All-One! Report 2024
KEEPING IT REAL
Mission-Driven Means Community‑Minded
These days, more and more companies say they are mission-driven. Massive multinational corporations make this claim now too, even though they’re still structured to extract profit at all costs. We know saying we are mission-driven isn’t enough. It depends on what that mission is.
At Dr. Bronner’s our mission is community. Our greatest work is to bring people together for the greater good. It isn’t a marketing shtick. It’s in our DNA and it’s our business model. Everything we do is guided by our core values, as outlined in our Cosmic Principles.
These principles represent six interconnected spheres of influence: our business, our customers, our employees, our suppliers, our Earth, and our broader community. We are committed to the collective health of each one.
In this All-One Report we reflect on our impact on each of these areas in 2023. Our report is designed to show what we mean when we say we are a mission-driven company. At our best, we honor our Cosmic Principles by ensuring a holistic and interconnected approach in all we do.
Last year we celebrated our 75th year in business.
We’ve come a long way in that time. We’ve grown in annual revenue and in size, to over 300 employees. Last year, we hit the $100 million USD mark in funds donated to charitable and activist causes throughout our history and we launched new packaging to reflect our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint. Our global supply chain now positively and directly impacts an estimated 35,000 people in communities in Palestine, Ghana, Sri Lanka, India, and beyond.
The seed our grandfather planted in 1948 and nurtured until just before the turn of the century has blossomed into something bigger than any of us expected. We are so proud of this company and all it has accomplished.
Society has also come far in the last three quarters of a century. Social movements for civil and human rights and ecological sustainability have helped inch our world closer to the “All-One” world our grandfather dedicated his company and his life to. Yet, we still have a long way to go.
The world is continuing to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic while climate change remains among the biggest threats to the future of life on Earth. An ailing and imbalanced economy that prioritizes the few at the expense of the many causes millions to struggle to meet basic needs. Ongoing wars waged by occupying armies and military superpowers cause mass displacement, suffering, and death throughout Gaza and Ukraine. Racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other supremacist ideologies lock so many into the margins of society and harm the ability of all of us to live our best lives.
Can a soap company change the world? Alone, we can’t. But together with you, we think we can. We seek to fuel and support those who want to make a difference in the world and turn the tide of injustice and suffering. We hope to be a model for a better way to do business and in the process generate and strengthen community.
We have published this impact and sustainability report annually since 2015. We use it to document our journey as a mission-driven business and to help inform where we go from here. Perhaps some of what you learn will inspire your own journey. Your support and your curiosity about how we operate means everything to us.
We are eternally grateful for you. In community, we know we can create a truly “All-One” world.
— David & Michael Bronner
