A blog series. Read part one.

What prompted us to go for B Corp certification?

In the fall of 2021, Bruce Steinberg, our CEO, reached out to the University of New Hampshire to inquire about any programs or resources they might have to assist businesses who were looking to become more environmentally sustainable. The reply from UNH indicated that they thought their B Impact Clinic might be a good fit for us.

Through this clinic, companies that are working to complete their B Impact Assessment (BIA) are matched with a team of undergraduate students. These students are trained in the BIA and are supported by faculty mentors. The students act as project managers, researchers and consultants to help businesses complete the assessment.

“My first thought after learning about B Corp certification was, wow, that’s really cool! I was interested in becoming a B Corp. I thought it would be a slam dunk, and we’d easily reach 80 points. We are a company with a long history of giving back to our community, and we genuinely care about people, so of course we use our business to do good,” explains Bruce. “But once I dug into the assessment further, I realized that we could use some help. Many of our processes were not formalized in the way that would be required for measurement, so we needed some recommendations for that.”

Designating a B Corp champion and team

After learning that the journey to becoming a certified B Corp can take months or even years, Bruce decided to pull in Amber Trudell, our Director of Supply Chain & Operations, to become our company’s B Corp champion. With her oversight of our supply chain, she’s well-suited to the B Corp mission. Bruce was also impressed with her organizational skills, and he felt she could get a long-term project like this over the finish line.

Amber and Bruce participated in UNH’s B Impact Clinic together, and they were really appreciative of the support and recommendations they received from the students. After the clinic ended, they decided they had enough of a starting point to pull in additional members of the RELYCO team.

That’s where Steph Oeser, Marketing Manager; Dennis Veilleux, Controller; and Kelsey Dexter, Inside Sales Manager, were asked to join in the effort. They represent the communication, financial and training aspects of this undertaking, respectively. With more departments involved, we gain more perspectives, while increasing excitement about our mission.

What have we learned so far?

We’ll share all that we’ve discovered in the next installment of this blog series.