can’t replace our beloved Sprinter van, but this cutie fills an important niche in our fleet needs.
For us, the decision to commit to an alternative-fuel and electric fleet is all about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combatting climate change. It is the same reason we invest in our Alternative Commute Program, because we want to encourage everyone to reduce their carbon emissions, and we want to lead by example.
Along the way, we’ve discovered that there are benefits we hadn’t anticipated. When we send our team members out into the community in one of our electric vehicles, they inevitably end up in conversations about our company’s commitment to do everything we can for the planet. Our fleet helps us spread the word that companies can do good for the environment and still be successful. We call that a win-win.
You may also enjoy:
Topics: Inside Mountain Rose Herbs, Sustainability
Shawn is Mountain Rose Herbs' owner and CEO. He first became involved with Mountain Rose Herbs as a passionate young idealist with a fervent desire to change the world. He was a notorious rabble-rouser, always petitioning for mandatory labeling on genetically modified food crops, encouraging people to support a strong conservation ethic, fighting for the protection of endangered or threatened species, and the protection and enhancement of our riparian areas. When Mountain Rose Herbs came into his life, Shawn saw it as an opportunity to change the way business is conducted on this planet. To this day, the revolutionary business principles that Shawn initiated have been used as a successful model by countless other organizations. Since becoming a co-owner of the company in 2001, he has continued to initiate bold and daring changes, most notably the eradication of all conventionally grown products from our product line, introducing the first line of fair trade certified medicinal herbs in the United States, implementing the design and deployment of our web presence, launching our zero waste program and our charitable giving program, and more. In his spare time, Shawn can be found deep within Oregon’s wilderness system, or lost in the pages of any book about ecology and the environment. He currently retains one of the nation’s largest collections of rare and antiquarian books that deal exclusively with nature writing and outdoor literature. With Thoreau, Abbey, and Muir being his favorites, of course! "All of our environmental issues can be connected to the embarrassing way that business abuses this planet. My objective is to stop this destructive pattern by offering an alternative modality and sharing that modality with others so we can all lead the change necessary to heal the planet"
