Support Your B Corps!
When we became a B Corp in 2013, we were thrilled. B Corps are defined as “businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” When a company becomes a B Corp they are evaluated against a rigorous rubric that measures the aforementioned social/environmental impact, transparency, and accountability. To become certified, businesses complete the B Impact Assessment (the independent B Lab does the assessment, this is not a self-report measure!). Each company must earn a minimum score of 80 out of 200 points and commit to the B Corp Term Sheet and Declaration of Interdependence.
As a conscious consumer, we know you care about these things and we (along with our fellow B Corp-ers!) work to increase our B score each year – to provide our customers with greater confidence in our products and our companies. We’d like to help you start your new year with some of our most beloved B Corps, a few that you know, and some that you might not yet. Here is a list of our favorite brands from clothing to snacks to our comrades in cleaning:
Clothing
We know you know Patagonia (an EPIC B Corp that ranks in the top 10% percent and is absolutely one of our favorites!) but have you heard of Cotopaxi? Another supercool outdoor brand, Cotopaxi’s employees spend 10% of their work time doing service projects or being in the outdoors and “each year, [they] award grants to outstanding nonprofit partners who are carefully selected for their track records at improving the human condition and alleviating poverty.”
And what about tentree? This maker of comfy, cozy, “Earth-first” apparel (which isn’t just sustainable but also stylish) plants TEN trees for each product you purchase. And they’ve already planted more than 35 million! Snacks
If you love ice cream as much as we do, you can feel good getting that Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Half Baked, or Chunky Monkey – because Vermonter’s Ben & Jerry are B Corp certified. Since they founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978 they have worked to use organic and Fair Trade suppliers as well as eco-friendly packaging, and they have been donating 7.5% of their revenue to charity.
Next time you’re strolling down the aisles of your local Whole Foods (because let’s be real, they are everywhere), keep an eye out for Left Coast Organics. They’ve got a delicious array of nuts, dried fruit, chocolate covered goodies, and they even make cereals, grains, baking supplies, and other delicious things. And their status as a B Corp is solid – they even give their employees $100 every year toward the purchase of a new bicycle!
Cleaning
You rely on us for sustainable cleaning tools, but what about your cleaning products? When you need a plant-based, sustainable option, we highly recommend the Grove Collaborative’s concentrates. When you buy cleaning supplies in big plastic spray bottles, they are mostly water. The Grove has a solution (pun intended!). They send you reusable glass spray bottles and small tubes of concentrates that you mix with water and voila! You are reducing packaging by leaps and bounds.
Want to learn more about B Corps? Find out which of your favorite bands are part of the change here!
Now you can smile bigger when you see that encircled B and feel even better about what you buy.
As a conscious consumer, we know you care about these things and we (along with our fellow B Corp-ers!) work to increase our B score each year – to provide our customers with greater confidence in our products and our companies. We’d like to help you start your new year with some of our most beloved B Corps, a few that you know, and some that you might not yet. Here is a list of our favorite brands from clothing to snacks to our comrades in cleaning:
Clothing
We know you know Patagonia (an EPIC B Corp that ranks in the top 10% percent and is absolutely one of our favorites!) but have you heard of Cotopaxi? Another supercool outdoor brand, Cotopaxi’s employees spend 10% of their work time doing service projects or being in the outdoors and “each year, [they] award grants to outstanding nonprofit partners who are carefully selected for their track records at improving the human condition and alleviating poverty.”
And what about tentree? This maker of comfy, cozy, “Earth-first” apparel (which isn’t just sustainable but also stylish) plants TEN trees for each product you purchase. And they’ve already planted more than 35 million! Snacks
If you love ice cream as much as we do, you can feel good getting that Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Half Baked, or Chunky Monkey – because Vermonter’s Ben & Jerry are B Corp certified. Since they founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978 they have worked to use organic and Fair Trade suppliers as well as eco-friendly packaging, and they have been donating 7.5% of their revenue to charity.
Next time you’re strolling down the aisles of your local Whole Foods (because let’s be real, they are everywhere), keep an eye out for Left Coast Organics. They’ve got a delicious array of nuts, dried fruit, chocolate covered goodies, and they even make cereals, grains, baking supplies, and other delicious things. And their status as a B Corp is solid – they even give their employees $100 every year toward the purchase of a new bicycle!
Cleaning
You rely on us for sustainable cleaning tools, but what about your cleaning products? When you need a plant-based, sustainable option, we highly recommend the Grove Collaborative’s concentrates. When you buy cleaning supplies in big plastic spray bottles, they are mostly water. The Grove has a solution (pun intended!). They send you reusable glass spray bottles and small tubes of concentrates that you mix with water and voila! You are reducing packaging by leaps and bounds.
Want to learn more about B Corps? Find out which of your favorite bands are part of the change here!
Now you can smile bigger when you see that encircled B and feel even better about what you buy.