Good is pleased to announce that ecostore has 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 certified factory in New Zealand and the certification now includes its business operations across Australasia.
What’s also epic is that since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, ecostore has donated more than $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 more than 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.
“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,” says Davies. “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:
- to become an accredited Living Wage Employer, the amount needed to be an active citizen in society,
- to provide more circular solutions,
- to offer more products that carry the Environmental Choice New Zealand eco label,
- to enhance sustainability through water reuse in their manufacturing, and
- to reduce the carbon intensity of their operations and increase the use of renewables and offsets.
