Code of Ethics

Preamble

The purpose of this Code of Ethics is to act as a guide for our team to operate and excel in a professional, ethical manner at Brew Dr. It recognizes our responsibilities to act intelligently, ethically, and sustainably within the organization and provides a framework for how we connect with our customers, suppliers, partners, colleagues and the world at large.

The Purpose and Values of the Business

Brew Dr. Kombucha was founded by Matt Thomas in 2008 and has grown with deep Oregon roots that come through in our fresh, friendly, and easy-going approach to brewing kombucha.

We believe kombucha – tasty and fizzy fermented probiotic tea – is the best beverage on earth. Brew Dr.’s mission is to bring the magic of kombucha to everyone, without compromise.

Our "Brew Right, Do Right" motto is more than just a saying. We are a Certified B Corp, which means we measure the success of our business with a “triple bottom-line” that includes people and the planet, not profit alone. Our closed-loop brewing process, local community support, and sustainability initiatives are the result of our commitment to making Brew Dr. a force for good. We are proud of our unpasteurized, authentic, organic kombucha brewed without shortcuts that takes about a month to ferment, depending on the conditions mother nature gives us in the Willamette Valley. We take our time with our kombucha and in life, because we know you can’t rush the good stuff.

Treaty Land and First Peoples Acknowledgement

Land Acknowledgement

At Brew Dr, we respectfully acknowledge that every bottle we create is done so on the colonized land of the Tualatin Kalapuyas. They called themselves the Atfalati, the descendants of whom are now part of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community.

We respect the Treaties made on these territories and recognize that we must understand the history of this land and our place within it. We are responsible for learning this history of colonization and genocide of Indigenous people. This Treaty Land and First Peoples Acknowledgement is one small step in an ongoing commitment at Brew Dr. to improve our support of Indigenous communities in the surrounding area.

How to pronounce Atfalati [at-fall-uh-tee]

How to pronounce Kalapuya [cal-uh-poo-yuh]

Employees

We seek to nurture the health, well-being, talent, education, and skills and livelihoods of our employees. In turn, we hope that our team will be respectful of our customers, colleagues, business partners, and the community outside the company.

We strive to honor the diversity of our team and to promote their ideas, work, and aspirations. We seek to create an organization in which the skills and talents of each employee are best used to help us achieve our overarching goals. All employees have access to a regularly updated employee handbook that provides details about benefits, travel, volunteering, and other work-related information. Discrimination of any kind is not consistent with our mission and values, and it will not be tolerated.

We are committed to following all applicable employment laws and regulations.

Confidentiality

Confidential information includes supplier information, Brew Dr. technologies, recipes, formulas, business and marketing plans, certain internal company communications, and existing and future product information. Confidential information employees learn on the job about Brew Dr. should be used only for company purposes and should not be disclosed to anyone outside the company. Within the company, employees should only disclose this information to other employees who need to know the information to perform their job duties. Employees who leave Brew Dr. are expected to return all company materials and property.

Professional Conduct

As a condition of employment, Brew Dr. employees must be familiar with the Organic Trade Association Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and conduct themselves in accordance with it. This code includes core ethical guidelines that align with our business values. For example, we seek for our team to “support the establishment of an entire production, processing and distribution chain which is both socially just and ecologically responsible.”

We expect our employees to act with integrity and transparency at all times. This includes avoiding any conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest exists when a personal interest or activity interferes or appears to interfere with the duties that you perform for Brew Dr. or the decisions you make on Brew Dr.’s behalf.

Customers

We expect that all employees will treat customers courteously and kindly. And, when issues do arise, we will address these fairly and appropriately. In turn, we expect our vendors and customers to treat our employees the same. We believe in fair pricing and in honoring agreements in good faith. We will do our best to send timely invoices and we expect to be paid by customers in a timely manner as well.

Stakeholders

As a privately held company, we hope that employees, partners, and colleagues will treat our collective time, technology, and financial resources with respect and with care. This protects the large investment that Brew Dr., its partners, and customers have made in the organization.

Sourcing

Sampling freshly brewed kombucha

Brew Dr. was first founded as a neighborhood tea shop. We relied on fellow small businesses, local partners, and community support to grow our effort. As we’ve scaled, we’ve continued to place importance on using local relationships to source our tea and herbs, as well as our bottles and other packaging. We strive to support and partner with other B Corps and minority-owned businesses in line with our social justice initiatives.

Suppliers

Brew Dr. Kombucha values the trust placed in us by our customers, stakeholders, and employees to conduct business in an ethical manner. To support us in preserving this trust, we count on our network of suppliers to conduct business with integrity, treat their employees with dignity and respect, and be responsible global citizens. We communicate with our suppliers on an ongoing basis to acknowledge these values as stated in our Supplier Code of Conduct.

Community

We work to be an ally to our community. We at Brew Dr. are committed to giving back to our local community, prioritizing support of environmental and social justice-driven nonprofits. We joined 1% for the Planet to support environmentally-driven nonprofits. We established ‘Local Love,’ a paid time off program for our employees to volunteer at an organization of their choice. In 2020 we created ‘Uplift our Community,’ donating 1% of the revenue from our Uplift products to organizations focused on racial justice.

Sustainability

All businesses make a footprint on the environment.  From the glass we source to the utilities that run our brewery, emissions are all around us. Our first priority is reducing our point-source emissions, or emissions coming from our facilities and delivery vehicles. And where emissions are inevitable, we purchase carbon offsets from Bonneville Environmental Foundation to put those emissions back in the ground. View our emissions by sector >>

Review and Accessibility

We will review this code of ethics annually to ensure that it reflects our values, our communications and our actions. In keeping with our commitment to transparency and accountability, this code of ethics will be posted publicly online.

Reporting

Brew Dr. relies on our employees, customers, suppliers, partners, and others to hold us accountable and let us know if we are not living up to the guidelines set forth in our Code of Ethics. As an organization that is constantly striving to improve and grow, we welcome your feedback. We do not tolerate retaliation against any employee who raises concerns or questions in good faith regarding a potential violation of our Code of Ethics.

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