Damien here, Co Founder & CEO of THE PACK. Today, I am delighted to share with you that THE PACK is Europe’s first plant-based pet food startup to become a certified B Corporation. 

To those of you who know myself and my Co-Founder Judy Nadel, it will come as little surprise this is something we wanted to pursue for THE PACK from the moment we incorporated the company.

We have long been passionate about tackling the climate crisis and through our work with our previous startup Vevolution, we have made our mission to showcase those businesses putting the planet first. 

When it comes to pet food and transparency of brands, we see a fair number of rather spurious claims being made by some fellow plant-based pet food startups, but also many other more established brands around their sustainability credentials. 

It was important to become a certified B Corp so that customers know they can trust THE PACK. Being a B Corp means that THE PACK is held to high environmental standards of verified social and environmental performance.

So when we say, we are a mission driven company, or we care about the environment or have good governance, we can back this up through our B-Corp Certification as we have been externally assessed and will continue to be reassessed every 3 years.

Becoming a B Corp is just the crowning moment of our sustainability journey to-date, THE PACK launched with plastic free packaging back in 2021 and we are today launching our new Oven Baked Dried Food in FSC certified paper packaging. As a team we are constantly looking at how we can do things in a more efficient and sustainable way whilst offering our customers (and pupstomers) products they love.

Quality and sustainability are sometimes difficult to provide in cohesion for small companies and startups. There is a demand to turn a profit, provide incredible products, provide quick delivery  and to do all without being at the cost of the planet. For us at THE PACK, the sustainably led way was the only way to try and do things as a brand. 

If you’re a Founder, thinking of becoming a B Corporation yourself please reach out to myself or Judy. Over the years we have been inspired by many other B Corps run by people we are fortunate to know like JP at allplants, Damian and Natalia at Form Nutrition and more recently our lovely friend Ellie at Kinda Co. 

So, You May Be Wondering… What Exactly Is A B Corporation?

The official definition is “Certified B Corporations are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. They meet high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials” (Source: B Corp). More simply put, Certified B Corporations are companies that use business as a force for good by caring about their employees, the environment, and their impact on the world. That means being held accountable for - and being fully transparent about - where we source our ingredients and packaging, how we treat our workers, how we deliver our food to you with the minimum environmental impact, how we manufacture and test our products, and how we use a share of our profits to give back to the community (in THE PACK’s case, by supporting charities close to our heart, like Underdog). 

How Did THE PACK Become A B Corp?

It’s pretty tough to become a Certified B Corp! Companies must go through a rigorous certification process – managed by the not-for-profit organisation, B Lab – which measures their entire social and environmental performance. B Lab takes company size and profile into account, documenting their business model and detailed information about operations, structure, and various work processes. They also review potential public complaints and even make site visits. To apply for B Corp status, you need to be confident as a company that you have nothing to hide, and that you’re doing everything in your power to minimise your environmental impact, treat your employees well and create positive change in the world. 

Specifically, there are five impact areas that each applicant is assessed on:

Governance: This refers to what a company does to enhance policies and practices relevant to its mission, ethics, accountability and transparency. In THE PACK’s case, this means how we make sure we’re creating nutritionally complete ethical dog food that is good for the planet, dogs and other animals, and that we’re being open about how we do this. 

Workers: How a company contributes to their employees’ financial, physical, professional and social well-being. At THE PACK, it’s hugely important to us that the people who work for us are fairly paid, kept safe and experience genuine job satisfaction. That’s why we’ve introduced things like pawternity leave and a dog-friendly office environment, and we try to involve our employees in key decision-making processes too. 

Community: This means what a company does to contribute to the economic and social well-being of the communities in which it operates. As you know, THE PACK’s community of pawrents and their pups is hugely important to us and we’re constantly asking for feedback on how we can meet your needs, whether that be keeping our prices competitive, offering discounts on subscriptions to our food, refining our flavours and ingredients based on your feedback, or offering educational blogs addressing topics you want to know about. Given that plant-based dog diets are still seen as novel and even controversial by some, we’ve made it our mission to create a community which functions as a safe space where you can ask questions and talk with like-minded pawrents. 

Environment: What a company is doing to improve its overall environmental stewardship. Creating pet food that’s kind to the planet as well as dogs’ is at the core of what we do at THE PACK, from being transparent about our carbon impact (and ensuring this is far lower than meat-based alternatives), creating sustainable packaging and educating the wider community about the environmental impact of meat-based pet food. 

Customers: This refers to what a company is doing to improve the value that they create for their direct customers and consumers. Product improvement and innovation is our passion at THE PACK, and we’re constantly striving to enhance and diversify our food to give pawrents and pups more choice, value and benefits. When you told us that your dog often prefers more than just one flavour, we created separate No-Moo Ragu, No-Cluck Casserole and No-Fishy Dishy.. And having launched with wet food in 2021, THE PACK has today fully launched our new Oven Baked Crunchy Feast, the 1st plant-based, oven-baked dried food in Europe!

Below is our Overall B Impact Score, you can view THE PACK’s B Corp status and score in more detail at: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/t-h-e-p-a-c-k-p-e-t/

Why Is B Corp Status Important For THE PACK?

As you can see, we’re passionate about every strand of these business values. Having this now officially recognised with B Corp certification validifies our company ethics, shows that we never greenwash with our claims and makes it clear to our community that we’re an ethically driven brand. 

That’s why THE PACK are so proud to be have become a B Corp, certifying our commitment to people, pups and the planet. We are now the first plant-based pet food company in Europe to be a B Corp and be recognised as a force for good. 

To celebrate, we would love to give you and your pups a special discount on both our wet food & our new, groundbreaking Oven Baked Crunchy Feast. Simply use code BCORP at checkout to receive 25% off your order. Or, you can shop via this link and the discount will be automatically applied for you.