16-16. How does Honest Tea practice sustainable marketing?

Honest Tea, the Coca-Cola brand that produced $130 million in global revenues last year, got its start because cofounder Seth Goldman didn’t like the options in the beverage coolers at convenience stores. So with the help of a former professor, he launched Honest Tea—the nation’s first fully organic bottled tea.

But the company’s drive for success was not based not as much on profits as on a desire to change the world. With social responsibility steeped deep into its business model, Honest Tea set out to help develop the economic structure of impoverished nations. Honest Tea purchased raw ingredients from Native American and South African farmers and invested in its supplier-farmers to help them become self-reliant. Although Honest Tea has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Coca-

Cola Company since 2011, it continues to operate on the principles of social responsibility established by its founders.