ChicoBag Joins B Corp to Help Change the Status Quo and Raise the Bar on Social and Environmental Performance Standards - Mar 05, 2014

CHICO, Calif., Mar. 05 /CSRwire/ - ChicoBag, a leader in reducing single-use disposable plastics with innovative, high-quality reusable products, is proud to announce they are now a certified Benefit Corporation.  After a holistic assessment of their business, ChicoBag became certified with an overall “B Score” of 105 (80 is the median).

ChicoBag, a leader in the reusable bag movement for the last nine years, has been working hard to change the status quo.  They started with a habit-forming, pocket-sized reusable bag, and created the memorable Bag Monster -- a tool which is so effective, it became the target of a 2011 lawsuit from the plastic bag industry.

The company has worked hard to continually inspire change and to raise the bar on testing, quality and environmental standards.  ChicoBag is one of a handful of companies that is able to produce a 100% post-consumer recycled content fabric that can be third party verified as authentic.  ChicoBag products exceed government safety regulations in numerous ways because everyone at the company believes it is the right thing to do.

“We became a B Corp because we wanted to share our long-held business ethics, our standards, and our sustainability practices with the larger world. We are excited to add our voice to the growing community of companies with a mission, and to show the world there is a better way to do business. We hope others are inspired to join us,” said President of ChicoBag, Andy Keller.

ChicoBag is in good company with over 800 Certified B Corporations from more than 60 industries in 27 countries who all share one unifying goal - to redefine success in business. Every B Corp meets higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. Unlike traditional corporations, certified B Corporations are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions not only on their shareholders, but also on their stakeholders (workers, suppliers, community, consumers and the environment).

“We have been considering a B Corp Certification for a few years now because we don’t do business as usual. We compost our food scraps with a flock of company chickens, each employee has a reusable towel instead of using thousands of single-use paper towels, and our zero waste commitment allows us to reduce our headquarters landfill waste to 1-pound per employee, per month. Some would call it strange, we call it good business. The B Lab assessment, in a sense, confirmed what we already knew and gave us areas to focus on and improve,” said Keller.

About ChicoBag
ChicoBag’s mission is to help humanity bag the single-use habit. The wasteful, throw-away habit that overflows our landfills and clogs our oceans. They do this by advocating for waste reduction, and designing the highest quality, longest lasting reusable bags. They offer products that empower people to take an active role in solving the single-use problem. ChicoBag makes bagging the single-use habit easy.  

For more information, visit http://www.chicobag.com/
B Impact Report: http://www.bcorporation.net/community/chicobag-company
Lawsuit Victory: http://www.chicobag.com/settlement-press-release
Advocacy Programs: http://www.bagmonster.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chicobag
Twitter: http://twitter.com/chicobag 

About B Corp
Certified B Corporations meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include consideration of stakeholder interests, and build collective voice through the power of the unifying B Corporation brand. As of September 2013, there are more than 800 Certified B Corporations from over 60 industries and 28 countries, representing a diverse multi-billion dollar marketplace. 

About B Lab
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement to redefine success in business so that all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world. B Lab drives this systemic change through a number of interrelated initiatives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing legislation to accelerate growth of social entrepreneurship and impact investing (12 states have already passed benefit corporation legislation); 3) driving capital to high impact investments through the use of GIIRS Ratings and Analytics (more than 60 investors with over $3B in impact assets under the management use GIIRS); and 4) providing free, powerful tools for businesses to measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance (more than 7,000 businesses use B Lab’s free B Impact Assessment).