Advancing Inclusion, Diversity & Equity 

Burt’s Bees confronts bias and creates an inclusive and diverse working environment to drive lasting change in their communities and within their own hive. Through partnerships with organizations like the Racial Equity Institute, they’ve ramped up education on inclusion and bias. Forums for continued listening and learning, including through employee groups, advance the diverse perspectives of employees and their allies through cultural events, panel discussions and business forums. Burt’s Bees actively seeks BIPOC talent and invests in advancement of Black leaders. The Burt’s Bees Foundation generously supports BIPOC-led organizations and projects, while working with all grantees to bring an equity and justice lens to their work. 

Protecting Tomorrow

Burt’s Bees designs their packaging to be recyclable, powers their facilities with renewable electricity, and promises to keep 1.5 million pounds of plastic out of our oceans -- and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In 2016, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, Roxanne donated 87,500 acres of awe-inspiring mountains, forests and waters in Maine’s North Woods to be designated and federally protected as Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The land gift was valued at $60 million and came with a $20 million endowment to support infrastructure development and operations. In 2020, Elliotsville Foundation restored 735 acres of ancestral territory to the Penobscot Nation.

Burt's Bees

It all started with beeswax - Burt Shavitz and Roxanne Quimby created Burt’s Bees in the remote Maine wilderness in the early 1980s after leaving their hectic city lives behind. Burt had learned to keep bees and had been selling honey roadside. Roxanne apprenticed and found a book of recipes that they used to transform their beeswax into candles and lip balm. Like the forest outside of Burt’s 300-square-foot-turkey-coop-turned-cabin, everything flourished from there!

Today, they make all their products with some of nature’s most effective ingredients, all sourced with respect for people and the land. Each ingredient is chosen for its proven ability to replenish and strengthen a healthy skin barrier. That means only the good stuff, and absolutely none of the bad, for hydrated and happy skin.