Our 3BL (Triple Bottom Line) Commitment

At Primal Echo, we share a deep commitment to integrating economic, environmental and equality bottom lines. This Triple Bottom Line, or 3BL, supports the aspirations of our producer communities, employees, customers, shareholders and vendors. It’s a principle that’s inherent in everything we do.

A 3BL business model includes in its measurement of return on investment the economic, environmental and equitable, aspects of a business’ overall impact. Our Beans to Brew graphic and our Customer to Camp Tico at Lily Moon Sustainability Lodge rendering offer visual representational glimpses of Primal Echo’s 3BL approach.



Our local and global products will be produced, traded, transported and sold using eco and socially–conscious principles and reported per the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 protocol.

According to L. Hunter Lovins, author, scholar and President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, enhancing an integrated bottom line represents a significant competitive advantage:

“Businesses that reduce their carbon emissions strengthen every aspect of shareholder value. The validity of this management approach is borne out of the recent report from Goldman Sachs, which found that companies that are leaders in environmental, social, and good governance policies are outperforming the MSCI world index of stocks by 25 percent since 2005. Seventy–two percent of the companies on the list outperformed peers             

“Shareholder value is enhanced when a company grows its top–line sales, cuts its costs, better manages its risks, enhances labor productivity, drives innovation, better manages its supply chains and stakeholders. These components of what is known as ‘The Integrated Bottom Line’ are all improved by saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Companies that implement climate protection programs can strengthen their financial performance by cutting energy and materials costs in industrial processes, facilities design and management, and fleet management. They can grow core business value through sector performance leadership and first–mover advantage, gain easier access to capital, improve corporate governance, strengthen their ability to drive innovation, and improve government relations. Doing this helps companies retain competitive advantage, enhance their reputation and brand equity, increase their ability to capture market share and differentiate their products. Such programs increase companies’ abilities to attract and retain their best talent, increase employee productivity and health, improve communication, creativity, and morale in the workplace, and better stockholder relations.”
—“Economic Case for Climate Change,” Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability.

Primal Echo will invest in carbon offsets purchased through the only world’s statewide local carbon market, the Colorado Carbon Fund (CCF). The CCF’s third–party certification body is The Climate Trust, which ensures that the fund’s selected high–quality, innovative greenhouse gas offset projects meet strict standards.

These standards include the following:

Additional (whereby the project developers must demonstrate that selling emission reduction to the Climate Trust somehow enable a project’s implementation and that without the opportunity to sell the project’s emission reductions the project would not occur);

  • Scale (projects must reduce at least 2,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year);
     
  • Energy (projects must reduce emissions through energy–related measures such as avoidance of methane emissions, switching to renewables or making efficiency improvements. The CCF doesn’t currently accept sequestration projects);
     
  • Direct (projects must reduce emissions at the site where they are implemented by reducing or displacing the use of fossil fuels. Projects that result in grid–electricity reductions aren’t considered because they result in indirect emission reductions causing ownership and double counting concerns.)

We admire and are deeply grateful to our farmer partners who tend the earth with heart and integrity to bring us nourishing, vibrant food; and to our eco–minded artisan suppliers whose creations reflect beauty in form, function and ecological balance.

We are equally committed to offering our customers high–quality, sustainably produced products and to guaranteeing that our supply partners receive fair compensation—compensation that enables them to make a decent living, work under healthy conditions and benefit their communities in a sustainable way.

Primal Echo’s products will be certified organic and fair-trade by the USDA, the Rainforest Alliance and/or TransFair USA. Every one of our products will be sourced directly from organic growers and sustainable product artisans. As we grow, we’ll also look to offer higher–than–certified fair–trade (PE fair-trade certified+).

We seek to develop respectful, long–term partnerships with all our shareholders–– suppliers, vendors, customers, communities, employees and shareholders.