Holy Lamb Organics

Holy Lamb Organics is a small manufacturing business dedicated to creating exceptional natural bedding products using sustainable practices and permaculture principles in every step of production. I founded this company in 2000 while on a backpacking trip in the Redwoods. Faced with purchasing a backpacking pillow that was 100% synthetic, the idea of an all natural pillow alternative was born. Throughout the trip the idea sprouted further and I returned home with a full business plan in my head.

Today, as we are about to celebrate our 10 year anniversary this Fall, we provide our bedding line to over 70 stores across the U.S and in CANADA and employ 8 people. In 2008, we moved our production facility to a small town near Washington's capital in Oakville, WA. The historic "Little Bit" general store was built in 1902 and served for over 80 years as a general store for the Oakville community. It has been fully restored to it's original glory with innovative additions such as receiving insulation for the first time and we are working on an organic community garden.

What Are You Supporting When You Make A Purchase?

Our Sustainable Practices~ the proof is in the pudding. Here is what goes into our pudding:

100% Zero Waste of Our Manufacturing By-Products: We reuse, recycle or compost all of our materials from our production. None of these precious raw materials ever enter the landfill. Why is this so vital: because there is "no away". For example, our smallest scraps of thread, wool and fabric are all composted using a vermiculture system (worms!) or used as the bottom mulch layer for paths in our community garden. Larger more useful scraps are placed in our Free Bin to giveaway or donated to schools who use our scraps to make dolls and other creative projects. Recently, the Brightwater Waldorf School in Seattle used our inner circle scraps that come from Nursing Pillow production to make sails for their boats that they floated down a river. That just feels good!

Committment to Sustainable & Organic: We only offer a line of natural bedding products and never use any synthetics. This is not a smaller "natural" line from a large bedding company whose main business is in making chemical laiden bedding. In addition, we only use organic cotton fabrics since cotton is one of the top 3 most heavily sprayed crops in the world. We want no part in that since we purchase such large volumes of cotton and purchasing power dictates what is produced. We want instead to support the comeback of the small farmer who lives an enriched life and prefers to work with the land naturally without the agribusiness' interference with GMO seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. We also use the best wool that is the top of line and grown by small U.S. sheep farmers who use sustainability guidelines. You can read more about our organic cotton and wool.

Chemical & Scent Free Facility: For the health of our employees as well as for the quality of the products we produce, our facility is a chemical and scent free environment. We use only natural, mild, bio-degradable soap to clean our shop. Employees come to work scent free and abstain from wearing perfume, cologne, scented handcreams, etc.

Green Building Practices: Our committment is to use natural building products and salvaged reused building materials. Here are some examples of what we have done so far. We insulated the building for the first time! We chose a green insulation product called Aircrete for insulating the walls instead of fiberglass. It is so benign that you can eat it! We are an avid supporter of Olympia Salvage- a reused and salvaged building material warehouse where we have purchased the majority of our building materials from lumber to doors for the remodel. For new wood, we support our friends at Wild Thyme Farm who manage a 150 acre immaculate forest of FSC certified sustainable lumber. We are using wool scraps and hemp rope to chink up any spaces in the 100+ year old walls. The woodwork is finished with a non-toxic natural wood finish.

Employee Practices & Benefits: Holy Lamb Organics provides 8 green jobs for this rural town which is in need of more employers. The majority of jobs available in this area are in the logging industry, the casino or raising cows and a large percentage of the community commute to larger cities for their livelihood. We are committed to producing in the U.S. instead of outsourcing to another country. Our employees are offered livable wages for their tasks and skill sets as compared to other production seamstress positions. The Green Commuting Program offers cash incentives to carpool or bike to work. We all work on the community organic garden which provides solace, herbs, vegetables, fruit, tea, cut flowers and a sense of connection with nature while in a work environment. Though this is a low profit margin industry due to competition with organic products produced overseas which drive prices down, we have recently begun to sell organic mattresses which will increase our profit margin to be able to offer health and dental benefits to our employees. We look forward to adding these crucial benefits by the end of 2009.

There are many more practices that we do every single day to help make the world a better place for everyone. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of who we are and where we are coming from.

Thank you for considering our company. We hope to provide you with exceptional customer service and high quality handmade products. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

-Willow

Willow Whitton
Owner
Holy Lamb Organics
Oakville, WA