World Centric® was founded in 2004 to raise awareness of large-scale humanitarian and environmental issues and how our pursuit of a good life was severely degrading the planet’s ecosystems and at the same time creating vast inequalities where 2.5 billion people live on less than $2/day, without access to basic necessities such as adequate food, water, healthcare, education, housing, sanitation etc. We started by hosting award-winning documentaries and speakers on environmental, social, human rights and peace issues, offered courses on sustainability, simple living, and globalization and started to work on a Conscious Living guide. In order to be a self-sustaining organization, without requesting donations or grants, World Centric® began selling Fair Trade products and compostable products in the beginning of 2005. World Centric® continued to host films, speakers and offer courses alongside selling of products and registered as a taxable California Non-Profit Corporation in September 2005, with the intention of filing for a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status in 2006. However, by summer of 2006, a majority of World Centric®'s time and resources were going towards managing the organically growing sales of Fair Trade products and compostable products.
Between 2006 and 2009 World Centric® continued to host films, speakers, and other events alongside selling compostable products ( Fair Trade products were discontinued in 2007). By 2009, sales of compostable products had become the main activity and in March 2009 World Centric® converted from a taxable non-profit to a for-profit social enterprise with the thinking that being for-profit was not incongruous with its mission to do good in the world. Since 2009, World Centric® has offset all its carbon emissions from raw material to delivery, given at least 25% of its profits to grassroots social and environmental organizations (38% in 2011 and 90% in 2012) and offered discounts to schools and non-profits. World Centric® became a certified B-Corp in 2010 and converted to a California Benefit Corporation in May 2013. Our mission, vision, and values have stayed the same since our founding - to make a difference and create a more just and sustainable world.