Jeuneora: Our journey to become a Certified B Corporation

We’re so proud to announce that we’re B Corp Certified! We officially became a B Corp business in August 2022, joining a small group of skincare brands (less than 10 companies) to hold the distinction in New Zealand. This certification recognises our holistic approach to sustainability and commitment to continuous improvement so we can leave a positive impact on the environment, our community, our customers and our employees. 

What is a Certified B Corporation?

B Corp Certified businesses are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. The certification is administered by B Lab, a global non-profit network, that creates definitive standards for businesses to measure their impact across 5 impact areas: Workers, Customers, Governance, Environment, and Community. Being B Corp Certified is an outward display to the world that your business is making tangible, measurable efforts to continuously improve your entire social and environmental performance.

Why is being a Certified B Corporation important in the sustainable beauty industry?

The personal care and beauty industry doesn’t always have the best reputation when it comes to sustainability due to concerns around unsustainable packaging, formulation safety, treatment of workers throughout the supply chain, and overall environmental impact. For example: it’s estimated that the beauty industry as a whole generates up to 120 billion units of plastics packaging per year*.

While it’s heartening to see that so many businesses are becoming more aware of the issues in the industry and making more sustainable choices, greenwashing is rife. It’s very common for businesses to make bold claims and tell consumers “we're sustainable” but not provide the detail or the transparency to back that up. We’re big believers of sustainability being more of a journey, rather than a destination - there’s always more that can be done! So we wanted to work with an unbiased, internationally-recognised third party like B Lab to validate the work we’ve done so far and keep us on the right track as we grow.

Jeuneora founder, Monique Kaminski says that B Corp certification gives consumers trust and confidence to purchase more sustainably-minded products.

“B Corp certification is a big deal. It means we join a global community that includes the likes of Allbirds and Patagonia that have been certified by B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Currently, there are only around 5300 certified B Corps globally, and we’re extremely proud to be one of them.

As a young company that was created with sustainability as a founding principle, this certification not only recognises the work that we have done so far, but also helps keep us honest and provides a road map for how we can continually increase our efforts to do better as we grow.”

B Corp Certification: How did we do it?

After initially looking into B Corp in 2020, we knew we needed to do more so we got to work on launching a range of sustainability initiatives, before starting the assessment process in July 2021. In order to become certified, businesses must achieve a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above - In August 2022 we became certified with a final score of 97.

Once certified, businesses are required to undergo the verification process every three years meaning that gaining B Corp certification is not just about ticking a box - it’s all about continuous improvement in how we support and engage workers, customers and communities; and how we affect environmental systems. According to our founder, Mon, that continuous improvement is a cornerstone of the brand:

“Being a sustainable business has always been important to me, so when I started Jeuneora in 2016 I asked myself what my non-negotiables were: to formulate and manufacture locally and to use sustainably-sourced marine collagen (a by-product of the fishing industry) as my hero ingredient.

After that it was a case of constant education and keeping my eye on new innovations and initiatives and making improvements whenever I could. I realised early on that my foil-lined pouches were unable to be recycled, so in 2017 I made the switch to 100% recyclable plastic containers made in New Zealand and that was really just the beginning for us”

The ethical practices that allowed us to become a B Corp

That packaging change in 2017 was just the first step of many for Jeuneora.

Here are just a few of the initiatives that we’re most proud of:

• 100% Sugarcane Plastic supplement containers

• Using GMP/MPI-certified manufacturers

• Saying no to animal testing for our skincare range

• Being a Living Wage certified employer

• Guaranteed recycling through the Jeuneora Recycling Programme.

• Giving back $1 to charity with every order made

• Using Fairtrade Cocoa in Beauty Sleep

• Ethically and sustainably-sourced ingredients

• Using 20% recycled plastic in skincare packaging

Conscious beauty for the Jeuneora community

For Mon, bringing our Jeuneora customers along on this sustainability journey has been one of the most rewarding parts of the process.

“Starting a business is tough. Making sure that business keeps people and the environment at the heart of everything it does is even tougher. But, having customers that recognise and support your progress in the sustainable beauty space makes all of the challenges even more worth it.

We’ve already got big goals of what we’re going to achieve and change over the next 3 years before our next certification round - I can’t wait to share more of our sustainability journey with our Jeuneora community!”

View our B Corp Impact Score

You can find out more about B Corp and how we scored by clicking here.

*https://greenbusinessbureau.com/industries/environmental-sustainability-in-the-beauty-industry-key-areas-for-beauty-brands-to-tackle/