Increasing parity/equality in at work is important for our society, and our business. Unfortunately, women leaders leave the workplace at twice the rate of men, and female executives leave at 4 times the rate of their male counterparts. As a B Corp, GloryBee tracks women leadership and inclusion and diversity metrics. GloryBee is majority women-owned, and 45% of our leadership team are women.  Here’s a little of what we’ve learned so far, and some notes on how to ensure equality is supported in the workplace.

1. Confront bias:

Holding implicit bias training for all employees helps ensures that all employees can recognize bias when they see it. Tracking metrics means that there is oversight on how the company is performing. Awareness is the first step to dismantling implicit bias and creating a more inclusive workplace.

2. Support employees through life transitions:

A common misconception is that life transitions mean having kids and getting married. These are big changes, but other life transitions can include changes in health, relationships, family member’s health, and changes in financial situations. When employees are supported through all life transitions, they feel more secure in their position and more loyal to their company.

3. Lead and model change:

Leaders that model change and good work-life balance create a healthy working culture throughout the company. Leaders can leverage their position to forge a healthy path for other employees and set expectations that employees will place their own wellbeing over their work.

4. Lift as you climb:

Training for all employees means that each employee has the opportunity to learn, be challenged, and advance their career. Lifting everyone up helps create natural diversity in management and executive roles, creates growth opportunities and helps retain employees long term, which adds value to the company and reduces turnover.

We are thankful to the BCorp community for coming alongside businesses that want to Be the Change, and for supporting better businesses and better workplaces across the globe. Find out more about GloryBee’s BCorp certification at glorybee.com/about/b-corp

Safe quality food has always been a top priority for GloryBee, but now it is official! Safe Quality Food (SQF) a Global Food Safety Initiative certification that proactively identifies and manages risk from the farm to the consumer. It reduces assessment inconsistencies and provides verifiable proof that the food safety control systems were implemented effectively.

The SQF certification covers food safety from the source to the customer and is recognized by retailers and food service providers as a high level of food safety and quality management. It is an important step for GloryBee, a company that supplies honey and other natural ingredients to retail, wholesale, and manufacturing customers.

“It has always been part of GloryBee’s nature to deliver safe quality food for healthy living” says Jeanie Shrode, the company’s Quality Assurance Manager, “but in today’s complex world, this takes more than a handshake. Becoming an SQF certified company is another way of demonstrating our proactive commitment to delivering food you can trust.  Maintaining our SQF certification in a dynamic industry will keep us prepared to meet challenges, obtain opportunities and preserve the confidence our customers and partners have in us.”

Our hearts are heavy at GloryBee as bees from our observation hive suffer from pesticide poisoning.

Pesticides have become an agricultural staple, but unfortunately do serious damage to all insects, not just pests.

Pesticide poisoning can cause a variety of symptoms in bees, including agitation, paralysis, loss of control over wing movement, and inability to retract their proboscis, or tongue. Our bees are displaying all of these symptoms, and the hive is significantly weakened by the loss.

Though pesticides are designed to protect plants, most plants depend on pollinators. When pollinators are poisoned by pesticides, plants won’t be properly pollinated, and the entire ecosystem begins to suffer.

Bees will fly up to five miles to forage for pollen and nectar over a wide variety of plants. The only way to ensure they will not be poisoned it to stop the use of dangerous pesticides altogether.

Below are a few bee-friendly pest deterrents, so you can protect your garden without harming our favorite pollinators:

Use planet friendly soap diluted in water to keep bugs away. Put 1 ½ tablespoons of soap in 1 quart of water and spray on plants in the morning or evening to affected areas of the plant.

Diatomaceous earth is another great way to deter bugs without causing damage to pollinators. Sprinkle it around your plants to keep away bugs, snails, and slugs. Reapply as it disperses to ensure effectiveness.

A vinegar spray will also keep the bugs away. The strength of vinegar deters them from getting any closer. You can spray on affected areas of the plant, as well as the dirt for maximum effectiveness.

You can learn more about the effects of pesticides on pollinators at Pesticide.org/save_the_bees

In 2014, there were an estimated 2.7 million honeybee colonies in the United States, a number that is tracked by the USDA. And while it's true that backyard beekeeping can help your garden flourish and provide you with an abundance of sweet raw organic honey, it's important to maintain optimal bee health. The summertime season is generally pretty simple for beekeepers, but understanding which maintenance tasks are essential can help you keep a healthy, happy hive all summer long. Here are just a few summer maintenance tips for beekeepers.

Inspect the Queen

It's important to mention that your hives are largely self-sustaining during the summer season. That being said, you should still inspect the queen every few weeks to make sure she's laying eggs regularly. If your queen doesn't lay enough eggs, your hive may not have enough drones and workers to sustain itself the following season. Make sure to inspect carefully; don't invade the queen's space and don't linger too much.

Check For Mites

Varroa mites are one of the most common beehive pests that can hinder bee health and potentially transmit dangerous viruses. That's why it's important to check for these type of mites frequently throughout the summer months. These mites are a red-brown shade and can even reproduce on pupae and larvae in the developing brood. Varroa mite infestations aren't always easy to spot, so focus on bee activity and look for these suspicious signs.

"Colony symptoms, commonly called parasitic mite syndrome, include an abnormal brood pattern, sunken and chewed cappings and larvae slumped in the bottom or side of the cell. This ultimately causes a reduction in the honey bee population, supersedure of queen bees and eventual colony breakdown and death," writes BeeAware.

Ensure Adequate Water Sources

Finally, it's important to make sure that your bees are thoroughly hydrated with all the potential heat that comes with the summer season. To do this, check to make sure there are adequate water sources in close proximity to your hives.

Ultimately, taking good care of your bees is the best way to make the most of your beekeeping endeavors, maintain a healthy hive, and harvest raw honey, pollen for organic bee pollen capsules, and more. For more information about organic bee pollen capsules, contact GloryBee.

According to the EPA, in 2014 the USA threw out 38 million tons of food, and only 5.1% was diverted from the landfill.  Wasting food wastes time, money, and the resources used to grow and produce the food. Once in the landfill, food waste produces Methane gas (23 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide gas), and accounts for 34% of Methane emissions in the USA. (Source 1)

Food waste in landfills is a problem with a solvable solution. The Love Food not Waste is the City of Eugene’s solution to food waste sent to landfill. Love food not Waste

GloryBee has been a participating Love food not Waste business since 2012.

Here are some things we’ve learned about reducing food waste at work:

• Donate before it expires.

As you may have heard, GloryBee sells ingredients. Each product arrives to us with a ‘use by’ date, verified by our QA department and tracked by Product Management. If the product hasn’t sold as the use by date approaches, it’s donated to the Eugene Mission or Food for Lane County.

• Feed the mistakes to animals

Sometimes a product is damaged in production in some way that makes it not fit for human consumption. An example may be a tote pierced by a forklift, or a batch with too much spice in it. These ‘once-offs’ go to a local farmer as animal feed.

• Compost the scraps

Love food not Waste, Sanipac, and Rexius work together to pick up all food waste scraps from breakrooms and turn it into compost to enrich the soil in local gardens.

• Create energy with the rest

The Junction City biodigester plant turns food products into electricity by using anaerobic digestion to create methane gas that is captured to turn a turbine a creates electricity. The plant can produce enough energy to power half the homes in Junction City. Learn more here: JC-biomethane