Care to Act

The following letter was sent on Friday, August 14, 2020, to all US Blue Bottle employees by Blue Bottle COO & President North America Karl Strovink and Chair of the Blue Bottle Culture, Community, and Belonging Committee Eryka Vargas.

Dearest Blue Bottlers,

This week marks an important new chapter for Blue Bottle. This week I am writing along with Eryka Vargas, the Chair of our new Culture, Community, and Belonging Committee (CCB), to announce two essential and first steps to better support our community: one, sharing our demographic data and, two, coming to a shared understanding of how we got here. 

First our data: We have tabulated these numbers to give us a baseline of where we are as a company in terms of our representation. At this stage, we simply want to present the facts and understand our starting point. 

• Black team members represent 7% of our total US team population, and the percentage of Black team members drops to zero at the level of Director and above. There is no Black representation on the Leadership Team.

• Hispanic and Latinx team members represent roughly 26% of our total US team population. The percentage of Hispanic and Latinx team members drops to 11% at the level of Director and above. At the Leadership Team level, the percentage drops to 7%. 

• Our Asian team members make up 14% of our total US team population and 15% at the level of Director and above. At the Leadership Team level, the percentage of Asian team members is 20%.

• Our team members who identify with two or more races make up 10% of our total US team population. There is no representation of team members who identify with two or more races at the level of Director and above or within the Leadership Team.

• White team members make up 37% of the overall US team population, with 70% at the level of Director and above. At the Leadership Team level, the percentage of White team members is 67%.

• Our men-women ratio is equal at 48%, with 4% of our team members who did not disclose their gender or who identify as nonbinary. At the Director level and above, women represent 44% and men 56% of total team members, with no nonbinary representation. At the Leadership Team level, women represent 40% and men 60% of total team members, with no nonbinary representation.

As with any process, it’s important to first understand where we are. With this data, we can see our teams are not representative of the US population. At this moment, we’re sharing this data with you not because we have a grand plan, but because we want you to see the truth as it stands at this moment, as a first step for us all to move forward on these issues collectively. As a brand centered on care and intentionality, we feel strongly that it’s important not to rush into quick fixes to make our numbers “look different.” This data reporting is not something to check off from a list, but only the beginning of an essential journey, to care to act. 

Just as we need shared data to move forward, we also need a shared vocabulary. To help us understand how we got here as a company as well as a society, the CCB committee has put together a curriculum that I am requiring the Leadership Team to participate in. We will be spending the next four weeks reading, listening, and watching scholarship and personal accounts on the history of systemic oppression and White supremacy. We also are taking the time to understand how these systems of privilege and power manifest in our personal and professional lives. We are working through this curriculum as Phase One with the intention of sharing it within our Blue Bottle Community as Phase Two. This collective work will help us lay the foundation to create lasting change. 

Please understand, this is just the beginning. We will be updating you with new data and steps we are taking each quarter. 

We are here to listen and to be transparent and honest in addressing any of your questions or concerns. Thank you, as always, for helping us do better.