B Corp is a certification created in 2015 by the NGO B Lab. Since then, this prestigious label has only been given to businesses which meet high standards in terms of social and environmental impact. Over 50,000 went through the BIA (B impact assessment) but only some 4,500 companies are certified. Rituals now belongs to them.
B Lab™ is an NGO created in 2006 to help businesses have a positive impact on people and the environment. Since 2015, B Corp has been a certification given to businesses which meet high expectations in five areas: Government, Workers, Customers, Community and Environment. The BIA is an overall evaluation of each dimension. If a company obtains a score exceeding 80 out of 200 points, the company is eligible. Hence, it must sign the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence, a B Corp Agreement and, finally, pay annual certification fees. The quality and rightness of that certification is also guaranteed by the fact that B Lab repeats the certification process every three years, for every B Corporations.
Thus, B Corp stands among the best initiatives to make businesses aware of the externalities of any activity and incentivize the change in the current system.
Rituals tried for three years before finally getting the certification and was awarded 93.2 points. As said by the sustainability manager Emma Olde Bijvank in an article published on Rituals’ website, “now more than ever, if you want to be a truly responsible business, you can’t just focus on making environmentally friendly products or charitable donations, you have to look at all the aspects of your business before you can call yourself a ‘success’.’ That’s why we created our three pillars: Clean, Conscious and Caring to translate our vision of sustainable wellbeing into clear actions.” First, Clean is about choosing the most natural, sustainable and highest quality ingredients. Conscious is related to business operations, what resources they use and how (waste management, energy and water consumption…) Finally, Caring focuses on Rituals’ implication and support to initiatives.
B Corp certification requires measurable commitments. Thus, for instance, Rituals issued the Clean and Conscious tool which continuously assesses the environmental impact of their ingredients and created a monthly wellbeing survey filled by workers.
They met several challenges when changing ingredients in their products. They struggled to keep them affordable and to preserve the characteristics that made their success and efficiency. However, in the end, they succeeded.
Rituals listed some of their achievements as well as their goals for the next decade. For instance, on their website, it’s stated that “in the year 2020, [they] saved energy equal to the annual use of 1.806 households” but they won’t stop there and aim at having reduced their energy use by 10% within the next four years.
—
References
- https://ourstory.bcorporation.uk/chapter-1/
- https://bcorporation.net/about-b-lab
- https://bcorporation.eu/about-b-corps
- https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/b-corps-markets-corporate-law
- “Rituals is now a Certified B Corp™! But what does that really mean and why should you care?”, Jessy Deans, January 10th 2022: https://www.rituals.com/eng-fr/mag-rituality-rituals-b-corp-status-explained.html