Celebrating 1 Year as a B Corp 🎉
What is means to be a Certified B Corp 🤗
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps for short, are businesses who have been recognised as having the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
Being a B Corp means we’re committing to using our business as a force for good, and we’re absolutely here for it.
We are super proud of our B Corp Certification, as it makes it official that everything we do is making a real difference.
We've always strived to make a positive impact and as much as we can shout about this ourselves, it's good to be recognised by an amazing organisation such as B Corp 🙏
Rheal Reflections on B Corp 2023 📈
It's been a whole year since we announced that we were officially recognised a force for good, gaining our B Corp Certification in February 2023. And what a year it has been!
The great thing about being a B Corp is that our impact as a business is reviewed every year, with an annual impact report.
This means that we will always continue our efforts to have the best possible social and environmental standards throughout the year, striving for continuous improvement as we do in all areas of Rheal.
In 2023 our first ever Rheal Impact Score was 90.7 - which is above and beyond the minimum requirement of 80 points which is needed to pass the B Corp assessment; as well as the 82 point average for a UK business 🎉
Ever since, we have been working hard behind the scenes to do even better - for you, for the planet, for the wider community and everyone who works at Rheal. Let's take a look.
Our Rheal B Corp Impact Report 2024 💚
It has been a huge year for us so far. With the Rheal community, business and workforce growing rapidly - we'd love to update you on our Rheal B Corp Impact Report for 2024.
Here are just a handful of our B Corp highlights and key takeaways from the past year, to show what we have achieved 👇
Charitable Contributions 🌳
We have partnered with Ecologi to plant one tree for every order placed at Rheal - and we are over the moon to have reached a huge milestone of over 600,000 trees planted so far.
Over the last 12 months, we have planted trees in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Kenya.
Not only that, but Rheal is ranked #7 on Ecologi's Business Leadership Board 2024 🎉
Energy Usage ⚡️
In 2024 we have met our impact goal to get all of our electricity from solely renewable sources. We have entered into a new contract from 01.03.2024, which is 100% Zero Carbon.
We also continue to monitor our monthly usage of electricity. We have motion sensors in all areas of the building, making sure that no electricity is wasted with unnecessary lighting - and all of our lighting is provided by energy efficient LEDs.
Our amazing workforce are also super reliable at ensuring all equipment is switched off when not in use, and at the end of the day. It's a Rheal team effort!
Finally, we moved our production facility and shiny new offices into a new building in 2023, which has an energy rating of A (the best score!) Our Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is available to view here.
Reducing Waste 💧
Waste is such a huge problem for the environment, and is something which most businesses in the food industry sadly contribute to.
In a huge effort to reduce our own waste and improve sustainability, we record all waste and review this every 6 months.
And absolutely no water consumption is used in our production processes - not a drop!
Reducing our Carbon Footprint ♻️
Since moving into our new warehouse we have been able to increase the wagon size for our Royal Mail & DPD collections. Larger vehicles and fewer collections = a reduced carbon footprint 🙌
In addition to this, both service providers have stringent sustainability policies in place, with aims to become Net Zero Carbon Businesses by 2040. More on this below!
Supply Chain Transparency 🏭
We continue to ensure that all of our suppliers are compliant with our Rheal Code of Conduct, and this year we will be taking a deep dive into their organisational sustainability policies.
Just one great example of the impact of our supply chain is with our new contract for the 2024 supply of Baobab pulp.
Our business is supporting a number of communities in Ghana including the FairWild Foundation and the Great Green Wall Sourcing Challenge.
By responsibly sourcing our Baobab pulp we can help contribute to amazing projects such as land regeneration and tackling environmental issues like desertification.
You can learn more about these projects by watching these short videos:
🍿 The Inspiring possibility of Baobab
🍿 Baobab & the Great Green Wall of Africa
Team Rheal & our Employee Community 👯
Last but by no means least is our focus on looking after the health and happiness of our incredible (and ever-growing) team!
Just like last year, we continue to provide private health care and mental health support for all employees. This is an invaluable resource to ensure our staff have all they need to look after both their physical and mental wellbeing.
This year we have also focused on improving our Maternity & Paternity policies, to support our team on their journey to become parents - as well as welcome them back to the team and provide ongoing support for their new family 🫶
And when we say Happy Friday, we mean Happy Friday - that means early finishes for all of our warehouse team at the end of the week, a huge thank you for their mega efforts every single week 💚
Our Rheal Future as a Certified B Corp 🚀
B Corp values are something we have now incorporated into every aspect of our business, aligned with Rheal's core principles and goals.
With every new product, supplier, customer, team member and much more - we continuously review how we can do better for you, for the planet, for the community and for our employees.
2024 is set to be our biggest year yet - so we can't wait to share with you what B Corp achievements we will have made this time next year 🥳
