Swanson Health Just Got Greener

Small changes can add up in a really big way, both for your health and for the environment. That's why we're extending our commitment to wellness with a commitment to the health of the planet. 

We're continually looking to improve processes and make changes that reduce waste, carbon emissions, water and energy use for an eco-friendly future. To date, we've made changes that reduced our annual carbon emissions by almost 2 million pounds and prevent over 25,000 pounds of plastic waster per year. 

The latest change is the removal of a plastic wrapper from the lids of products bottled in  our Fargo, ND facility, significantly reducing plastic waste, energy usage and carbon emissions. The wrapper previously served as a secondary seal, but improvements in induction-sealing technology allowed for its removal with no impact to product quality, freshness or safety. If you have questions about this recent change, please see the FAQ section below. 

Our Full List of Eco-Friendly Initiatives

  • Removed plastic wrappers from product lids, a change that prevents 25,000 pounds of plastic waste per year, reduces electricity usage by 225,009 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, and reduces carbon emissions by 350,535 pounds per year. 

  • Improved shipping logistics resulting in fewer trucks on the road, reducing carbon emissions by 300,401 pounds per year — enough to power an average car for 40 round-trip road trips from Anchorage, AK to Houston, TX.

  • Converting 100,000 square feet of our Fargo, ND headquarters facility to geothermal energy, using 4x less energy for heating

  • Switching to LED lighting in our facilities, reducing carbon emissions by 251,791 pounds per year and saving 190,092 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy — enough to power 136 refrigerators for a year

  • Using lighter boxes and significantly reducing packaging materials saving 45,000 pounds of wasted box materials, 34% fewer units with plastic bags or plastic wrappers, a 40% reduction in units with extra wrapping, elimination of 3 miles-worth of bubble wrap and 50,000 plastic bags per year

  • Changing shipping standards to use fewer boxes overall — every year we use 80,000 fewer boxes and 150,000 fewer pieces of packaging tape — 60 miles-worth of tape

  • Recycling 975,000 pounds of cardboard per year — when combined with the use of lighter boxes, this saves approximately one million pounds of cardboard each year — that's 8,288 trees saved each year, plus 1,000,898 pounds of carbon emissions saved per year through recycling

  • Continuous evaluation of water consumption during processes in an effort to reduce water waste, resulting in changes to wash processes to conserve water

  • Catalog printing partnership that maintains a recycling rate of 99.22% for paper, wood, metal, energy recovery, plastic and more leading to 328,000+ tons of materials recovered for the recycling marketplace, in addition to use of inks with a higher renewable resource content (minimum 27.3% renewable content) for an overall more sustainable print operation

  • Overall fostering of a culture of waste reduction — recycling plastic, glass, paper, and other recyclable materials used in our manufacturing facility, call center, and business offices

FAQs

I received a Swanson product that doesn't have a plastic wrapper around the top. Was the product compromised?

No, we made an environmentally- friendly change to our packaging. Products bottled in-house no longer feature the unnecessary plastic wrapper around the top. This small change doesn't impact your product at all, but it helps the environment by reducing plastic waste by 25,000 pounds a year and reduces our carbon footprint. Look for the pressure seal under the lid for guaranteed quality, safety and freshness.

Without the plastic wrapper, how can I be sure my product wasn't tampered with?

The inner induction seal has been, and continues to be, the tamper evident technology used by Swanson Health to guarantee the safety of our products. This technology is exceptionally reliable and cannot be easily replicated by a third party. The inner induction seal is the industry standard in protecting integrity and customer safety. 

Why do some of the products in my order have a plastic wrapper and others do not?

Some products shipping now were bottled prior to the change and will still have a wrapper. You may see the same products without plastic wrappers in future orders after we sell through the inventory that is already bottled. Also, this environmentally- friendly change only applies to products that are bottled in Fargo, ND, facility.

What is the environmental impact of removing the plastic wrapper from your bottles?

By removing the unnecessary plastic wrapper from our products, we are preventing 25,000 pounds a year of plastic waste, using 225,000 kWh less electricity per year, and reducing our carbon emissions by 159 metric tons a year

 

If you have any further questions, contact us at customercare@swansonhealth.com