MAKING A DIFFERENCE ISSUE 2022 | Vol. XXXV No.5 THIS MONTH: CERTIFIED B CORPS IN COFFEE MakingDifferencea WORKERS GOVERNANCE COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT CUSTOMERS
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2022 | MAKING A DIFFERENCE COFFEETALK MAGAZINE{ 4 } MAKINGCONTENTSADIFFERENCEISSUE2022THEVIEW Making a Difference JAKE LEONTI 06 COUNTER CULTURE COFFEE The New Kid on the B Corp Block DIEGO CASTRO 08 REUNION COFFEE B Corp 2nd Wave ADAM PESCE 12 HARVESTSUSTAINABLE The B Corp Veteran DAVID GRISWOLD 16 EQUATOR COFFEE Looking for More DEVORAH FREUDIGER 20
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The ethos of the certification is to do good through business. This is achieved by orienting your business to the triple bottom line, an idea that business writer John Elkington first coined in 1994. The triple bottom line is illustrated by incorporating the three P's (People, Planet, and Prosperity) into your business equally.
Jake
The process of certification is rigorous and extremely detailed. The first step is for a company to self-evaluate its impact using a questionnaire provided by B Lab. This evaluation provides an idea of what your company is currently doing and what it could be doing while applying a numeric score. Most businesses only score about a fifty on a two-hundred-point in the US to gain the certification. Equator Coffee and Reunion Coffee were also early adopters and con tinuous advocates for the systems. We also hear from newcomers to the certification like Counter Culture Coffee and how they were able to make the transition.
The B Corp Certification is in pursuit of good and consistent improvement.
I do hope you enjoy these inspiring stories of companies doing the hard work to create a more sustainable way of thriving in our economy. Enjoy.
As a result, a call was made to reassess a business's ethical responsibility to the rest of the stakeholders and community. B Lab, the third-party not-for-profit that certifies B Corps, was founded in 2006, with its first 82 certified businesses in 2007.
2022 | MAKING A DIFFERENCE COFFEETALK MAGAZINE{ 6 } and the befits of the B sticker.
The normative economic theory of business in the US is the Friedman Doctrine, which holds that a compa ny's social responsibility is to increase its profits. Shareholder returns, above all, are the primary goal of long-term effects of such disregard for societal and environmental wellbeing.
2022 | MAKING A DIFFERENCE COFFEETALK MAGAZINE{ 8 } THE NEW KID ON THE B BLOCK { Counter Culture Coffee – Diego Castro } JAKE LEONTI { T o kick off our series on B Corp Certified companies, I started with a recent addition to the club, Counter Culture Coffee. Counter Culture has been a leader in sustainability and championing fair dealings and direct trade with farmers since its founding in 1995. So their move to B Corp certification was not a surprise; however, it was not as easy as you might think.
Diego Castro is the National Technical Services Manager for Counter Culture, and he took the time to discuss this unique certification and how Counter Culture went about achieving it.
First, here are some of the facts about B Corp Certification. First, your company has to undergo a heavy review process to receive a score that quantifies your business sustainability and impact in five categories. The median score of those that undergo this review is 50.9. The lowest score required to be certified is 80 points out of 200. This is not an easy certification and requires significant changes from companies down to their by-laws and Articles of Incorporation. Here is what Diego had to share.
80 is the baseline for certification; we scored 80.3 on the first round, which is telling as to the rigor of the process.
JL: What went into the decision to organize into a B Corp Cert.? DC: I think it all started with Meridith (our Sustainability Manager at the time); in 2018, she had created a road map of where Counter Culture was going regarding sustainability and planning. That road map included finding a framework to make much of what she was planning and trying to create internally and externally. That framework leads us to Jessica Thomas, a B Corp Facilitator. She is a massive proponent of B Corp as a force for good in businesses. She runs a workshop at NC State that takes businesses and business owners through the initial assessment of what it will take and get through a lot of the reporting. The process is a lot of nuts and bolts about backing up what you say you do with documentation. Through that workshop, we went through an initial assessment, and we did not pass. Based on not hav ing a lot of that documentation in place. So, we were not able to have the documentation and processes in place to achieve a score of 80.5 until 2020. We are currently in our reassessment period, which happens every three years. So, we are cur rently in the middle of starting that whole process up all over again.
Jake Leonti (JL): Counter Culture was certified by B Corp in 2020, correct? Diego Castro (DC): Correct. Counter Culture had been exploring this certification for some time before 2020; however, that is when we finally crossed that finish line.
JL: That’s a great incentive for constant improvement. You were able to get certified though I’m sure you are looking to raise the bar. Any projections for where you are hoping to boost your score this round?
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It’s also part of the reason we went and pursued B Corp. Because it is a process of continuous improvement, it meshes well with our ethos as a company. So, if you look back at the history of Counter Culture, we have been a company that has typically shirked those check boxes or stickers on our bags. For example, Bird Friendly coffee, we did that early on that you have to push beyond those certifications, or they just become a check box, a nice label on your bag, and then you sit in some
DC: We do have some projections. It looks like we are going to be able to improve our score by eleven points.
The score only gets updated every reassessment every three years; however, we can review that previous assessment. We can look at where we got our points initially and our opportunities. That three-year period is your reassessment. During that time, you should be pushing to improve your score, improve your documenta tion, putting new standards in place. Whatever it takes to improve that score assessment after assessment.
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I was on a panel recently discussing B Corps, and they reminded us that though the movement is gaining steam and there are annually thirty thousand applicants, there are still only four thousand certified companies glob ally. It is a rigorous process, and not everyone makes it through. There are benefits to just starting the assessment and going through the process of what it would take is a huge benefit.
Why do you think it is gaining traction now? There is value in the brand mark. There is value in having it on your bag. Customers are starting to recognize it. They can make more informed purchases and know that when they find that B Corp logo, they know they are buying from a likeminded company. They are buying from a company committed to being a force for good. It also promotes transparency within the industry.
level of complacency. B Corp is not like that. If you rest on your laurels, you will fall behind. The standards not only give you something to shoot for, but they change every assessment. They make it harder; it becomes more rigorous. That was really attractive to Brett, the founder of Counter Culture. We already have that built-in ethos of the company, so why not build that into the framework of what we do. That’s wonderful. I think it’s important to reiterate that the median score for most companies is 50.9 and that by just achieving certification, you have accomplished a tremendous accomplishment and are thirty points ahead of the game. Counter Culture has always had an excellent reputation in the coffee industry, and the score does not nec essarily reflect your historical impact. Still, it is based on the beginning of a new process of documenting and tracking that impact and that that impact will continue to grow.
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In 2013 Reunion Coffee received its first B Corp Certification scoring an 83.8 on the first try. They are coming up on their tenth anniversary, just waiting for the audit on their third recerti fication. Mr. Pesce was kind enough to take some time to share Reunion's journey with B Corp and why they still believe and continue to invest in striving for continuous improvements.
{ R eunion Coffee was founded in 1995 by Peter Pesce in Oakville, Canada (just outside of Toronto. When Peter started in the coffee business in the 1970s, it was still very "First Wave" in Toronto. Peter was a pioneer in Specialty coffee in Canada. In 2006 Adam Pesce joined the company, starting with involvement in sourcing green coffee and coffee buying. First, by getting involved in Fair Trade and extending that into Direct Trade practice. As they contin ued to grow, they realized that sourcing was only one aspect of their sustainability efforts could be. As Adam says, "we weren't seeing the whole picture yet." So
JAKE LEONTI Adam searched for a framework to help them build a better program. While attending a con ference in Tanzania, Adam saw David Griswold of Sustainable Harvest speak about the benefits of B Corp. Adam felt that this might be the framework they were looking for once he realized that Reunion was already fulfilling many of the require ments required by B Corp.
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Jake Leonti (JL): What attracted you to B Corp in the first place?
Adam Pesce (AP): When I first got into coffee, I was on the Sustainability Council of the SCA in the early years of my coffee career. I got in through dumb luck and my willingness to work hard. That was formative for me. Learning about sustainability and how different companies approach it. I understood that there is no universal approach to sustainability. We all have our different tactics, and none more worthy than another. You figure out what you believe in and then how to execute
B
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Reunion Coffee – Adam Pesce
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JL: So, between your existing passion for sustainability and having a positive impact along with David Griswold, you were enchanted by B Corp. What are the most critical aspects of the certification to Reunion Coffee?
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what you believe in. It's about giving it thought rather than following this straight line, a "Sustainable Company."
AP: The B Corp certification is the framework we built our sustainability platform onto for us. As I was learning how to be a more sustainable business, I started with sourcing; however, I realized that every coffee company would have some sort of sustainability story to their coffee. Whether it's Fair Trade, Direct Trade, Organic, etc., this is often where it begins and ends with most coffee companies. So, I wanted to take a more holistic approach. The B Corp certification taught me how critical your employee's well-being is to be a sustainable company. Sustainability, in its essence, is about the company being healthy in all ways so that it can sustain itself. The First time we did the B Corp certi fication, I did it entirely by myself. The tenants of it cover your Governance and Transparency, the environment, your community, and your employees. The community component covers your supply chain. Governance is easy, and transparency that's fine. Environmental, we were already doing lots of good things in that regard. Our supply chain was good, so our score was acceptable in the community, but our employee score was middling. It wasn't that we weren't doing things, it was still above average, but it was easily our lowest aspect. So, we realized we need to pay more attention to this. We can't take for granted that our employees are Ok and they're doing fine and got what they need. We are a high percentage over min imum wage plus health care and benefits, including vision and dental. We have eighteen-month family leave to split between the parents. We needed to focus on our employees, and
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JL: What's an example of this? AP: This was highlighted perfectly during the pandemic. I was sure our score would drop because of the pandemic as we were not as busy, and we had to reduce our business in many ways. However, the opposite happened. Our score surprisingly went up. The reason is that sustainability is built into everything; it's part of your supply chain, energy procurement, material procurement, and HR policies. It's not just a line item on our PNL or Balance sheet where you can look at everything getting more expensive with the pan demic and decide to cut the sustain ability line... it's built-in everywhere. You must come in with a scalpel to get it all out. You build it right into your Articles of Incorporation. We had to get them rewritten to include our attestation that we would adhere to the policies and ethos of B Corp.
The whole point and prem ise of B Corp are that you're imparting that sustainability and social enterprise mentality into the DNA of your business.
When I first got into suitability, it was very ad-hock. I would focus on random aspects. Once you can put a framework around it, B Corp provides, it is night and day. It is so much easier and more organized. If I were starting a business today, that would be the first place I would go to build that structure.
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this is part of what is most valuable about B Corp. Everything we do is not because of B Corp, but when we must recertify or in the middle of one, we can look at our assessment and identify our gaps. B Corp is not perfect; how ever, they have done a lot of research around better business practices, and we get to use that information to help form what we will do next.
JL: What is the benefit of the B Corp for your customers?
AP: We are our customer's sustain ability story. Each of our coffees has a sustainability story, whether Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, etc. Our B Corp certification and stamp on the bag make us the sustainability story for them. If they buy on the shelf at a grocery store, they know it is sustainable coffee. If it is a wholesale customer, we become the sustainable aspect of their business and what they sell. That is a tremendous value.
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David Griswold is the founder and CEO of Sustainable Harvest. I was able to catch David in his car on the 5, transporting some coffee (classic). We discussed sustainability on many levels and our hopes for preserving coffee lands and growers. In addition, Mr. Griswold was kind enough to share some insights and wisdom on how B Corps can help each other. Jake Leonti (JL): As a leader in the coffee industry for B Corp, are you doing anything within our community to grow awareness?
At SCA, we had several roasters and farms where B Corp got up and talked. We got a lot of questions, and many individuals get up and say, "I'm the only one in my business that really wants to do this. My boss doesn't want to do it; how do I push it through?" So there was a way for us to give them a lot of encouragement and help people through that process.
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JAKE LEONTI
Because it is difficult. Anyone can go through the audit online, but the next step of actually getting certified is a lot of work. Certifying is not something you give to your summer intern. You have to be committed as a company, which is one of the biggest challenges of becoming certified. We are bringing interesting B Corp collaborations together. We did an enjoyable Geisha beer using Panama Esmerelda and created a sour beer with New Belgian Brewery. We have provided the coffee for Ben Sustainable Harvest – David Griswold
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Sustainable Harvest Coffee is a green coffee trader based in Portland, OR. They have been in business for twenty-five years. Their brand mission is to not only have every roaster know who their coffee supplier is but to have every coffee grower know who their customer is. In 2008 Sustainable Harvest became the first coffee importer to become certified B Corp and only the second coffee company. An early adopter, they have been a front runner in the movement, a vocal proponent of its benefits to business and its force for good.
David Griswold (DG): For us, it is time to give back and mentor companies interested in B Corp. We do this in several ways. One of the ways we do this is through different coffee events and expos; we are leading various B Corp seminars.
JL: Sustainable Harvest started as a company driven by sustainabil ity... how did becoming a B Corp change how you operated?
DG: In 2008, when I met the founders of B Corp (Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan, Andrew Kassoy), they were doing an event here in Portland, OR. I had already looked into changing my by-laws because I had been introduced to them by someone else in the Portland social enterprise community. So, that part wasn't new to me, and when I heard they would be speaking, I went. When one of the founders finished speaking, I ran to the front of the room and said, "Hey, I've been really interested in this."
of highest paid to lowest paid would fully define me as the highest-scoring B Corp ever! All of this only got me 85-105 points (David laughs). I wasn't quite the hot thing I thought I was. As I looked at the questions and the good-better-best practices on sourc ing questions or recycling, I started building our employee handbook. I think this is why it's an incredibly powerful certification. You will make changes that affect your community and employees because you want to score more points for sustainability.
1)B Corp Workshop for Coffee Executives at Re:co Thursday,SymposiumApril 7, 2022Saturday, April 9, 2022Saturday, April 9, 2022the Coffee Expo? CALLING ALL #BCORPS!COFFEE
shared his vision of B Corps
I have always felt that one of the best things about B Corp for those of us that are competitive is that you are always trying to beat your own score. We are at 150 points now; what will it take to break 160?! It will be incredibly hard, but that is an incredibly pow erful tool to get me to be even more sustainable, figure out where the gaps are, and then close those. So it takes advantage of this capitalist system of people that want to do more and more and more and turns it into a net
supporting each other in a B Corp connected model
MAKING A DIFFERENCE | 2022WWW.COFFEETALK.COM { 17 } and Jerry's Coffee Buzz Buzz for almost twenty-five years now. These collaborations start encouraging other B Corps to collaborate.
When considering a certification, people often ask, "am I going to sell more of what I have?" "Am I going to get new customers for this?" It doesn't suddenly happen that just because you are a B Corp, you're suddenly selling to all these other B Corps. You have to engage with them and find the intersecting points of connection. There are a lot. You will find that when you are at the annual national conventions that B Corp hosts, everybody is trying to figure out ways to work together or stay connected and discuss essential projects together. It is like there is this secret handshake. You become part of this group of like-minded people and companies, and I find that incredibly uplifting and inspiring. They may not all be coffee companies, but they all are trying to do exciting things, and there is so much we can learn from them.
Of course, I thought, 'I'm going to score incredibly well,' 'This is going to be incredibly easy." As I started looking through the test, I saw that just buying Organic, Fair Trade, taking care of my employees, and having a low ratio
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For us, I'd like to see B Corp collabora tions. People buying from B Corps and B Corps buying from each other and supporting each other. You don't cur rently get points for buying from other B Corps, so I did propose to the staff at B Corp that B Corp should fill this gap since you receive points for purchasing products with different certifications.
DG: We don't want to go backward, and we don't want to rest on our laurels. We want to continue to build our systems. Especially in our overseas offices. How do we continue to score points and do the right thing regarding our deci sion-making around sustainability, the sourcing of products, and how we treat our employees and our community. I think playing a more prominent role, inviting more people from the coffee community, and getting the coffee sector organized around B Corp. There are some opportunities there. We might not be the leader in that, but we would like to be supportive of B Corp in the coffee community. The coffee industry has been out in front of sustainability much more than other commodities, so B Corp makes sense. There are many certified coffee companies now, but I don't think we are connecting. That is an opportunity for building community.
positive for the world because the points you are getting are making the planet a little bit better.
JL: The cert tops out at 200 points. Has anyone gotten there yet? DG: I don't believe so. I think it's like the Olympics, where an actual perfect ten was impossible. It would be incredibly difficult as the test becomes harder and harder each year. Getting into the 130's-140's is a real challenge for most companies. You are more likely to lose points down the road unless you are actively building out your decision-making based on sustainability decisions.
JL: What is next for SH? What will you be focusing on for the next audit?
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Devorah Freudiger (DF): Equator has always been a very founder-driven, founder lead company. We are run by women; we're run by queer women, and Helen and Brook started this com pany to do good in business. Maureen, who is our EVP now, was their first employee. It was just the three of them in ninety-five wanting to make a business that was a little different. For a good ten-plus years, they could make all of the decisions. And they made all the decisions that felt right to them. So, it's a little squishy. "Hey, everyone who works for us should have health care because it's the right thing to do." Or, "We should pay more for Organic Coffee and really invest in the Fair-Trade system because that's the right thing to do." But the company grew. We had great success. But as Devorah Freudiger
JL: The triple bottom line, of course, refers to the three P's - People, Planet and Prosperity. What do you feel are the most important aspect of the certification?
Equator's "big idea" was to make people's lives better through coffee. Brook McDonnel and Helen Russell took that idea and grew it into a national brand named National Small Business of the Year in 2016 by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The certification has intensified as we've continued to be a part of the community. It is great to see it evolving. There is more to measure and look at as the business has become more complex. I like that it shifts how we look at things.
JL: I have heard that they certification inten sifies every audit you go through. So, every point becomes hard-earned, and Equator has been at it for a while now. It is your fourth certification at this point. I noticed that there had been some fluctuations in your scores over the years. What do you attribute to the dips and then the rebounds?
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JAKE LEONTI the company grew and they weren't able to be involved in every decision becoming a B Corp was a really nice framework for making these decisions. So, now everyone who is a decision-maker is the next generation of decision-makers. So now, people making retail decisions or sourcing decisions can make that decision by looking at the triple bottom line. It's a way to quantify that feeling of a good decision but with the why. We can measure this.
LOOKING FOR MORE { Equator Coffee –
DF: I like that the certification challenges us to hold ourselves accountable. I like that the framework focuses on for-profit businesses. We are a business that should be making money to reinvest in our future projects and the people working with us. But that aspect is not weighted more than our environmental or social impact, which is what I like about it.
E quator Coffee was founded in a garage in Marin County, California, in 1995 when the first ripples of the third wave were starting on the west coast. Part of that wave included a passion for sustainability and increased transparency around sourcing and ethical business practices.
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Devorah Freudiger is the Director of Coffee Culture at Equator. We connected on a call to discuss their journey into the B Corp certification and how it provided clarity to their good intentions. Jake Leonti (JL): Why did Equator choose to become B Corp certified?
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JL: Despite the required challenge and work, B Corp seems to be gaining traction and becoming more highly sought. Why do you think that is?
DF: I think a lot of the change in our scores comes from growth, who we're employing, and how we're employing people. So, that is a place where we did lose some points. Looking at our current workforce assets are primarily in the cafes. So, more folks are making a tip-dependent barista wage. This changes the proportion of high income to low income. Also, the amount of waste we generate and electricity we consume goes way up when you have multiple cafes. They are also measuring more now (since 2011). We didn't have a carbon tracking system before. We are putting one in place now to work towards being a carbon-neutral company. We continue to grow with these constant challenges. For instance, we bought one of the first Loring's made because we felt it was what we should be doing, but then we must determine how to measure how much carbon we are using and still find ways to offset that. We use energy-saving light bulbs and eco-mode on our espresso machines; however, we need to measure those items, and we hadn't been. In our next audit, we will be focusing on measuring everything. Carbon is a huge focus right now and should be for everything.
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DF: People are looking for something different. America is a capitalist country. That is how we are employed and live in this country. We see that it isn't working for everyone. I think the disparity is becoming more and more apparent between those who have a lot and those who don't. Consumers are becoming more aware, and some business owners are becoming more aware that the purpose of business should not be exclusively to extract as many profits as possible. B Corp is something that you can trust. Folks are becoming more conscious about greenwashing, and people are looking for more accountability from brands. Consumers like certi fication because they can trust it.
I think coffee lends itself to very thoughtful people. I don't think you can work in coffee without seeing the inequalities because they are glaring. Any one of these products with a leg acy of colonialism carries a choice, you can either continue to take advantage of this situation or maybe you can try and do some good. We're working with a product people want; they will buy it anyway. Let's give them an alter native to purchasing a product that genuinely does harm. You can have a cup of coffee that tastes good. That coffee can either do harm in the world or do good in the world. Hopefully, people are choosing to do good.
