Our journey to qualifying as a Certified B Corp and what this incredible achievement means for the future of Rheal 💚
Rheal is Now Officially a Force for Good 👏
We are so excited to share with you that Rheal is now officially a Certified B Corp 🎉
This is a monumental achievement for the whole team and we would love to give you an insight into our journey to getting here - as it's been a long one!
Back in the summer of 2021, we decided to put all of our efforts towards becoming a force for good into action - starting the process of becoming a B Corp.
We spent 8 months analysing every aspect of the business and implementing new policies to make positive improvements throughout our operations, supply chain, sourcing, energy usage and much more.
In April 2022 we submitted our final application and after an anxious 10 month wait, we got the news we'd been hoping for - that Rheal is now officially a certified B Corp!
What is a B Corp exactly? 🤔
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps for short, are businesses who have been recognised as having high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
From day one at Rheal we have always strived to excel in all these areas, but becoming a B Corp lets our customers and the world know that we have been audited to officially reach this gold standard.
B Corp certification harnesses the power of businesses to help them positively impact their workers and customers as well as wider communities and the planet.
The B Corp Assessment Process 🧐
When we applied to become a B Corp we were asked a serious amount of questions, digging deep into the inner workings of the business.
We had to answer all of these questions and provide supporting evidence for each. B Lab (the non-profit organisation behind B Corp) then assesses all of these answers and provides us with a final verdict and score.
Our Rheal Impact Score 🎯
The B Corp assessment requires a minimum score of 80 points to achieve certification - and we scored a whopping 90.7! 👏
To put that into perspective, the average score for a UK business is just above the minimum amount at 82 points.
Achieving an impact score of 90.7 is really difficult and a testament to just how hard our team have worked to become a B Corp.
Let's Break it Down 👇
Our total score of 90.7 is broken down into 5 categories: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers.
We would love to share with you an insight into each of these categories - so that you can see the hard work we have put in to achieve our final score!
1. Governance
Governance is all about the policies and procedures we have in place to promote ethics, accountability and transparency within Rheal.
As a brand we have a very strong mission and know that making small changes can have a big impact - on our health, wellbeing and the future of our planet too.
Our governance score reflects that we are as transparent as possible with our customers, employees and shareholders.
And being a B Corp, every business decision we make considers the impact it will have on the planet and our customers.
2. Workers
The workers category focuses on contributing to our employees' financial, physical, professional and social wellbeing.
We scored highly within this category, as we really support the health and wellbeing of our employees.
From our holiday policy to private healthcare and employee benefits & perks, we go above and beyond to ensure our team are happy and healthy.
We also enjoy regular team meet ups to get together and celebrate all of our incredible achievements, which may not be part of the assessment - but is great for team bonding!
Our amazing team enables us to grow and thrive as a business, so employee mental & physical health is of the utmost importance to us.
3. Community
The community category is one of the biggest categories of the B Corp assessment. It includes all aspects of the communities in which we operate - from social wellbeing to economic impact.
Our proficient supply chain and operational management helps us to have a positive impact on the communities we work with. We support small, local farms across the world - and have a positive impact on our local economy here in the UK.
We have a strict supplier code of conduct in place and can audit suppliers at any moment, to ensure they continue to align with our high standards. This covers things such as fair working conditions & pay for farmers, as well as strict policies to prevent child labour and modern slavery.
We have also been extremely passionate about charitable giving since we started back in 2017. We are partnered with Ecologi, a not for profit organisation who plant one tree for every Rheal order placed. So far we have planted over 300,000 trees all over the world!
We're also super keen to explore more charitable opportunities as the business continues to grow 💚
4. Environment
As a business in the food industry, sourcing certified Organic ingredients is one of the best decisions we can make to have a huge positive impact on the environment.
Organic farming practices avoid the use of herbicides, pesticides and GMOs - so that the ingredients produced are as close to nature as possible. This is not only better for human health but also helps to protect the land and maintain biodiverse wildlife ecosystems.
As a B Corp, our goal is to eventually only use recycled materials within our supply chain and eliminate the use of any plastic. We also use renewable energy sources in our warehouse to power our production facility, which is a positive step to becoming more environmentally friendly.
In the future, we hope to improve our environmental impact further by installing solar panels - so watch this space!
5. Customers
Last but by no means least - the final B Corp assessment category is customers!
Improving the value we create for our direct customers is not just about the products and their cost.
Using our platform for good is at the heart of everything we do - from providing healthy, nutritious products that support health and wellbeing, to educating our customers with informative blogs, recipes and through social media.
We have recently expanded our customer service team so that we can offer the best possible customer support and experience.
Finally, we have just launched our exclusive Rheal Community Facebook Group. This is a space for all of our wonderful customers to engage with the business, our team and each other - sharing their ideas and gaining a Rheal sense of community & family!
The Future of Rheal, a Certified B Corp 🌎
It goes without saying that the benefits of being a certified B Corp need to be maintained in the long-term, beyond our initial assessment.
To maintain our B Corp certification we need to renew and reassess our application every 3 years.
We are super excited to show how we can not just maintain but improve upon our impact score as the business grows.
You can learn more about B Corp and Rheal's B Corp status in our public profile right 👉 here
Becoming a certified B Corp is just one of the many amazing achievements we could not have made possible without your ongoing support - so thank you so much from myself and all of Team Rheal!
