Giving back to our communities has been a value central to the Sea Witch mission since our inception in 2014. We started Sea Witch Botanicals in an effort to do actual good on the planet. Our purpose has always been rooted in a pursuit greater than simply creating natural home and body products free from toxic ingredients. While our primary focus is in keeping the world’s waterways clean, we recognize that we cannot justly serve the Earth without also uplifting its peoples. Our business model therefore dedicates us to creating positive, sustainable relationships with both people and planet through investing in humanitarian support and ecological restoration alike. 

2023 was our most successful year to date. Even having weathered three moves across four different locations, as well as myriad other challenges, we were still able to generate monumental growth for our environmental and social philanthropy efforts with our community of Sea Witches. Thank you all so much for supporting our small family business! We are extremely grateful to be a part of your lives and your homes. Let us toast to another year of magic ahead with a full recap of our impact in 2023.

Our Social & Sustainability Initiatives

Sea Witch Botanicals has worked toward the following standards over the years in an effort to magnify our positive impact on our communities:

• Certified B-Corp: Standing for ‘Benefit Corporation,’ this all-encompassing certification signifies our commitment to using our company as a force for good. This means our business model meets high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency for our workers, customers, and community.
• 1% for the Planet Member: We are one node in a powerful global network of businesses donating at least 1% of annual sales to environmental organizations, both to give back to the Earth for the resources we use, and to do our part in ensuring a viable future on our planet for generations to come.
• Vegan: 100% of ingredients in Sea Witch products are free from animal products, by-products, and GMOs, and have not been tested on animals. We believe in a cruelty-free business practice.
• Synthetic-Free: 100%* of ingredients in Sea Witch products are direct plant or mineral derivatives and are free from fragrance oils, parabens, phthalates, and countless other widely-used chemicals known to be toxic to human and environmental health.
• Fairtrade: Fairtrade standards ensure sustainable relationships between producers and consumers. This certification means exporters pay higher prices, investing in the frequently marginalized producers’ sovereignty, equitable working conditions, and fair wages. Sea Witch exclusively uses fairly traded coconut oil, cocoa butter, and shea butter in all relevant products.
• Toward Zero Waste: While a small portion of our products’ packaging materials do include small amounts of plastic (for instance, the spray tops of our toner bottles), a vast majority of our products completely divert waste from landfills by being packaged in recyclable or reusable glass, aluminum, paper, or compostable cellophane sleeves. All of our incense packaging is FSC-certified. We also use recyclable boxes and compostable tape and peanuts for all shipments.

*The only synthetic ingredients ever used in Sea Witch products are lab-grown micas. We opt for this non-organic material so as not to contribute to the unregulated system of mica mining that relies on extremely low-paid child labor in dangerous conditions hazardous to any human’s health. The micas we use are lab-grown yet nature-identical.

Because we believe in the value of imperfect environmentalism, we recognize that creating some negative environmental impacts, both as a business and as individuals, is inevitable. In an effort to reduce the gravity of these effects, we are enrolled in PSE’s carbon balance program, whereby a portion of our energy usage is directly invested in carbon offsets from local forestry projects. 

We also partner with industrial recycling companies including Ridwell and TerraCycle to responsibly dispose of materials such as light bulbs, batteries, styrofoam, gloves, masks, and plastic wrap of all kinds. We are still calculating our full 2023 Sustainability Report, but we have thus far diverted well over 100 pounds of trash from landfills through these programs.

2023 Donations by Sea Witch Botanicals

In 2023, our customers helped us to donate a grand total of $25,062 to six outstanding organizations supporting the health and wellbeing of humans and our environment. Let’s get to know them a little better.

Conservation Northwest

Conservation Northwest is a nonprofit organization founded here in Bellingham, WA, whose mission is to “protect, connect, and restore wildlands and wildlife from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies.” Through myriad conservation projects and collaborations with Indigenous and rural communities, Conservation Northwest has tirelessly engaged in the equitable rehabilitation of our Northwestern ecosystems for 30 years. 

Their work in regenerating wild spaces extends to projects in four major fields, including protecting wildlands (see their Forest Fields Program), connecting habitat (see their Sagelands Heritage Program), restoring wildlife (including bears, wolves, wolverines, lynx, grouse, bighorn sheep, and more), and wildlife monitoring (including a thriving Community Wildlife Monitoring Program). These projects are designed to retain and restore critical biodiversity and ecological resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

As Sea Witches, we are thrilled to partner with a justice-oriented organization whose members are actively rekindling a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship between humans and our Earth. In 2023, we donated a total of $10,000 to Conservation Northwest. 

Click here to get involved. To donate directly, click here.

RE Sources

RE Sources is another nonprofit organization based here in Bellingham, WA. Their work centers environmental protection for human and ecological communities within the Salish Sea region. Since 1982, they’ve been “[catalyzing] community action to build a lasting legacy for all of us—clean water, protected shorelines, an end to dangerous fossil fuel projects, and recovery for orcas and salmon.”

This organization recognizes environmental justice as an intersectional issue affecting people as well as the planet. By engaging political leaders; monitoring potential threats, opportunities, and public decision-making processes; advocating for science-backed climate policies; and providing widespread environmental education, RE Sources is intent on mobilizing our cultures toward positive climate action and giving people “practical ways to make a difference.”

We have been proud to partner with RE Sources for the last several years. In 2023, we donated a total of $7,000 to their organization. Click here to get involved. To donate directly, click here.

One Tree Planted

One Tree Planted is a global nonprofit organization based in Vermont with a vision to “restore forests, create habitat for biodiversity, and make a positive social impact around the world.” Their model is simple: donate a dollar, plant a tree. This way, it’s easy for anyone to make environmental change. 

With over 680 planting partners in more than 80 countries, One Tree Planted has used its intercontinental community power to plant over 100,000,000 trees since 2014. Their reforestation and urban forestry projects support biodiversity, local communities, and climate action alike, providing benefits such as “improving local health, supporting Indigenous project ownership, and encouraging sustainable income generation” in addition to environmental education for all.

Sea Witch Botanicals has partnered with One Tree Planted within the last few years to support a project specific to us here in the Pacific Northwest, where we are planting trees to save Southern Resident orcas. Confused by that connection? In short, planting trees along coastal rivers and streams restores habitat resilience for Chinook salmon, who make up around 80% of the orcas’ diets. Trees help absorb pollution and significantly increase the quality and quantity of salmon available to orcas to eat. 

In 2023, we donated a total of $1,062 to One Tree Planted to support their Southern Resident orca project. To learn more about the ecological web of salmon, orcas, and trees, click here. To donate directly, click here.

NAACP

Founded in 1909 by civil rights activists including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey, and many more, the NAACP is “the home of grassroots activism for civil rights and social justice.” This 115 year old organization is leading the fight for the social and civil liberation of Black people and all marginalized communities in the United States.

The NAACP is an instrumental giant in the work of advocacy for disempowered and disenfranchised people. It is their mission to “achieve equity, political rights, and social inclusion by advancing policies and practices that expand human and civil rights, eliminate discrimination, and accelerate the well-being, education, and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.” 

Their resource library is invigorating and enormous, offering training programs, grants and scholarships, internships, legal services, in-depth education on topics affecting Black people, and more. We stand with their vision of a world “where Black people enjoy equitable opportunities in thriving communities,” and we are proud to support their work.

In 2023, we donated a total of $2,000 to the NAACP. Click here to take action for racial justice. To donate directly, click here.

WomenSpirit Coalition

Photo by Matthew TenBruggencate on Unsplash.

The Washington State Native American Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, or WomenSpirit Coalition, is a Washington-based organization advocating for the safety, dignity, and equitable treatment of Indigenous peoples in the state of Washington. 

Their work deals with a wide range of issues facing Indigenous folks, with a focus on providing resources and services for Indigenous victims of crime, particularly in the areas of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, and sex trafficking. They are additionally devoted to raising awareness around the national issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and advocating for an end to violence against Indigenous women, who experience abnormally high rates of abuse.

According to the Indian Law Resource Center, “more than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and more than 1 in 2 have experienced sexual violence.” In their 2018 report, the Urban Indian Health Institute wrote that 5,712 Indigenous people were reported missing in 2016, whereas the DOJ had only logged 116 cases. They also reported murder as the third leading cause of death among Native women.

It is horrifying statistics such as these that highlight the imperative presence of organizations like WomenSpirit Coalition. We at Sea Witch Botanicals stand unequivocally with Indigenous peoples and support their inalienable right to safety, sovereignty, dignity, and the preservation of their cultures. 

In 2023, we donated $3,500 to WSC. Click here to donate directly.

Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood

Serving Whatcom, Skagit, and San Juan counties since 1969, the Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood is a non-profit family planning organization dedicated to providing exceptional, non-discriminative reproductive health care services alongside conscientious sexuality education for persons of all genders, orientations, and identities. 

Planned Parenthood has been an indispensable leader in advocating for reproductive rights and sexual health by serving and educating millions of people for over a century. Their vital work in over 600 facilities centers compassion and respect while providing affordable access to expert care. Their mission is to create healthy communities with medically-informed education resources, bolster support for sexual and reproductive health care, and ultimately advance global health through international partnerships.

It is Planned Parenthood’s quintessential practice to “[protect] your fundamental right to bodily autonomy.” Sea Witch Botanicals has proudly stood with this movement for years by donating $1 to Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood for every bar sold of our pH-balanced vulva & body wash, Vasheen. In 2023, we donated a total of $1,500 to MBPP. 

Click here to get involved. To donate directly, click here.