Best for the World 2022
Every year BCorp honours it’s community by highlighting the best BCorps in the world across their areas of impact. We were completely blown away when we learned that for the second year in a row we would be among the top 5% of BCorps for the environment in the world!
It’s an incredible validation of the approach we have taken - which we call ‘circular by design’ which puts circularity at the heart of everything that we do and ensures that we consider the needs of our customers, our people and the planet ahead of profit.
Last year when we first certified we really hoped that we’d be able to maintain this position and it is a real thrill to achieve it again. And it sets the stage for next year to try and do even better. (Maybe one day we should talk about gamification of a certification process! )
Because we’re best in the world in the category of environment, we’re often asked by our partners, customers and suppliers what we believe are some of the practices that have led to this accolade, it hasn’t changed much since last year:
Circular by design - we set out to be a truly circular business at all stages of our products’ lifecycle. We call that circular by design. In practice that means we always look at:
Where we make our products - here in Australia
How our products are made - crafted from recycled materials using minimal wastage and best practice production
The purpose of the product - the product replaces one of the worst culprits of the single-use (linear) economy. Takeaway food containers make up 23% of the litter on NSW streets and take a very long time to decompose in landfill. A reusable is better than even the ‘best’ single-use after just 15 washes
Next life - we take them back to turn into new products for their next life.
In 2021, this approach also earned us a Circle Award in the B2B category. (We’re still really proud of that too!)
Carbon neutral - We try to make a minimal impact wherever possible. From the power we use in our office (solar) to how we transport goods and travel. But even so we want to ensuring that we offset the minimal impact we do make. We know that offsetting is a last resort and in our case we actually chose to do it after we’d submitted our BCorp ! But, while you’re on the journey we think it’s a great choice to make while you work out how to minimise your impact. We will talk about this in a few weeks in another blog as there is a lot to unpack.
Radical transparency - We are a tiny company and that makes this easier, but as we grow we continue to practice radical transparency, being generous with our knowledge and resources to help other companies participate fully in these new ways of working. We are constantly in conversation with other companies about how we can collectively do better and to share our learnings and requirements so that we can all grow better together. Ask us a question if there is anything you want to learn more about it.
Work with other BCorps
Small changes including switching to a BCorp bank like our bank, Beyond Bank FEEL so good (a bit like how our customers feel when they enjoy a wasteless takeaway for the first time). Knowing that none of the funds we make are being held by banks who support fossil fuel industries is fantastic. This year we’ve also partnered with HuskeeCup & MemoBottle who make beautiful products powering the reuse revolution.
Lastly, we should also point out that we’re a small company at this point. It is definitely easier to be better when you’re small, but because we set out to do good from the beginning it's not something that we’ve bolted on afterwards, it goes to our core. We’ve been given a high bar to continue to meet and we intend to try and exceed it as we grow.