We’re Proudly a Certified B Corporation!
But what does it mean? Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. B Corps are audited every 3 years and the process involves looking (deeply) into every single aspect of the business. It’s a community of leaders wanting to use business as a force for good!
Why did we become a B Corp?
We had heard from others that it was the most comprehensive and credible form of certification out there – the B Corporation framework assesses every single area of your business. How you interact with your Community, Suppliers, Customers, Team, Environment, and your Governance. Our team were amazed at the level of detail the assessment covers; literally no stone is left unturned! We wanted to be held accountable to the highest possible standard and B Corp seemed like the right path to go down. The entire process took nearly 2 years, so we were thrilled to be the first yoghurt company in New Zealand to become a Certified B Corporation – with a total score of 96.7! We had our second audit in 2023 and lifted our score up even higher to 111.2. Our goal for our next audit is to achieve over 120+ points – another step on our journey of lifting the vibe and doing business better.
RFC was named one of B Corp’s ‘Best for the World 2022’ companies!
Out of 5,000 Certified B Corporations worldwide, Raglan Food Co was named one of the ‘Best for the World’ companies in the Environment impact area for 2022. Making the top 5 percent as a relatively small business is no small feat, and the team was stoked to see our environmental efforts being recognised!
Raglan Food Co:
NZ’s First Toitū Carbon Zero Certified Yoghurt Company — Now Climate Positive!
Global headlines are increasingly highlighting the urgency of the climate crisis, and back in 2018 we decided it was time to take action. We realised that the only way things will get better is if businesses start taking responsibility for the emissions they create.
We have worked with Toitū Envirocare, a government-owned environmental certifications company, over the past four years, gathering data about our operations and measuring our emissions in all areas of the business, including freight, fuel, and power usage. We had our first independent audit in July 2019 and received our Carbon Zero certification! The Toitū Envirocare Carbon Zero programme is accredited by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) and was the world’s first to be accredited under ISO 14065. Its certification mark is recognised in over 60 countries through the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). In 2023 we decided to go the next step further and become one of only a small number of companies in NZ to achieve Climate Positive certification. This means that in addition to offsetting our total carbon footprint, we also contribute 25% more carbon credits on top, and must demonstrate that we have active programs in place to assist with a social & environmental response to climate change. We are taking action in these areas with our RFC Community Fund and our RFC Vibe Lifter awards.
A Road-map for the Future
Toitū Envirocare helped us put together a road-map for the future, setting realistic targets for reduction and improvements.
Our carbon footprint from April 2022 – March 2023 was a total of 302 tonnes. By far our largest contributor to this total (149 tonnes) was the freight required to get our yoghurt delivered to supermarkets in chilled trucks. We are looking forward to the day when electric and green hydrogen-fuelled trucks will be widely adopted by freight companies – trial trucks are running now with Big Chill, the main freight company we use, it’s good to see there is some progress being made in this area. Our next highest carbon area comes from the sea-freight of getting our coconut cream over to us from Indonesia, so we’re excited about the possibility of electric cargo-ships in the future. Once you factor in the carbon-sequestering existence of the approx. 50,000 coconut trees required for our main ingredient, it’s still a much more environmentally-friendly option than using cow’s milk.
How we aim reduce our absolute scope emissions
The rest of our emissions mainly come from waste (packaging that ingredients & labels etc come in, not product waste – any extra yoghurt gets donated to charity), car usage, and electricity usage. We have developed a GHG emissions management plan and reduction targets, and aim to reduce our absolute Category 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 46% by 2025.
Since 2019 we have fully offset our emissions with carbon credits in projects that include carbon sequestering in Puhoi, Kurinui, Pigeon Bush, and Rangitoto Station forest reserves here in Aotearoa New Zealand, and supporting wind farm and Fair Trade certified solar-powered oven initiative for families in Africa, India and China who want to lower their dependence on coal & dirty fuels.