Our commitment to sustainability

At Heights, we know that braincare isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about developing a lifestyle, building your future, and creating a long-term investment in your health. 

Everything we do to help you accomplish this is guided by our company’s values to provide care without compromise and to act with trust and authenticity. Naturally, these values must extend to how we function as a business, too.

That’s why we’ve added a full dose of sustainability, ethical manufacturing, and eco-conscious policies into every bottle of our Smart Supplement. Alas, our ethical business practices aren’t listed on our ingredient labels, so we wanted to take a few minutes to share with you what we’re doing (and why we’re doing it) to be a force for good in the world. 

A daily dose of sustainability

They might be tiny, but every vitamin, mineral, and nutritional supplement you take has a big impact on the planet. 

For example, many nutritional supplements are manufactured overseas where environmental regulations leave a lot to be desired. Specific supplement ingredients may even directly contribute to plundered forests and oceans (for example, fish oil supplements contribute to overfishing). And let’s not forget all the plastic packaging. 

Yikes.

We’re reinventing all of the above, just like how we reinvented cognitive nutrition. 

1. Data-driven sustainability improvements

The world is changing rapidly, and advancements in technology, science and our understanding of climate change and global warming means that in order to keep up, we need to be agile and adaptable. 

When we created the Smart Supplement, we used the research, expertise, and guidance of a team of top-notch experts.

And when we created our business’ sustainability practices, we likewise turned to independent auditors and environmental researchers to analyze critical aspects of our business, including:

• our packaging choices

• our shipping practices

• our warehouse and fulfillment locations

• and much more

For us, it’s not about sounding nice or creating positive PR buzz (researchers warn that so-called “greenwashing” in marketing is a fast-spreading problem). It’s about identifying clear ways forward that challenge us, highlight our blind spots, and help us to constantly improve.

Take our 2020 environmental assessment as a key example. We asked an external team to do a deep dive into our packaging and production practices. 

They found some fascinating statistics. For instance, the environmental impact of our Smart Supplement bottle packaging was similar to watching your favourite Netflix show for just over an hour. 

That same environmental assessment also highlighted some promising areas of opportunity for us:

• While our packaging did have a lower carbon footprint than many other major supplement brands, a few small improvements could make a bigger difference.

• Some of our supply chains involved too much shipping and driving.

Using this data, we jumped into action. We updated our packaging to an eco-friendly recycled card material that lowered our carbon footprint while also reducing our production costs. And we chose some new local manufacturing facilities that shortened our supply chain. Less distance = smaller carbon footprint.

2. Rigorous third-party certification and review of our ethical business practices

Vitamin B is good for your brain. And being Certified B is good for our business.

We’re currently in the process of becoming a Certified B Corporation. The “B” stands for “beneficial,” and it’s a designation earned only when a corporation can demonstrate in concrete ways how its business is a force for good in the world. 

The rigorous and comprehensive certification process takes a granular look at everything in our business — often including staff interviews, reviews of manufacturing supply chains, and even on-site visits and inspections — and it enshrines and makes legally permanent our commitment to making the planet a better place for everyone on it.

It gives us specific frameworks in which we operate our company. And it gives you confidence that we’re doing everything we promised we’d do. It’s a win-win situation.

3. Emphasize the “reduce” aspect of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra

Anyone worth their recycling bin knows the common recycling mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

Alas, too often we focus on the last word. While recycling old packaging is important, researchers note that stopping waste at the source by reducing consumption is the most impactful thing we can do.

Refillable containers are one way to reduce plastic consumption.

As an industry leader, we’re heading up a consortium of industrial designers and sustainability experts to create something the world has never seen before: A truly innovative refillable packaging program that is:

• easier to use than other refillable packaging programs

• better designed than other refillable bottles and packaging

• more hygienic and clean than other refillable programs

Our goal? To replace all of our single-use plastic bottles and carton shipping packaging with refillable bottles specifically designed for your supplements.

We can’t wait to let you try it. And when it’s ready, we plan to publish a detailed report on our process to help other companies follow our example and be more sustainable. 

4. Push for continuous iterations and innovations that create more sustainability

We’re running a marathon, not a short race. The above is just the start, which is why we embrace the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals by:

• supporting good health and wellbeing through our supplements

• encouraging responsible consumption and production through our packaging solutions

• protecting life below the water by our choice to source high-quality omega-3s from sustainable algae oil and not from fish

These goals are designed to encourage responsible consumption and production while enhancing global health and wellbeing. 

Beyond changing our packaging and production, this pledge has also contributed to decisions like using algae oil (and not fish) as a source of high-quality omega-3 fats in our Smart Supplement. 

In the past few years, we’ve also:

• Switched manufacturing plants so that our products and packaging travel fewer miles during the manufacturing process, thus reducing our carbon footprint.

• Streamlined our packaging to eliminate unnecessary components to reduce waste and shipping weight.

• Focused on local printers and suppliers instead of shipping in supplies from overseas.

• Increased transparency with ingredient information and sourcing for our Smart Supplement, so customers can make informed decisions about what they’re buying.

This journey continues in 2021. We’re excited to continue to not only talk and educate our industry about sustainability, but also lead by example.