Viridian Nutrition was founded in 1999 in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, by Cheryl Thallon. Vegetarian since she was 18, Cheryl started her career in the natural products industry working in health food stores from the age of 21. After training in publishing, Cheryl was made editor of Natural Food Trader magazine in 1988 where she remained for three years, visiting and reporting on health food stores and natural product supply companies around the world. This broad experience of the entire natural products industry led to a specialisation into food supplements when in 1991 she joined Solgar Vitamins – an American supplement company – first as Marketing Director and then as UK Managing Director.
Previously a family-owned and managed company, Solgar Vitamins, was sold to a large pharmaceutical corporation in early 1999. At this point, Cheryl left to set up Viridian Nutrition, basing the company on the fundamental principles of purity, environment and charity. Surrounding herself with qualified and expert technical advisors, Viridian Nutrition launched in December 1999 with just 24 products. The company now offers sales, technical and marketing expertise to support more than 180 products and is available in more than a dozen countries.
Philosophy
Our mission at Viridian Nutrition is to bring health and wellbeing to everything we touch. From the fields where much of our ingredients are grown through to the recycling bank where the glass bottles are collected, we wish to follow the ethical principle of care for others as we care for ourselves’.
At the heart of Viridian Nutrition is a philosophy that cares for the natural products movement supporting organic growing, the essential nature of health and whole food stores, the respectful preservation of ancient health traditions and the sensitive introduction of innovative complementary health foods, supplements and concepts.
Ethics
Viridian is the leading brand of ethical vitamins, but what does this mean? Viridian was named as Best Buy in Ethical Consumer magazine and in The Good Shopping Guide. The magazine and annual directory commended us for our commitment to pure ingredients, environmental awareness and charity donations.
Dr Alex Richardson in the Daily Mail newspaper named Viridian’s ViridiKid Multi as the best children’s multivitamin due to the purity of the ingredients.
Ethics in nutritional supplements starts at the ownership of the company – dig a bit deeper into the company behind your daily vitamins and you might well find a giant pharmaceutical company or a mass-market mail order company. Viridian Nutrition is UK-based and family-owned and managed.
Ethics continues through our sourcing of ingredients and the manufacturing procedures. We guarantee non-GM, non-irradiated and 100% active ingredients with no nasty additives whatsoever. No added sugars, no colourings or artificial flavourings making our products as clean and pure as they can be. Be reassured that although we are absolutely against the use of animal testing and do not test any of products or ingredients on animals, the ingredients we choose all have a tradition of safe use in humans. So from the seed to the recycling bank, Viridian Nutrition maintains an ethical philosophy at every stage.
Environment
Viridian Nutrition is committed to green business practices, valuing the importance of a minimum footprint on the earth. More than 40% of the Viridian Nutrition range is certified organic by the Soil Association, guaranteeing the provenance and eco-friendliness of the ingredients. At Viridian, we believe the health of the planet and the health of the individual are inextricably linked. Growing organically, avoiding the use of potentially harmful pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals – and having the 100% non-GMO guarantee – offers the best chance of long-term good health to people and to the planet.
There are a number of nutritional products now available in the UK that using the term ‘organic’ as a brand name or fancy name, or that claim organic status without certification, but you can only be sure a product is truly organically grown if the product is certified by a reputable regulatory body such as the Soil Association.
All the Viridian fresh organic tinctures and ointments are grown and traditionally made in the UK, reducing the environmental impact of transporting ingredients around the world.
Our capsules and organic nutritional oils are produced in the UK, creating local jobs. We use minimum packaging for our products, all made from recycled or recyclable materials, from our glass bottles to the recycled cardboard shipping boxes. We take responsibility for our packaging, too, offering a 25p refund for bottles returned to the health store where purchased.
Charity
Viridian is a big-hearted company, committed to creating a nutritional supplement range with integrity, quality and innovation. The company was founded in 1999 on two fundamental principles; to develop a range of supplements with the highest possible ethical standards and to generate significant funds for children’s and environmental charities.
So far, the Viridian Nutrition Charity Donation programme has donated £145,000 to charities including Friends of the Earth, NSPCC, Woodland Trust, UNICEF, The Princes Trust,
Comic Relief, RSPB, Terrence Higgins Trust, Shelter, the Woodland Trust, Save the Children and more. By choosing Viridian Nutrition as your preferred vitamins, you are not only be benefiting your own health, but also helping benefit the lives of others.
How does Viridian decide which charities to donate to? Simply, Viridian doesn’t decide, we leave that to our stockists. Each year, we send a voting form to all our health store stockists and ask them to nominate and vote for their favourite charities. The only stipulation is that 40% goes to children’s charities and 40% to environmental charities, 20% can then go to a combination of other charities. All charities must be properly registered and we check they have no involvement in animal research.