Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products Company Profile

About Guayakí

Guayakí imports an energizing rainforest beverage called yerba mate including ready-to drink beverages, loose mate and tea bags. Through the sale of its products, Guayakí sustains and restores 20,000 acres of Interior Atlantic Rainforest, supports various cooperatives and Indigenous communities and demonstrates that money does grow on trees. By harvesting yerba mate, a drink made from the rainforest mate tree in South America, Guayakí provides the peoples of the rainforest with income as well as the ability to steward their land.

The yerba mate has allowed the founders of Guayakí to create a business model known as Market Driven Restoration. The revenue generated from selling yerba mate in North America funds the restoration of rainforests back in South America. Each person that drinks two servings per day of Guayakí Yerba Mate helps protect approximately one acre of rainforest every year. Guayakí is a member of the Fair Trade Federation: it pays more than twice the world market price for yerba mate, and provides a living wage to its growers. This fair trade price ensures that the reforestation efforts of Guayakí are possible and will eventually provide families inhabiting the forests with a sustainable income.

Companies striving to become sustainable face myriad issues and require many resources to navigate legal, ethical, and financial minefields. We believe that B Corporations can provide a fertile ground for creative solutions and can inspire profound systemic change.

The Change We Seek™

Our mission is to create economic models that drive reforestation while paying a living wage. Guayakí works directly with growers to deliver unique and beneficial products that enhance personal health and well being.

Our goal is to steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020 by leveraging our Market Driven Restoration business model.

We ensure that we are minimizing our environmental impact by investing in carbon credits. Guayakí purchased Renewable Energy Credits from Green Mountain Energy to offset two years worth of CO2 emissions from its factories by using solar panels to generate electricity for their operations. In total, we are purchasing 175.5 MWhs of power.