Crestline's Commitment to Corporate Environmental Responsibility

What is Corporate Environmental Responsibility?

Corporate environmental responsibility is a component of social corporate responsibility. It is a way of operating your organization in fundamental ways that support sustainability, energy efficiency, recycling, repurposing, and eliminating waste, and overall implementation of practices that mitigate harm to the environment.

What Does Being an Environmentally Responsible Company mean to Crestline?

Crestline takes environmental responsibility seriously. Being an environmentally conscious company means not only taking countermeasures to reduce the organization’s carbon footprint, but also taking active steps to promote overall ecosystem health.

As an environmentally conscious company, Crestline is always looking for new opportunities within our company to reduce our carbon footprint and improve our processes to eliminate waste while maximizing efficiency—all the while doing it in a transparent way.

We know the journey is ongoing and we won’t always get it perfect, so we’re committed to sharing the real story, fine print included.

Here are just some of the ways we have integrated eco-friendly measures into our business operations:

1. Carbon neutral shipping is our priority.

   Truth: We strive to ship every swag order through our UPS carbon neutral partnership.
   Transparency: On rare occasions, we use another carrier to ensure on-time delivery, which may mean emissions aren’t offset.

   

   Carbon neutral means we offset the carbon emissions for UPS shipments from our suppliers or to our customers. UPS calculates the carbon emissions for the shipments, then purchases offset projects that equal that amount, such as reforestation, renewable energy and wastewater treatment.

   We were first in the promotional products industry to enter a UPS carbon neutral program in 2012.

2. Our HQ runs on sunshine.

   Truth: Our nearly 700-panel solar array generates 100% of our annual electricity needs at our Lewiston, Maine headquarters.
   Transparency: It's really 696 panels, but nearly 700 sounds better.

   

   Our headquarters has been LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the US Green Building Council. Our solar power investment along with using LED lights has allowed us to greatly reduce our electricity consumption, eliminating about 320,000 pounds of carbon pollution from fossil fuel power plants every year.

   We have also renovated our corporate offices with energy efficient walls and ceilings. Our heating needs are sustained by a natural gas heating system with a 96% efficiency rating.

3. We’re in the top 1% for sustainability ratings.

   Truth: Our U.S. headquarters holds a Platinum rating from EcoVadis, placing us among the top 1% of companies assessed worldwide.
   Transparency: The certification is officially held by our parent company, Geiger—but we meet the same standards and share the same headquarters.

   

   In 2019, Crestline joined the EcoVadis program and was awarded a silver medal. The mission of EcoVadis is to provide an impartial standard to recognize the accomplishments of sustainable businesses and inform the decision-making of prospective clients.

   Following an assessment in March 2021, Crestline was awarded a gold medal, placing in the top 5% of all companies assessed.

   In November 2024, our US headquarters was awarded a Platinum rating from EcoVadis. This was the result of several months of targeted work by our team looking at improving working practices across key areas including Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement.

   
4. It’s more than just protecting our environment—we care about humans too.

   Truth: We are a proud signatory of the United Nations Global Compact and Fair Labor Association®.
   Transparency: If you search for Crestline as a member you won’t find us. Geiger, our parent company, holds these designations on our behalf.

   

   In 2021, we joined the United Nations Global Compact, an initiative that aims to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect the planet. Participating organizations like Crestline commit to doing business responsibly and to discovering opportunities to innovate and solve societal and global challenges.

   

   As a licensee of the Fair Labor Association®, we work to drive innovation in business practices to improve the lives of the workers who make the products you buy.

Our commitment doesn’t stop there...

• Crestline offsets our paper use through PrintReleaf™, which plants trees where they're needed most.
• Crestline supports recycling at our headquarters as part of our social corporate responsibility. Nothing goes to the landfill at our HQ. Through robust recycling programs, we’ve kept over 215,000 pounds of waste out of landfills in the past year—and now, all of our packaging is 100% sustainable.
• Our sister company, The Farmer’s Almanac, produces a publication annually with many helpful eco-friendly tips on how to garden and live more sustainably. You can find a promotional version of the Farmer’s Almanac on our website.
• Crestline applies the lean philosophy of continuous improvement in our day-to-day business operations. Working “lean” means we continuously analyze and improve upon all aspects of the workflow within our company to optimize efficiency and eliminate unnecessary waste.
• Crestline is ‘On The Pathway to 100% Clean Energy’, as part of a private-sector, nonprofit, and nonpartisan project initiated by Maine business owners to take effective action together.