Background
Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee is a Canadian manufacturer of high-quality tea and coffee products, producing many of the popular brands seen in grocery stores and restaurants across North America. First established in 1912, the organization now operates several facilities in Mississauga and Ajax, as well as a coffee roasting and distribution centre opened in Fort Worth, Texas in 2000.
Sustainability is a core value of Mother Parkers and guides many aspects of the organization from sourcing and product lifecycle to facility operations. To integrate environmental management best practices into organizational operations, Mother Parkers became ISO 14001 certified in 2019. This certification provides a framework to develop and implement an Environmental Management System (EMS), helping organizations minimize their environmental impact and meet compliance requirements.
Becoming ISO14001 Certified
Mother Parkers’ ISO certification started through implementing an EMS at two facilities in 2019. They initially started with a pilot project at the Mississauga and Ajax plants, and expanded to other facilities, one each year. As of 2025, they now are ISO14001 certified across all of their facilities including four manufacturing facilities and two distribution centres. In order to maintain their certification, the organization undergoes a rigorous annual auditing process to ensure compliance and adherence to their EMS. Though the process is resource intensive, the framework provided by the EMS and Mother Parkers’ commitment to continuous improvement has allowed the organization to realize significant benefits.
Driving Savings and Productivity Improvements through Environmental Management
Mother Parkers’ ISO14001 certification demonstrates commitment to an internationally recognized standard of environmental management. This has allowed their EHSS team to have direct engagement with senior leadership on environmental performance, showing how the organization is performing and where opportunities exist. This requires robust monitoring systems to accurately capture data for analysis of key performance indicators and metrics.
The ISO framework is built on the core principle of continuous improvement. Annual cycles of monitoring and review help identify where improvements can be made in processes or equipment, often resulting in significant savings where resources are utilized more efficiently. Since receiving their ISO14001 certification, Mother Parkers has been able to effectively communicate environmental information with their employees and contractors, as well as gain support from the top management. The well-documented EMS reviews have helped the team efficiently plan, execute, and improve internal processes, resulting in significant energy and cost savings. These efficiencies have also led to a boost in overall operational productivity.
Without this framework, certain projects would not have been as obvious and may have taken longer to address. For example, Mother Parkers’ energy monitoring as part of the EMS helped identify opportunities to optimize the roasting process to reduce GHG emissions. It also supported the push for upgrading catalytic oxidizers, which resulted in immediate emissions reductions.
The EMS also helped with mitigating the impact of a changing climate during heat waves. In addition to peak curtailment, the predictive software implemented as a part of the EMS has helped with developing a heat stress program for staff.
Having a shared environmental management system has assisted the operations teams in planning and ensuring compliance with air or water permits. It identifies areas for improvement and highlights necessary actions for the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). It becomes easier to address low-hanging fruit and build a record of successes. With 10 years of data, it helps demonstrate progress and gain buy-in from senior management.
“Effective monitoring and tracking operations are essential for achieving efficiency. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a powerful tool that can help streamline processes and be an excellent foundation for a smart energy strategy.” – Adrian Khan, Director, Environmental, Health, Safety and Security, North America, Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee
Lessons Learned
- Not only does an EMS support with compliance, but it also helps save the organization money and time. It allows Mother Parkers to serve their customers better and demonstrate a competitive advantage on the global market.
- The framework provided through the EMS provides the EHSS team with a direct line to senior management for monthly reviews on progress and metrics. This helps ensure that a high standard of environmental management is incorporated into decision making throughout the company.
- Not all projects started as environmental projects, but the EMS ensures that each project is reviewed through an environmental lens to reduce negative impacts, while increasing positive ones.
- An effective EMS thrives on industry engagement. Staying connected with industry peers, knowledge forums, and regulatory bodies ensures that the system evolves and stays current with changing standards and regulatory requirements.
Partners in Project Green’s Energy Leaders Consortium brings together a dynamic network of energy professionals to share best practices and support collective action on energy projects. To learn more about the Energy Leaders Consortium, please contact Matt Brunette: matt.brunette@trca.ca