Our Mission

We operate with a triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit 

Mission Statement: Honest Weight is a member owned and operated consumer cooperative that is committed to providing the community with affordable, high quality natural foods and products for healthy living. Our mission is to promote more equitable, participatory and ecologically sustainable ways of living. We welcome all who choose to participate in a community which embraces cooperative principles, shares resources, and creates economic fairness in an atmosphere of cooperation and respect for humanity and the earth.

Statements of Conscience

• We are committed to our food policy, which reflects buying practices for food and body aids with consideration towards moral and ethical production, environmental stewardship, healthy living, and safety.
• We are committed to helping our community learn more about growing, choosing, preparing, and using natural foods.
• We are committed to learning and teaching about alternative ways of living that are healthy for ourselves, our community, and our planet.
• We are committed to encouraging an environment where ideas and philosophies can be generated, shared, and expressed freely.
• We support, embrace, and celebrate the diversity of our community.
• We are committed to providing our customers with knowledgeable staff and a positive shopping environment.
• We are committed to donating five percent (5%) of our net profits per year to local non-profit organizations.
• We are committed to reducing waste generated at Honest Weight locations and by the products purchased at the Co-op as much as possible, as well as promoting, teaching, and practicing Zero Waste principles.

Mission Based Work

We turn our mission statement and statements of conscience into action through our mission-based and membership arms.

Education We offer classes and services, typically free of charge, as part of our committment to helping our community learn more about growing, choosing, preparing, and using natural foods and to teaching about alternative ways of living that are healthy for ourselves, our community, and our planet. Learn more about the program or see our schedule of events here.

Outreach Honest Weight brings its mission into the greater community is through sponsorship and outreach efforts at schools, libraries, and community organizations.

Membership We are member owned and operated. Our Member-Owners have the opportunity to participate in the Co-op community by lending a hand in the store as Member-Owners. They also vote on important Co-op decisions and elect our Board of Directors.

Environmental Sustainability Honest Weight's triple bottom line of People, Planet, Profit, requires that we look at the impact of our actions and purchases on our community, economy, and environment.

Education

We offer the following, free of charge, as part of our mission. We are committed to helping our community learn more about growing, choosing, preparing, and using natural foods and to teaching about alternative ways of living that are healthy for ourselves, our community, and our planet.

See our full calendar of classes and events here.

CLASSES
Classes in cooking and a variety of wellness topics are offered monthly, with a few repeat classes happening on the same day of each month. Classes are often hands-on and many are open to kids. View this month's offerings below or pick up a brochure in our store. Think you might be interested in teaching a class?

Classes are held in Honest Weight's Community Room or Teaching Kitchen and are free of charge. 

PRACTITIONER SERVICES 
These are typically one-on-one sessions offering alternative healing modalities, music or language lessons, financial coaching, and weekly group movement classes. Honest Weight's practitioners are licensed as required by law. Sign up for your session in the Practitioner Binder at Honest Weight’s Service Desk. These sessions are free and open to the public.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS 
In addition, we host community meetings for outside and internal organizations and clubs, including Solarize the Capital District, Knit and Stitch, Co-op Family Group, and the Capital City Grange. For more information, click on the event on the calendar below. 

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FESTIVITIES
Honest Weight organizes and hosts family-friendly celebrations throughout the year. These include Trick-or-Treating at the Co-op, and Solstice Celebration, and Homegrown Happening, a harvest celebration.

Outreach

You can find our small Outreach team all over the Capital District teaching adults and children at schools, libraries, and community organizations about growing produce, preparing natural foods, and developing healthy, sustainable ways of living for both our families and the planet.

In 2006 Honest Weight created the Ready, Set, Grow! Program to bring fun cooking and nutritional activities into local schools and libraries. Classes like "Want to Eat a Rainbow?", "Amazing Grains", and "Hip Dips" introduce students (grades K-12) to a variety of healthy, natural and locally grown foods. Students engage in fun food-related activities, receive age appropriate nutritional information, and get to taste a healthy new snack in the process. All to help them make better food choices as they grow up.

Outreach also oversees event sponsorship; donation drives; our annual giving of 5% of our profits, and our Enviro Tokens program. 

If you would like to learn what kind of class or presentation Honest Weight can offer your school or organization - or if you would like to partner with the Co-op on helping us provide outreach to the larger community - please contact our Outreach Coordinator, Amy Ellis, at 518-482-2667 or contact us online.

Environmental Impact

Honest Weight's triple bottom line of People, Planet, Profit, requires that we look at the impact of our actions and purchases on our community, economy, and environment. Below are are some of the ways we strive to minimize our environmental impact. 

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

• We reclaim the heat generated by our refrigeration system to preheat water going into the store’s water heaters. This allows for less energy to heat the water. It goes into the tanks at around 120 degrees and only has to be heated up to 141 degrees.
• When building our new store on Watervliet Avenue, we put in a porous parking lot. In addition to reducing runoff, permeable paving effectively traps suspended solids and filters pollutants from the water.
• We used only indigenous plants in our landscaping around the store.
  We source our electricity and natural gas through Blue Rock Energy, an alternative energy supplier based out of Syracuse.
• By sparing no expense on the insulation in the store, we reduce heating and cooling costs and save energy.
• Our roof was built with extra supports for potential future use as a green roof or to house solar panels, exciting possibilities that ran over budget in the first iteration of our store’s buildout!

WASTE REDUCTION

• We keep anywhere between 13,000 and 16,000 pounds of food waste from going into landfills each month through our partnership with a composting company, Empire Zero.
• We recycle around 18,000 pounds of cardboard each month.
• We save wax boxes for reuse by our farmers. These boxes cannot be recycled and would otherwise be thrown into a landfill. This also minimizes overhead costs for our local farmers- the boxes cost anywhere from $4 to $8 each!
• Our huge Bulk Department is a bastion of waste reduction. By selling items in bulk, we reduce the need for extraneous packaging during shipment. The EPA reports that Americans generate about 80 million tons of waste from packaging and containers each year. If every American opted for bulk for one month, we’d save more than 26 million pounds of packaging waste from landfills.
• Free cull produce is made available to member owners and donated to food pantries whenever possible. Cull bread is also donated to food pantries.
• We boast 4,200 local products from close to 600 local vendors and producers. About a quarter of our annual sales are of local products. The shorter an item has to travel to get to us, the lower the impact on our air quality from greenhouse gas emissions.

PACKAGING & MATERIALS

• We offer a paper bag made with 100% recycled content and reuse shipping boxes for grocery pack out.
• The Coop Scoop is printed on recycled paper with soy ink.
• The take-out boxes in the Deli are made of FSC certified 100% recycled unbleached paper and printed with water-based inks.
• Our coffee and soup cups are made of chlorine-free paper and printed with water-based inks.
• The plastic-seeming cutlery in the deli is actually compostable!
  Co-op branded clothing is made and printed in the USA, reducing carbon emissions from overseas printing (and supporting fair labor practices)