When we first conceived of Dharma Merchant Services, we knew that the company
should reflect our strongest beliefs, morals, and intentions. When our founder
Jeff came of age
in the late 60’s and early 70’s, the social structure and culture was expanding at
a stellar rate caused by our society’s compulsion to question everything.
The resulting point of view led to a unique understanding of the interconnectedness
of all things. Inspired by such books as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
and Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, Jeff began to develop my deep sense of
stewardship, which he still takes to heart today.
Naturally, we wanted to operate in an environmentally sound manner and
initially, we struggled to determine what that would really mean – other than the
obvious earth friendly practices of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Ideally, we
would partner only with companies that shared our sense of environmental and social
responsibility, but in the bankcard industry, there are simply no alternatives.
Although Jeff is working on a new hemp terminal...
So here is what we have in place that demonstrates our green and/or socially
responsible intentions:
Our bank is the recently-chartered, San Francisco based
New Resource Bank.
NRB is a community-focused, commercial bank dedicated to financing
sustainable business and which offers preferred services to non profit organizations.
Even the bank’s physical structure and furnishings are a testament to
the highest green standards that set a unique example for commercial applications.
Our long distance and toll free provider is
Working Assets Long Distance
- a carrier with which I have had a personal relationship for many years.
WALD allows their customers to round up their payment and then
donates a percentage of the bill to worthy causes. It may not sound like
it would amount to much, but they have donated over 50 million dollars during their
existence.
Our hosting company that hosts the www.dharmams.com website is
Affordable Internet Services Online – a 100% solar powered company based in southern California. Reliable,
affordable, carbon free – awesome, huh?
Our printer is
Alonzo Printing, a printer dedicated to providing environmentally-friendly printing solutions.
They'be been at it for 19 years - they were green before green was "in".
Our attorney, Teri Shugart, is active in organizations to combat sexual
discrimination and harassment.
Our company car is an Altima Hybrid
Our energy use is carbon neutral through PG & E’s ClimateSmart program, but
of course, we always use natural light and ventilation whenever we can.
Our paper office supplies are 100% post consumer recycled content, of course!
Our water sure as hell isn’t plastic bottled – we have a pitcher that uses
a charcoal filter.
Our office coffee – duh! Fair trade and organic. Yum!
Our refuse – everything gets recycled and lunch waste is composted.
Our interests - some organizations we are active members of:
Team in Training,
Amnesty International,
International Campaign for Tibet,
Institute for Noetic Sciences,
Technoserve,
Sierra Club,
Doctors Without Borders,
Population Connection,
CoOp America
Our raison d’etre – we donate 10% of our gross profits to charitable organizations.
If you would like to offer a suggestion on other ways we can demonstrate our concern
for our environment and/or our support for our community, please
send us an email.
We'd love to hear from you!