Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs

Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs are not only organic, but certified humane. Their hens live good lives, able to strut their stuff and and spread their wings on over 120 small family farms across the United States. Selling over 40 million cartons of eggs every year, they are changing the egg industry for the better.

Check out Pete & Gerry’s website to learn more about them!

If you are a farm looking to partner with Pete and Gerry’s, send them an email at familyfarmteam@peteandgerrys.com

Below are some fun quick videos from Pete & Gerry’s YouTube channel. First up is quick video about their plastic cartons and then a series of videos highlighting their family run farms and some professional athletes that depend on Pete & Gerry’s to fuel them.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Paul Turbeville [0:02]
Everyone has a desire to try to simplify. Sometimes you try to simplify these really complex problems you end up coming to the wrong conclusion.

Benn Marine [0:16]
From Dirigo Collective, this is Responsibly Different. Sharing stories of certified B Corporations and our journey of joining them in leveraging business as a force for good.

I’m Benn Marine. If you’ve ever spent too much time in the egg aisle trying to decide which eggs to buy, I’ve got a B Corp for you. Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs are not only organic, but certified humane. Their hens live good lives able to strut their stuff and spread their wings and over 120 small family farms across the United States. Selling over 40 million cartons of eggs every year, they are changing the egg industry for the better. One quick note before we dive into this interview, we had some connectivity issues. So you may notice a change in audio quality when we moved our conversation to the phone line. Without much further adieu, I give you Paul Turville of Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs.

To start us off, Paul, would you just tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of your journey to Pete and Gerry’s?

Paul Turbeville [1:30]
Sure, yeah, I’m originally from South Carolina. So as my family tells me, I can’t get much further away from them, then northern New Hampshire at this point. You know, grew up there and then was in the military for about six years. And, you know, I think, decided to get out of the military. But I think that was a really powerful experience for me to kind of be part of a an organization with the higher mission and you know, that everyone was excited about and believed in. So I decided to go to business school after after the army and moved up to Hanover, New Hampshire to go to Dartmouth. And my goal was to get into brand managing and marketing ideally for, you know, an organization that I felt strongly about. And it had a very powerful and focused mission. And so I really, you know, it’s kind of a lucky encounter with Jesse, our owner, he came down to Dartmouth for actually a B Corporation, sort of seminar. And he and I connected and found out he was interested in hiring a brand manager and we hit it off and that led to an interview and you know, low and behold, I kind of had my, my dream job, which I originally thought I might have to kind of do a more traditional marketing job for a few years then make the transition but I kind of had this great opportunity and just went right for it. So I started with a company back in 2014.

Benn Marine [2:58]
Tell me a little bit about Pete and Gerry’s themselves, they have a really interesting story, can you share a little bit about how they came about and kind of what they what they do in the world.

Paul Turbeville [3:08]
The company actually started in the early 1950s. Jesse is a third generation owner. He’s our CEO and owner now his grandfather came back from World War Two, was a dive bomber pilot in the Pacific survived and, and came back and it’s a little bit of a family joke, but his brothers had taken over the family dairy farm. So he was sort of looking for something to do, and had this crazy idea that he’d raised chickens instead. And so he started a very small poultry operation in northern New Hampshire in the early 1950s. And was you know, just selling eggs locally to kind of mom and pop retailers in the region. That was really how the business stayed until, you know, the 1970s Jesse’s parents, Gerry, the Gerry of Pete and Gerry’s and Carol who was, Les our founder’s, daughter, they got married and they moved back to the farm and started to help take over things from, from Les. So Jessie, you know, grew up on the farm and around chickens his whole life as he was in high school in the 1990s. That was when things really started to, they’d sort of fully changed in the agricultural scene across the country, but especially in New England. New England used to have a real large network of family egg farms that was a big egg, egg producing region. But those family operations had been, you know, by and large, put out of business and replaced with large factory farms. By the mid 90s we were competing with a large operation in Maine with about 6 million hens in one location, and another big facility down in Connecticut with over 3 million hens. And here we were in northern New Hampshire with 70,000 hens trying to do this, this different model and it just wasn’t working and so Jesse’s parents had the sort of foresight to say we’ve got to pivot the business and try something different. And so they made the switch to organic in 1997. You know, they were a little bit ahead of the sort of wave of organic trends in the US, but really, that move helped sort of established the company and the brand as a better for you product and has sort of been the base of growth for us, you know, from which we’ve, we’ve grown. Jesse came back in 2000, has been really a driving sort of force from an entrepreneurial standpoint with the company.

Benn Marine [5:35]
So kind of circling back to that. So in addition to being organic Pete and Gerry’s is also humanely certified, which is really kind of cool, and I think very different to from just being organic, or is it kind of all in the same vein.

Paul Turbeville [5:49]
Well, you know, I wish I could tell you that the category was a little bit more simple and easier to understand because I know it’s really, you know, you can kind of be standing in front of all of the eggs and trying to figure out what all these certifications mean. But by and large, so organic does have an animal welfare component to it. But, you know, we we chose to go with the certified humane certification because basically, there’s not a whole lot that consumers can sort of cling on to and trust as far as welfare certifications go. And so we want to go gold standard and have a clear third party validation that, you know, when we say that our birds are outside on free range, it actually means that they are, they’re sort of a validation auditing process. You know, it’s sort of similar to becoming a B Corporation, but on the animal welfare side. And so that’s why we partnered with them and 2003 we were actually the first egg operation in the US to achieve that certified humane.

Benn Marine [6:46]
That’s awesome. And I’m curious with that, how has the brand been able to scale? I mean, it was wild. I went to the website and I was looking for places where you could purchase your eggs and like literally everywhere like even Alaska and Hawaii. So how keeping this kind of organic and humanely treating the hens center, have you been able to scale and hold true to that vision and mission of being organic, free range, non GMO and all of the things?

Paul Turbeville [7:14]
Sure, yeah. So going all the way back to, you know, the initial transition to organic and free range in 1997. That was a big pivot. Like I said, we were really a little bit ahead of sort of the consumer trends. In 2001, the USDA launched the National Organic program, which took basically a bunch of state by state organic regulations and sort of unified them under a national program. And so that was when we got the USDA Organic seal and consumers kind of started to become trained to look for that seal as proof that the product was organic. You know, Jesse came back to the farm and started to get involved in early 2000s he and his dad we’re very deliberate about both building for the foundation from a systems and infrastructure standpoint, and also thinking hard about our, our overall business model. And so, you know, when we finally started to experience a little bit of growth, the first thing we did like a lot of farms is we added some production to our own farm. So we added a few more barns that we could service a few more customers. And then we started to grow even more, and Jessie and his dad sort of realized that, you know, with that model, we quickly become sort of the organic version of, of what nearly put us out of business. And so they decided to try to find a different way to scale and grow actually in 2003, as well, that was when we started this new model of partnering with small family farms. And so we entered into a long term contract with a farmer down in Pennsylvania who’s actually still producing for us to this day, and, you know, so we basically guaranteed him fixed price for all of his eggs, for a period of probably initial period of about five years that allowed him to make the investment he needed to make and securing financing he needed to make the, you know, upgrades and barn and that sort of thing. And so that model we started to build, really since then we’ve sort of expanded that model. And so were over 100 family farms at this point, you know, I think we put ourselves in a position in the sort of 2000, 2012 time period where we’re figuring out how this model works, establishing a reputation in our sort of core market with farmers in our network, so that when it came time to really start to grow even more aggressively, we were ready to do that from an operational standpoint, and from a farming standpoint.

Benn Marine [9:47]
And with the partnership with the family farms, can you kind of walk us through how you find those partners and kind of what those relationships look like in terms of support or even quality control.

Paul Turbeville [10:00]
Absolutely, yeah, we joke that every time we bring on a farmer, it’s like, we’re getting married. Because we’re really, we’re in it ideally for, you know, forever. That’s our goal. So it’s a big long term commitment up front. A lot of that is just vetting the farmer and their family. You know, we like for the farmers to be committed to doing all the work on the farm themselves. They we don’t prohibit them from hiring out work. But certainly our goal and especially as they’re getting off the ground is they’re doing all all the work so they understand how everything works and what our standards and requirements are. We have technicians who visit the farm about every two weeks, they’re sort of there to make sure first and foremost that the farmer is successful and the hens are well taken care of and to troubleshoot any problems that they would have. But also just to make sure that our standards are being upheld at all times. And then we have a whole series of sort of other audit inspections that happen whether that be through our own auditing team, or certified humane, or USDA Organic, but really, you know, if we make the right partnerships up front, it’s usually quite seamless. And and, and so we spend a lot of time vetting farmers upfront, you know, little things like when we visit their farm for the first time, is it neat and orderly, everything sort of, you know, in shipshape and that way because caring for hens is very, very detail oriented. There are a lot of sort of small systems that help the barns run, help keep ventilation going, keep the waterline for the hens to drink and the feeders for them to eat. And so really, it requires, I think, beyond anything, a really good attention to detail in addition to work ethic. And so those are two things that were really kind of trying to trying to get a good feel for when we are evaluating a farmer up front.

Benn Marine [11:53]
And now if there’s a farmer, maybe even listening to this, that’s like, Oh my gosh, that’s so cool. I would love to partner with Pete and Jerry’s. How would they go about reaching out and contacting you? Or is it that you all go out scouting for farms?

Paul Turbeville [12:07]
Um, it’s a little bit of both. I mean, I think, you know, unlike dairy farming, unfortunately, egg farming in the US, you know, it’s sort of organic didn’t quite come along soon enough to save family farming. Overall, the egg industry is highly concentrated consolidated around factory farming. So the norm is, you know, large, I would use air quotes around farm because they’re really more of a factory but large operations that are corporately owned, with five, sometimes up to 10 million hens in one location all in cages producing eggs at the lowest cost possible. And that’s obviously not our model. And so, you know, but but that that model is so efficient that it really pushed almost all family egg operations out of business, before the USDA Organic program came along. So a lot of times we’re working with someone who maybe grew up on a dairy farm that struggled or gone out, and they’re looking for something new and, and viable for the long term that they can do on their family farm. And so they say a lot of times we’ll have an agricultural background, but not necessarily a poultry farming background. In some ways, that’s great, because they haven’t learned any bad habits. You know, with the help of our technicians, we can sort of show them the ropes quickly and bring them on board with the way that that we do things and the way that we take care of our hens, but we, you know, we’ve kind of over the years, we’ve established a reputation different communities that we work in. And so honestly, we have a waiting list of probably over 100 farmers at this point who’ve told us, you know, as soon as you have an opportunity, I’m ready to invest to build the barn and come on board to produce with you. And we also just have great success stories of folks who are completely new to farming so decided to buy a piece land and, you know, kind of gone through our, our vetting process figured out that they’re serious and they really know what they’re getting into and, and those new farmers without an agricultural background, have been extremely successful as well. So it’s a little bit of a mix, yeah and we’re always open to Farmer inquiries. So you can go to PeteandGerrys.com and find the link there. Or just email us at familyfarmteam@peteandgerrys.com either one of those, and we’d be happy to sort of add you to the list and talk to you about opportunities as they arise.

Benn Marine [14:34]
That’s great. And I know that kind of shifting gears a little bit in May of 2013, you all became a B Corp. And were the first egg producer to do so. Can you share with us a little bit about what went into the decision to become a B Corp and how long it took to get certified from the time you decided to pursue it?

Paul Turbeville [14:53]
Sure. You know, I think we were really excited a lot with with some of the founding B Corporations, companies that we, you know, look up to and aspire to be like, and so I think it leads to… as B Corp sort of came onto our radar that was a big driver for us just to become aware of, of what it was. And, you know, as a company, we’re sort of doing all of these great things for our farmers, for the environment, for animals, for our workers. And we were having a really hard time, I think, sort of trying to explain that to consumers and the our retail buyers who want to present our item to be carried in a store. And so we felt like B Corporation first and foremost was just a nice way to kind of capture all of those things that we’re doing, in a trusted sort of seal of approval. And then I think, you know, almost, as importantly, was, we really were looking to join a community that would, that we would learn from and that would push us to become even better. And so I think that’s an aspect we’ve really enjoyed. Just honestly the certification process, it gives you a really nice sort of rubric to both grade yourself, but also like, figure out, what are the areas that you can make improvements on. So, you know, if you only have so much time to spend on it, like it sort of self prioritizes like, okay, here’s where we can spend some time and make the biggest impact on our score. But more importantly, on the type of company we are. So we’ve really enjoyed that aspect as well. It’s the sort of metric metrics behind it.

Benn Marine [16:29]
And when you did decide to become a B Corp, were there areas where you had to make some big changes in order to certify and if so, what were they and how did how did you navigate through that?

Paul Turbeville [16:41]
Sure. Yeah, I think, um, I think initially some of the biggest areas that we had to make improvements on were on the benefits side for our employees. I think we had a program in place that we felt was like competitive with the local market, but I think what the B Corp community sort of showed, showed us through that process is like, wow, there are companies out there that are doing a lot more for their employees. And so it was nice because we kind of could pick and choose from what we’re seeing in the community and what the folks at B Labs recommended to us. And like I said it, it sort of improved our score. Yes. But it also, like, more importantly, it just gave us a very quick and easy way to focus our energy on where we could have the biggest impact. You know, I think a lot of smaller companies like ourselves, we don’t have a full time sustainability officer, its sort of something that we all work on out of passion. And so we’ve got for other jobs that also occupy our time. And so I think, the B Corp community, the process of certification really helps you focus in on where you can have an impact quickly.

Benn Marine [17:49]
Have you found that you’ve had a lot of partnerships or that you’ve had a lot of guidance from other B Corps?

Paul Turbeville [17:54]
I think both guidance and just inspiration, probably equal parts, those two things, you know, I think we have a really strong group of B Corps in New England, especially, and I think we’ve got it just a great sense of community, obviously, we, you know, tend to have at least one to two events a year together as a group of New England B Corps. And that’s, you know, just a great opportunity for us to talk about emerging trends and issues that we’re dealing with, and think through how we want to respond and how we can do better as companies. So I think that’s been great. You know, I think our HR team has made contact with other HR teams from other B Corporations to help think through benefit changes for you know, what exactly we want to offer and that sort of thing. So I do think, you know, from a community standpoint, that’s been great. And then B Labs are always there, as the backbone. If you’ve got a more technical question, or just looking for, like, a way to connect with more resources, I think, you know, they’re always available to help with that.

Benn Marine [19:01]
I’m curious who some of your big B Corp inspirations have been?

Paul Turbeville [19:05]
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, our friends across the river in Vermont, at Ben and Jerry’s. You know, we’ve always, we kind of joke, we do eggs, not ice cream, but sometimes people get us confused with Ben and Jerry’s, but they’ve been a big inspiration for us. And, you know, their willingness to really be an active voice on controversial and, you know, political issues and take a stand, I think, is an inspiration to all of us. Obviously, Patagonia, you know, as a company, I think we all look up to and probably spend too much money in their catalog. Great, great, folks. And I think, you know, it’s amazing that the times that we’ve interacted with folks from Patagonia, it seems like I mean, they always sort of live up to all of your hopes for what that company is about. So they’re, I think they’re a huge inspiration to us. Those are probably the the, main ones, but there’s so many great companies in the community it’s hard to hard to pick just a couple.

Benn Marine [20:03]
And I’m curious, do you think and, you know, you mentioned Ben and Jerry’s, you know, thinking of Ben and Jerry’s is this huge brand, you also are a large brand. How has that scale impacted your B Corp status, or has it? Do you think it would be kind of the same? Whether you’re large or small, the same kind of struggles? Or?

Paul Turbeville [20:23]
Yeah, it’s a good question. We certainly got a ways from a growth standpoint, to catch up with Ben Jerry’s, but you know, I do think using our company as a platform to kind of grow awareness of the B Corp community as a whole. You know, we sell 10s of millions of cartons of eggs a year, you know, with the vote every day campaign that B Corporation ran, we sort of took that idea and leveraged it into artwork on the inside of our egg carton. And it said, vote with your yoke is is the tagline we used, but it was an educational piece on what it means to be a B Corporation And sort of leveraging that idea of, you can vote with your, with your wallet. And it just was we got such great feedback, both on sort of our creative, but also, I think more importantly on folks who didn’t really understand what it meant to be a B Corporation and helped them understand it. You know, I think just collectively, the more that we can do to build awareness around what it means to be a certified B Corporation is gonna serve us all, certainly in the long run.

Benn Marine [21:28]
That’s so awesome. That’s really, really cool. And now kind of jumping over speaking about scores, because you touched on it a little bit earlier. I know when you got certified in 2013, you had a B Corp score of 84.4. And now you have a score of 108.2. What did it take to get there and to make that score jump so much?

Paul Turbeville [21:48]
Yeah, great question. You know, I keep going back to the sort of framework of impact assessment and you know, before we had that framework we were sort of just doing what sort of made sense to us is the right thing to do, but really didn’t have anything to evaluate it off of or compare to, I think just bringing those metrics in and sort of giving us a baseline. And we’re really excited, obviously, that we were able to certify right out of the gate. We didn’t have to do anything, just to sort of meet the threshold, but we obviously wanted to get better. And so after that initial assessment, we had sort of a, we developed a roadmap there on the areas where we saw a big room for improvement on that was on the environmental side, everything from the power that we were buying, and the way that we were trucking our eggs to the benefit side. You know, as we’ve grown, we’re up to about 240 employees at this point, I think our our benefits that we offer and the type of workplace that we’ve become, you know, become a tremendous asset for us as a company. But you know, it went back to like before you can do anything you have to measure I think, just measuring really helped us figure out the right path forward for making improvements.

Benn Marine [23:04]
And that was one of the things that I was talking with ReVision Energy about was tracking because that’s where we, you know, we’re at Dirigo Collective, we’re working to get our B Corp certification. And that’s that tracking part has been a tough one. Do you have any advice around getting started with like measuring and tracking?

Paul Turbeville [23:21]
Yeah, and especially if you’re, like, you know, this is not going to be the full time job of, of one person, I think, which is where a lot of companies find themselves is really just sort of sitting down as a group and dividing out what needs to be measured, in fact, assigning those things and assigning responsibility for it. That’s been really helpful for us. And it made the sort of recertification process a lot more easy because, you know, some of those have just become standard metrics for us now, so that it’s not a big list when it comes time to recertify. Pull that information together and to load it in the assessment. It’s gone from you know, the first time that was a lot of work to kind of pull it all together. And now, I won’t say recertifying is easy, but it’s certainly a lot easier than it was initially.

Benn Marine [24:11]
What do you think have been some of your most rewarding experiences as a B Corp?

Paul Turbeville [24:16]
You know, I love the retreat. I think the annual retreats have been I personally, I’ve gotten a lot out of them. And then I think even more importantly, we’ve, over the years have started to really try to include different employees, you know, it’s sort of a, an opportunity for them to go and learn about it, come back, excited to implement changes within their department. I think that’s been really nice to see. So it’s almost become the sort of competition of who gets to go to the retreat. So that that’s been great. And then like I said, I think the third, national community is amazing. And then just to have such a powerful group of regional B Corps that work even more closely together, you know, for events and for inspiration and to bounce ideas off of and work through problems. That that sense of community has been really, really useful and inspiring.

Benn Marine [25:10]
I’m so curious about that retreat. Is that something that Pete and Gerry’s puts on internally? Or is it something that B Corp does?

Paul Turbeville [25:18]
Oh, no. So the national retreat every year, I’m not actually I’m not really sure on what’s plan, probably going to be virtual this year, but it’s in a different city every year. It’s just, you know, an opportunity for really the entire B Corp community to come together. A lot of great keynote speakers. A lot of great workshop and sessions, and just socializing and networking among like minded companies and and individuals.

Benn Marine [25:45]
That sounds so cool. That’s awesome. Um, what advice do you have for other businesses that are thinking about becoming a B Corp?

Paul Turbeville [25:54]
Great question. I think, you know, like a lot of things. I think the idea of certifying, going through the assessment is more daunting and challenging than actually doing it. And so I just would encourage everyone to start to, you know, stop, stop thinking about it and just start working on the assessment. And, you know, I can guarantee you that even if even if you give up and don’t get through it, you’re still going to get value out of just the process of starting it. Because you’ll start to ask yourself some really important questions about what you’re measuring how you’re going about things, but that would probably be the big one. You know, it sounds rigorous, and it is, it is rigorous, but it’s also very achieveable. And I know everyone is stretched for bandwidth and their their day job busy, but I think it’s one of those things where you can dedicate, you know, an hour a week to it, and you’ll be through it before you even know it.

Benn Marine [26:53]
Yeah, that’s true. And I think that’s such a great point to that. Or at least we have found that even just asking those questions, Because they do go so deep, that like, oh shoot, like, we thought we were doing really well in this one category like, oh, I hadn’t even thought of this other bit that the the assessment brings up. So it is definitely a really, really enriching process for sure. I think every step along the way. thinking about Pete and Gerry’s and kind of the overarching mission, what would you say is the overall goal of the company and how has achieving B Corp status helped towards that end?

Paul Turbeville [27:27]
Yeah, I mean, I think we’re a consumer driven company. So for us it’s, you know, our goal is to produce the most delicious, high quality organic and free range eggs possible. And so we sort of obviously start from there with the consumer. But I think for us, what we’ve figured out is, the way to do that is, you know, the focus that we have on our employees, our workplace, on the environment, on the family farmers that make everything possible. And so that sort of holistic focus and using B Corporation as a way to measure and track and make improvements within that, it ends up serving our highest goal of satisfying consumers and giving them a great product. You know, I think a lot of companies would find, if they start with the consumer and think about what the consumer wants and the product they want to deliver, becoming a B Corporation will really help them in all aspects of achieving that.

Benn Marine [28:25]
So you all package your eggs in plastic, which, which I had always assumed wasn’t the greatest but that actually you guys have done studies that show that it is actually the probably the most environmentally safe way to do that. Can you speak a little bit to that?

Paul Turbeville [28:42]
Yeah, for sure. And it’s funny because like you said, I mean, we meet all of these, all of these sort of check boxes for a consciencious consumer. We’re certified organic, we’re certified humane, we’re certified B Corporation, and then they look at the plastic and they sort of scratch their head and I think for us figuring out how to communicate that has been a challenge. I think we’re continuing to sort of experiment and iterate there. But it’s one of the cases where I think everyone comes in with a sort of pre-conception of what is sustainable and what isn’t. We really wanted to get to the bottom of let’s actually answer this question, what carton is available for us would be the best choice for the environment. And so we, in conjunction with our packaging vendor fielded a lifecycle analysis that looked at styrofoam was clear loser in the in the competition, and then also recycled old fiber, which would be you know, what we call a pulp carton which is fairly common, and then recycled PET carton for a whole host of reasons. But the biggest being the process of drying recycled paper, basically take this wet flurry of ground up newspaper and dry it in a natural gas oven in a mold and that process is extremely energy intensive and carbon intensive. And so even though it’s good intention from a recycling standpoint, when you compare greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas, the recycled plastic carton actually wins out in that sort of head to head. So that was why we went with that choice. Obviously, you know, consumers have a big impact on on the environmental impact of either of those cartons, they do need to be recycled. So if you don’t recycle it, you’re not helping anyone. But you know, PET is the most widely accepted plastic in the country as far as recycling goes, and a lot of folks you know, kind of struggle with that. But I think it all starts with like, think about all the bottles of water and bottles of soda and all of those things, which typically are using virgin plastic that are out there. You know, if you don’t want those to end up in a landfill, or God forbid, in the ocean, we need viable options for those bottles to become to kind of have a second life. And so our egg carton is a great way for for those bottles to have a second life. So it is one where we applied data and we stuck to our guns. We try as best as we can to engage and educate with, with consumers and with people who have asked questions. It’s a little bit of an uphill challenge, but but we really believe in that carton.

Benn Marine [31:14]
That’s great. And thank you for, for walking us all through that.

Paul Turbeville [31:19]
Yeah, I think it’s a challenge that we all face, when it comes to sustainability and sort of just these complex issues that I think, you know, in this day and age is everyone has a desire to try to simplify. Sometimes when you try to simplify these really complex problems, you end up coming to the wrong conclusion, and so that it’s not as simple as, you know, paper, good, plastic bad. And you could apply that to sort of a ton of different avenues than sustainability. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, you’ve got to apply science data and really try to make a well reasoned decision and that’s what we try to do with our carton.

Benn Marine [32:06]
Thank you so much for joining us. Definitely check out Pete and Gerry’s website. That’s PeteandGerrys.com, follow them on social and join their email list so you can learn about when they’re doing farm tours. Yes, I know, they do farm tours, too cool. Though during COVID that may have slowed, but you can still check out their farms online and be ready for when they bring those tours back. As always, I have all the links in the show notes, which you can find at responsiblydifferent.com. If you’re enjoying this podcast, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen and leave us a review. In Episode Two, I posed the question which is better buying from a small local business that is not a B Corp, or buying from a B Corp that is not local. This all in the context of the dog bed I bought from a B Corp called Pet PLAY out in San Francisco. And a few of you wrote in and gave some great thoughts that I wanted to share. The overarching response is that 1. It’s COVID times so most stuff is shipping anyway. And B Corps are more likely to have a greener way of shipping and distributing the non B Corps. And it’s about voting with your dollars, support B Corps to inspire more small local companies to become B corps. If you have a local shop that you love that isn’t a B Corp, ask them if they’ve ever thought about it. And update on that dog bed by the way, it’s shipped from New Jersey, so it didn’t even have to come all the way across the country. A quick update on our B Corp journey. We’ve had three committee meetings now where the six of us (and it’s open to anyone on the team) come together to share updates and progress as we work our way through the assessment as a team thinking about how we can track different metrics and policies we can implement. I think we’re figuring out a flow. We’ve essentially broken down to three partner groups. And we’re going through the assessment in chunks. We started in the section about community, which brought up some really great questions about hiring practices, investing in local suppliers and as much as we can thinking about how we track all of those metrics and the policies that we could implement to support them. Stay tuned to future episodes, we’ll share some templates of the trackers we build as we build them to help you track your data as well. When thinking about hiring best practices and keeping an eye on diversity and inclusion, I reached out to a true expert. So next time on responsibly different I talk with Sarah Marcus, who is the director of open hiring at Greyston Bakery. And yes, that’s the Greyston that makes all the delicious brownies for Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

Sara Marcus [34:32]
Companies spend a lot of money screening people out, it’s a several billion dollar industry, background checks, credit checks, all of those kinds of barriers to employment that don’t necessarily serve their intended purpose.

Benn Marine [34:56]
We’re all in this together. Till next time, be responsibly different.

This is a production of Dirigo Collective. Music composed by our own Kevin Oates. You can follow us on social media @dirigocollective or visit our corner of the internet at dirigocollective.com

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