History
Dr. Bronner's life is summed up with the words on his gravestone: A Life Dedicated To God, Mankind & Spaceship Earth. He spent his entire adult life searching for God and Full Truth in not only the sacred books of the religions of the world, but also in the inspired words of people from all walks of life, past and present. He would translate these words through his own idiosyncratic and unique genius onto the labels of his wonderful soaps. Dr. Bronner saw the soap as a messenger for his vision of universal Full-Truth: The Moral ABC. No one agrees with everything on the label, but everyone finds something which inspires and touches them. Although we are not a religion, we revere Dr. Bronner for his tremendous efforts to unite Spaceship Earth in a deep spiritual love and respect for God, Earth and each other. Dr. Bronner was one of the original environmentally conscious individuals of our century. The labels of his unsurpassed pure-castile soaps became the perfect medium for his vision of global unity and peace. He is the passionate soul speaking through the labels about respect, reverence, and love of our fellow beings, of the Earth and of God. Not only exhorting others to unify humanity and Spaceship Earth, he devoted his own time, money and energy to numerous worthy social & ecological projects.

Dr. Bronner's spirituality was grounded in a profound ecological and universal consciousness, and our soaps are an extension of his being: simple, natural, powerful and 100% environment-friendly. Our family's soap-making roots originated in the mid-19th century in Heilbron, Germany, where the family soap factory was located. Dr. Bronner, third generation master-soapmaker, came to America in the late 1920's. Dr. Bronner passed away peacefully on March 7, 1997, amidst family and friends. We pledge to continue making with care and integrity the fine ecological soaps which you have loved and lathered with for 50 years. We share our time, profit and energy with our workers and worthwhile causes worldwide. Love in All-One, The Bronner Family

Dr. Bronner's Social Responsibility
Charitable Actions | No Animal Testing | Hemp Serving
Our Community and Spaceship Earth Dr. Bronner's spends at least 10% of its profits each year on many worthwhile causes and organizations. We have sponsored wells in Ghana, orphanages in China, and many other motivated groups and people doing amazing things. Our wonderful workers are compensated well and receive great benefits and bonuses; we also fully fund their California maximum 15% profit-sharing plan.

In 1998, just before Jim Bronner passed away (Dr. Bronner's son, master chemist and President of the company for 5 years), we gave away Dr. Bronner's beloved rain-forest, a land grant of over 1000 acres, to the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego County, California. Underprivileged children can now camp under the stars within sight of Mt. Palomar which is often mentioned in the Moral ABC. No Animal Testing Dr. Bronner's qualifies for the rabbit and stars logo of the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC).

This logo certifies that our product and all of our ingredients are not tested on animals. The CCIC, a coalition of animal rights organizations, requires independent audit for confirmation. Many people have no idea how extensive animal testing is in the cosmetic industry. These tests are extremely painful, usually resulting in death, and are almost always unnecessary. Almost all ingredients have been tested on animals at some point in the past, and there is extensive safety information available through literature searches. Even if testing should be necessary, there are many tests available to establish product safety that do not involve animals.

To continue testing on animals for the sake of human vanity when we already have many safe, established ingredients and formulations is inhumane. Hemp, the Wonder Oil, and the Solution to Our Woodwise Pledge Hemp oil improves our soaps because it contains such a high proportion of poly-unsaturated fatty acids, which make our soap more mild and less drying than ever. Hemp has a remarkable number of beneficial uses for the whole Earth, and we support its use in agriculture, manufacturing and trade. Dr. Bronner's has signed the Co-op America Woodwise Pledge to be socially responsible through diminishing our consumption of forest tree-based materials and products. In the spirit of this pledge, our bar soap paper label and inner liner are now a 25% hemp / 75% post-consumer recycled blend (Vanguard Ecoblend from Living Tree Paper Co.). Our official letterhead is printed on this same paper.

All office copy / printer paper is made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper. We now also silk-screen our cylinder bottles (50% post-consumer recycled plastic) in place of the million-plus paper labels we had used per year. Please go to http://www.abouthemp.com to learn more about how hemp can help transition our major economic industries to a sustainable and ecological basis. In particular, check out the cosmetics section to see why hemp oil is phenomenal for bodycare. Click on Information in the side bar to educate yourself on how industrial hemp has nothing to do with high THC cannabis. We have posted mainstream articles from

The Audobon and U.S. News and World Report (in Adobe PDF) for you to familiarize yourself with industrial hemp and its tremendous potential, as well as our government's continued confusion. Along with other members of the NAIHC (North American Industrial Hemp Council), we sent Drug Czar McCaffrey a letter urging him to facilitate the cultivation of a domestic hemp crop as soon as possible. While attending the Hemp Industries Association (http://www.thehia.org) convention in Toronto this past September, Ralph Bronner, folk singer extraordinaire, was inspired to write powerful lyrics in support of industrial hemp in the face of the confused and harmful policy of the DEA (go to http://www.votehemp.com for more information).

Another great industrial hemp resource is http://www.globalhemp.com, which provides up to date news, a directory of products and organizations, an archive of articles from around the world, and a calendar of hemp-related events.