going green—with heart
As the country’s first green* pharmacy, every Elephant cares passionately for its neighborhood—and the environment. Here’s how:
We offer sustainable products
Every product on our shelves is chosen with the utmost of care.
Most of our grocery department is natural or organic and the majority of our cosmetics, vitamins, supplements, and body care products are, too. We also have a commitment to supporting local businesses as well as companies that embrace fair trade practices or have a philosophy of giving back to the community. As part of our non-biased approach our selection includes the best of conventional products to enable our customers to have a choice when they shop.
We help create sustainable communities
We offer our customers a place to recycle of a whole range of items. We provide ongoing recycling programs for eyeglasses and offer quarterly (or thereabouts) recycling of small electronics and computers, halogen lamps, light bulbs, ink cartridges, CDs and DVDs.
Working with Teleosis, we provide free medicine takeback for our customers. They can bring us their expired or unused medicines and we’ll dispose of them in an earth-friendly way.
We locate our stores near public transportation whenever possible; our
We keep our customers in the know by providing information in the stores and on our website about what to look for in a product. We offer free classes daily to keep our communities healthy and well-informed. And our free health practitioner consultations enable our customers to discover new remedies and keep fresh perspectives.
Every week, each of our store locations donates a gift card to a local, non-profit organization to aid in their fundraising efforts. Recent beneficiaries include the Berkeley Youth Orchestra, Meals on Wheels, Women’s
We are committed to sustainable business practices
We eliminated plastic bags in 2007, and our customers now have the choice of our hardy 100% recycled paper bags or our new reusable, locally made, 100% recycled ink & 100% natural cotton tote bag.
We use only use post-consumer waste paper and soy-based inks for our newsletter and other promotional materials.
We purchase only recycled paper for our office and reuse paper whenever possible.
We recycle cardboard, bottles, cans, and, of course, paper.
We work to save electricity wherever possible with “turn off the lights” and “turn off your computer” campaigns.
Employees carpool or bike to work whenever they can.
We are a leader in sustainable building
All of our stores are Certified Green Businesses, and our most recent location, Elephant Pharm Walnut Creek, is part of the LEED for Retail (Commercial Interiors) Pilot Program. The new 12,000 sq. ft. store—the prototype for all future Elephant Pharms—uses rapidly renewable materials like bamboo in flooring and casework, as well as low-emitting adhesives, sealants, interior paints, and ceiling systems. With abundant skylights, advanced lighting controls, and an innovative lighting design, this is definitely not your usual pharmacy environment.
Additionally, we addressed several non-energy sustainable design issues such as development in high density area, adjacency to key public transit systems, 30% water reduction, elimination of CFC and HCFC refrigerants in all HVAC and refrigeration equipment, carbon offset of all energy use to 100% green power, and 50% of Construction Waste Debris from landfill.
We ♥ being green
Elephant Pharm believes that keeping the earth healthy is a fundamental part of keeping people healthy, and we wouldn’t do business any other way. And we’ve found that every time we figure out yet another way to go green, it feels really good—and those good feelings affect our customers as well, which is one mammoth reason Elephant loves being green.
*LEED-certified
