Only Natural Pet Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Written by: Only Natural Pet Team
Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The time is always right to do what's right." At Only Natural Pet, we keep this in mind every day. Although still on our journey towards making a difference in our workplace, communities, and environment, we made headway in 2020 and will continue the hard work of doing what's right well into 2021 and beyond.
"The time is always right to do what's right."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Here are just some of the ways Only Natural Pet is working towards a more just and equal world.
Diversity & Inclusion
Like many people around the world, the Black Lives Matter movement compelled us to reflect on what we were doing as a company to advance our diversity and inclusion.
We implemented our Belonging, Diversity & Inclusion program companywide to celebrate all of our individual team member's stories and backgrounds, started a diversity book club to learn and discuss the array of human experience, and celebrated our internal "Diversity Week" at the end of last year. This included daily presentations about diversity and inclusion, daily questions to help us learn and celebrate each other, and plenty of time for reflection and discussion about what we do moving forward.
Volunteerism & Community Involvement
Despite COVID-19, Only Natural Pet team members still found the opportunity to volunteer in our communities. Taking advantage of our 8 hours of paid volunteer time, team members volunteered nearly 100 hours to a variety of causes, including Girls Scouts of America, Denver Zoo, Out Boulder County, Boulder County AIDS Project, and the Parker Symphony.
We also continued our involvement with the Colorado Pet Pantry. As more and more Americans are experiencing food insecurity, the Colorado Pet Pantry works to get food in the bowls of food insecure pets all around the state. Along with Kroenke Sports and “I and Love and You”, we were able to get 2,000 lbs of food to pets in need.
Environmental Justice
As we continue to experience the effects of climate change and pollution, we're seeing that impoverished communities are being affected disproportionately. As we continue to advance our environmental sustainability, we're taking a number of steps to counteract these environmental challenges.
We continue to use carbon offsets to make our Powerfood, Powerfusion, Wholesome Homemade, and MindfulMeals completely carbon neutral. These offsets work by protecting rainforest in Brazil, allowing the trees to breathe in the carbon that is released in the production and shipping of your pet's food. We also offset our operational carbon by investing in technology that allows farmers to use their pigs' methane for electricity and cooking gas.
This year, we're releasing a vegetarian dog food, an insect protein dog food, and up-cycled food dog treats. These foods and treats can be used as complete and balanced meals, or introduced into your pet's flexitarian lifestyle as a way to shrink their environmental footprint.
Moving Forward
As we move into 2021, we will be recertifying as a B Corp, meaning we meet the highest standards of social and environmental sustainability. We will continue to educate and celebrate diversity and inclusion throughout the company by implementing our new training program. And we will continue to make time to do what's right.
