Numi Tea Founders Embrace Using Business As Catalyst For Social And Environmental Change

Numi Tea Founders Embrace Using Business As Catalyst For Social And Environmental Change

From the start, Numi Tea has been a business designed with goals beyond the bottom line. Founded 22 years ago by siblings Ahmed Rahim and Reem Hassani, the company offers ethically sourced premium teas made with a commitment to sustainability and inspired by the traditional dried desert lime tea they drank as children in Iraq. Merging Rahim's background in European tea houses with Hassani's skills as an artist, Numi Tea launched with a flair for creativity and passion and has since been a purpose-driven pioneer as a founding Certified B Corporation and an early participant in Fair Trade partnerships, with more than $1 million in premiums going to the communities of its growers. "We've continued to stay very innovative, bringing unique herbs and teas and spices to the market," Rahim says. "We always stayed on the forefront of sustainable values — we just went carbon neutral. All these trends that we started 22 years ago have never gone away. They've always stayed at the hallmark of who Numi is and kept us as sort of the emblem of what a sustainable tea brand and a wellness brand can look like." As part of my research on purpose-driven business, I recently