The French are consuming more from companies with an environmental and societal purpose, investors are no longer just looking for profitability at all costs and employees are turning to jobs with a positive impact. Yes, the world is changing and consciences are awakening!
At Epycure, we are convinced that companies can also serve the collective interest and that we can make our economic model compatible with the planetary and societal limits that we know today.
With this in mind, we embarked on the B Corp process a little over a year ago. If you don't yet know what the B Corp label represents and you would like to know more about our commitments, we tell you everything in this article.
What is B Corp?
Awarded by the independent organization B Lab , the B Corp label is an international certification aimed at companies whose mission is to change the current economy through responsible environmental and social practices .
Since its creation in 2006 in the United States, the B Corp movement has promoted strong values of change with the aim of changing capitalism and rethinking the notion of success in business. It is about putting business performance at the service of the general interest . Profit should no longer be an end in itself, hence the B Corp slogan: “ Do not seek to be the best company in the world, but to be the best for the world ”. The main mission of the B Corp “ business for good ” label (positive impact economy) is to certify companies which integrate social, societal and environmental objectives into their business model and which meet demanding criteria in terms of CSR and transparency.
Currently, there are more than 4,000 certified B companies across more than 70 different countries, including 145 companies in France. These companies come in all sizes and sectors.
Why obtain the B Corp label?
Becoming a B Corp isn’t just about getting certified. Above all, it means embarking on a demanding path of transformation by building a more inclusive and sustainable economy, essential to meeting the challenges of our time!
Although this certification represents a great deal of involvement on the part of companies and sometimes even strategic changes, it has many advantages:
1. Combine performance and CSR commitments
Today, it is possible to combine economic performance and social & environmental commitment. B Corp certification thus makes it possible to prove that viable and virtuous economic models exist. Obtaining this label means evaluating its impact and being part of a process of continuous improvement by continually progressing on these CSR subjects.
2. Engage and inspire stakeholders in your image
Certification allows us to signal to all stakeholders that our company measures and manages its societal and environmental performance. The company thus attracts the interest of investors, suppliers, (new) employees and even customers who are like us and who share our values.
3. Be part of a responsible and engaged community
B Corp is much more than just a label. It means belonging to a true international community of committed companies which share common objectives and meet demanding criteria in terms of responsibility and transparency. By joining this community, it is possible to benefit from the support and sharing of initiatives of other companies sharing the same values as ours.
How to become B.corp certified?
B Corp certification demonstrates a company's real commitment to the pillars of CSR. Certified B companies meet high standards around five pillars:
- Governance: being a committed company with a new, more responsible, ethical and transparent business model.
- Employees: transmit inclusive values, anchored in the daily lives of its employees. Their well-being is placed at the center of concerns here (health, financial security, satisfaction rate, etc.).
- Community: invest time and resources for society. This pillar focuses on the impact of the company on its community (suppliers, integration program, local projects, etc.).
- Environment: measure and minimize its impact on the planet. Depending on the sector of activity, the environmental assessment will be different and will involve the management of water, waste, biodiversity and/or energy consumption.
- Customers: produce and generate value and impact among consumers, and in particular be beneficial for the health of its customers.
Note that the B Corp labeling process is very long. It takes a little over a year between submission of the file and issuance of the label. This process goes through four main stages:
- Measure your impact with the BIA (Business Impact Assessment): each company is invited to self-assess by answering 200 questions from an online questionnaire called BIA to concretely assess the impact of its business model around the 5 pillars.
- Pass the verification audit successfully: responses to the BIA are subject to a lengthy audit process by the B Lab organization. To obtain the B Corp label, it is necessary to obtain a minimum score of 80 points out of 200.
- Modify its statutes: the company must modify its statutes in order to perpetuate its decision and put its social, environmental and societal impact at the heart of its reason for being.
- Join the community : to formalize its entry into the B Corp community, the company must sign the conditions and the B Corp Interdependence Declaration, where it commits to actively supporting a more inclusive, regenerative and contributory economy.
Every three years, certified B companies are reassessed and are therefore encouraged to improve their performance from year to year.
And Epycure in all this?
CSR is a strategic axis at Epycure . We work every day to improve the well-being of our employees and for our company to have a positive impact on the planet. We know that it will take time for us to be a 100% responsible brand, but we work on our environmental and societal impact every day.
With this in mind, we embarked on the B Corp process a little over a year ago because we wanted to evaluate our impact on the planet and society and see if we met the requirements of the NGO B lab in terms of of social and environmental responsibility. And after months of work and months of waiting, we got there! We are very proud to be certified B Corp and to be part of this beautiful community of certified B companies. In addition to benefiting from a whole network of companies with initiatives each more interesting than the last, this allows us to say loud and clear who we are and what objectives we pursue on a daily basis.
You can find our public B Corp profile right here . It summarizes our overall scores and our scores by impact area obtained on the BIA questionnaire.
For those who don't know us yet, here is a quick overview of some of the actions we are already implementing at Epycure:
- Thanks to effective formulas based on vitamins and plants , Epycure aims to support each of us in a well-being routine to help us feel better on a daily basis . This is why we are talking today activity with a positive social impact.
- We scrupulously follow a responsible purchasing policy so that our purchases are always made in an approach with a positive environmental impact.
- Thus, we work ardently to develop sustainable food supplements , carefully sourcing our ingredients to have a maximum of plants, vitamins and minerals of natural origin and obviously banning ingredients from the animal breeding industry.
- All our products are made in France and packaged in refill form : light and compact doypacks to facilitate delivery to mailboxes. We do not use any individual packaging or overpackaging to avoid unnecessary excess cardboard and we opt for light packaging when sending products to our resellers.
- To send you your orders, we have chosen La Poste, which has been committed since 2012 to financing carbon offset projects in order to achieve carbon neutrality.
- For our employees, we offer funding for training and we obviously promote social dialogue by consulting them regularly via suggestion boxes, surveys, weekly updates, etc.
- We are very happy to be able to count more than 60% women within our magnificent team!
- Finally, we have written our own CSR policy which describes Epycure's objectives in terms of environmental, social and governance impact and which pushes us to surpass ourselves and always go further in terms of CSR!
To be ever more efficient and proactive on these subjects, we have appointed a CSR manager within the company. This aims to increase our employees' awareness of CSR by communicating about possible actions to be implemented and by involving each of them in a project that interests them. The main objectives of the coming months will be to evaluate our carbon footprint in order to select the most appropriate solution to achieve carbon neutrality as well as to develop territorial roots by proposing in particular sponsorship actions and more donations and partnerships.
If you have lots of ideas for impactful projects, don't hesitate to share them with us at the email address contact@epycure.com, we would be delighted to discuss them with you!
