Ecostore’s Balance Of Purpose And Profit Validated By B Corp Certification

New Zealand sustainability leader ecostore, recently met social and environmental standards to achieve B Corporation Certification for its Australasian operations validating its balance of purpose and profit stance. The company creates household, home and body care products at its Toitū carbonzero certified factory in New Zealand and the certification now includes its business operations across Australasia.

Ecostore has never been solely focused on financial performance, also its foundations are built around social wealth creation and environmental responsibility, making the world a safer place, putting people’s health first and giving consumers the choice of products without nasty chemicals.

In a Covid-19 world, doing business with personal and environmental safety the priority, is not the cheapest nor easiest option. But the ecostore team refuse to rest on their laurels when the future of the planet and the health of communities is more pressing than ever.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, ecostore has donated over $600,000 worth of stock to organisations supporting families in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. During the latest COVID-19 lockdown in New Zealand, ecostore donated $10,000 worth of ultra-sensitive and laundry product to David Letele’s Brown Buttabean foodbank to provide basic supplies to families in central Manukau. Across the ditch, ecostore donated $70,000 worth of product to worthy organisations including; Share the Dignity, Sister Works, Kids First, and the Happy Box Project.

The B Corp certification, administered by Standards Analysts at the non-profit B Lab, took ecostore over two years to achieve.

Ecostore group CEO Pablo Kraus says the company’s choice to become B Corp certified was a natural extension of their goal to be the world’s most sustainable home and body care brand. The process towards certification was challenging for the company, however Kraus says it was truly worth it and has been one of their greatest achievements as a team.

“At a time where we’re facing COVID, climate change, challenging economic and social conditions more than ever before, we believe that we must be the change we seek in the world. In achieving B Corp certification, our business is now set up to be more robust and resilient in the future, and we believe this will only strengthen our triple bottom line in the long term.

“We’re not perfect. We have built a global company informally over the last 25 years. We’ve got a lot of products and a complex global supply chain. Our impact is real, and making improvements can be challenging, but we want to continually do better.

“The journey towards certification has helped us formalise a lot of these elements, such as implementing a code of conduct for our supply chain. We are now working towards increasing our score through a process that helps us stay accountable, measure our impact, and chart a course for continuous improvement. This has only solidified our commitment to be better for people and the planet.”

B Lab Australia & New Zealand's CEO, Andrew Davies says they are thrilled to welcome ecostore as a Certified B Corporation and achieving this certification provides third party assurance to their customers.

“Today, ecostore joins the fast-growing community of Certified B Corporations in Aotearoa. We congratulate the ecostore team on living its purpose and continually inspiring others to set the bar high.

“To become a B Corp, ecostore had to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. Seeing more household brands like ecostore make this commitment is a positive sign that purpose-driven business has entered the mainstream.

“By supporting B Corps, people are supporting organisations that are actively working to change the culture of business and our economy. They are making big investments to reduce inequality, design a healthier environment, and create more high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose. It’s up to each of us to think about our daily choices and how we can choose businesses that have made these commitments.”

Ecostore is committed to continually evolving their products to be better, and always with sustainability in mind. They are constantly innovating to reduce their environmental impact, from biodegradable ingredients to carbonzero certified manufacturing, plastic made from sugar cane, launching their own plastic return programme and creating over 200 refill stations to reduce plastic consumption.

Kraus says the company’s next five key priorities are:

1. to become an accredited Living Wage Employer, the amount needed to be an active citizen in society,
2. to provide more circular solutions,
3. to offer more products that carry the Environmental Choice New Zealand eco label,
4. to enhance sustainability through water reuse in their manufacturing, and
5. to reduce the carbon intensity of their operations and increase the use of renewables and offsets.

Notes:

• Ecostore’s manufacturing facility in Auckland has been Toitū carbonzero certified since 2010, offsetting 769 tonnes of carbon since then. Last year, the company expanded the scope of its Toitū carbonnzero certification to all its affiliated sites across Australasia, offsetting 969 tonnes of carbon in 2019. The remaining emissions are offset with high-quality carbon credits sourced from sustainable projects in New Zealand and internationally.
• The manufacturing facility has also maintained an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Certification since 2009, an Enviromark Diamond certification since 2009, and an ISO 9001 Quality Management System Certification in 2018. This inventory reports into the Toitū carbonzero programme.
• Last year saw ecostore launch its own plastic return programme to reduce plastic consumption. The programme has collected 4,600kgs of plastic, which is the equivalent of 83,600 dish liquid 500ml bottles. Seventy two percent of the collected material has been recycled into new bottles, with the remaining twenty eight percent is in various stages of sorting, cleaning and regrinding.
• Last month the company celebrated a milestone of setting up over 200 refill stations globally, in more than 10 countries, to encourage customers to reuse and refill their bottles. These refill stations have saved 275,000 500ml bottles per year, which is also the equivalent of 138,000 1 litre bottles.
• Ecostore’s investment in sugarcane packaging reduces carbon from the atmosphere. Choosing this packaging option removes on average, 121 tonnes of carbon each year from the atmosphere as it grows.

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