Tea of life
Switching to Tea of Life
New tea at the office: from Lipton to Tea of Life
Nikhef has switched from Lipton to Tea of Life — a Fairtrade, B Corp-certified brand whose tea bags are fully compostable. This page explains what changed, why, and how to dispose of the packaging correctly.
What changed and why
The tea selection has been replaced. We now stock six varieties from Tea of Life: Forest Fruit, Earl Grey, English Blend, Ginger Lemongrass, Green Tea Lemon, and Rooibos. But they have more flavours, so we might switch it up in the future ;)
Tea of Life is a Dutch brand certified as a B Corporation, meaning it has been independently assessed against social and environmental standards. All their teas are Fairtrade certified. Every kilo of tea sold results in a fixed contribution of €0.25 to the Fair Grounds Foundation, which funds community projects around the tea fields in Sri Lanka — including daycare centres, a village pharmacy, and agricultural training for small-scale farmers.
The entire production chain, from picking to packaging, takes place in Sri Lanka. This keeps employment and economic value in the local community rather than offshoring only the raw material extraction.
How to dispose of the packaging
The packaging has two separate components, both with a different bin.
Tea bag — The bag itself is made of abaca fibre and cellulose. Abaca is a plant in the banana family that yields a natural fibre. Cellulose is the structural polymer found in plant cell walls — described by Tea of Life as the most natural polymer on earth. The cotton string and paper label are attached. The entire assembly is biodegradable and belongs in the GFT bin (organic waste / compost). Tea of Life's bags are Green Deal certified for compostability. Correct disposal of tea bags across the Netherlands contributes an estimated 88 million kilos of additional compost per year.
Individual envelope — Each tea bag comes in a small paper envelope with a heat-seal coating to preserve flavour. This is recyclable paper and goes in the paper bin next to the tea rack.
A full overview of the packaging components is on the Tea of Life website.
Carbon neutrality
The production facility in Sri Lanka holds a Carbon Neutral Certificate issued in January by the Sri Lanka Climate Fund (SLCF), based on an audit following ISO 14064-1:2018. Both direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions were quantified and compensated. Measures that brought the facility to carbon neutrality include replacing incandescent lighting with LED, reducing and recycling packaging materials through a 3R cycle, moderating temperature control systems, and switching to environmentally friendlier refrigerants. The quantification was carried out by an external party.
The Fair Grounds Foundation
The foundation focuses on areas where the need is concrete: it has funded six daycare centres on the plantations, staffed by carers, who looks after children from six months old until they start school, monitoring their health and administering vaccinations. A new community pharmacy has been built to replace one that no longer met hygiene standards, with a waiting room, a consultation room, and proper sanitation.
On the agricultural side, the foundation has trained 50 smallholder farmers in beekeeping, providing them with equipment and knowledge to produce honey independently. This also improves crop yields through better pollination. The foundation also supports farmers in obtaining Fairtrade certification, a process that is valuable but expensive, involving audits and production adjustments that are difficult to finance without help. To date the foundation has reached 9,730 people across 21 projects.
A small ritual with real impact
Making a cup of tea takes two minutes. But with Tea of Life, those two minutes are connected to fair wages in Sri Lanka, cleaner compost in our city, and communities that are a little better supported than they were yesterday.
We're proud to make this switch. Next time you're at the kettle, pick a flavour, take a moment, and know that your cup is doing a little good in the world.
For questions, feedback, or requesting your favorite flavour, you can send an email to facilities@nikhef.nl