Dr. Bronner's Announces Incorporation as a Benefit Corporation and Certification as a B Corp™

VISTA, Calif., Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dr. Bronner's, family-owned maker of the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America, is proud to announce it has incorporated as a Benefit Corporation and certified as a B Corp™. Dr. Bronner's has long promoted high-bar certification as a tool for ensuring integrity with regard to its organic and fair trade products, as well as its non-GMO, vegan and cruelty free ingredients. Alongside membership in the prestigious World Fair Trade Organization, B Corp Certification® validates Dr. Bronner's long-standing commitment to considering the impact of the company's actions on employees, suppliers, communities, consumers, and the environment as a whole. The certification also provides a way to measure the company's contributions toward public benefit, which is now required of the company since becoming a registered Benefit Corporation in the state of California in July 2015.

"Dr. Bronner's has long been committed to promoting and modeling progressive business practices and sustainability programs. This commitment is underscored by our organic and Fair Trade sourcing for raw materials, our generous compensation packages for employees as well as regular high-dollar financial contributions to charitable and activist causes, including fair trade and income inequality, organic integrity and truthful labeling, drug policy reform, animal welfare, and fighting for the re-commercialization of industrial hemp," says David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner's.

Benefit Corporation status gives Dr. Bronner's the legal basis to pursue socially and environmentally driven goals in addition to financial profit, which the company has prioritized since its founding in 1948, rather than the profit-centric focus mandated by other forms of corporate status. There are currently 2,902 Benefit Corporations in the United States and 1,462 Certified B Corps™ in the world. Dr. Bronner's joins an elite group of approximately 150 companies who are both Benefit Corporations and Certified B Corps™.

"Dr. Bronner's chose to become a Certified B Corp™ after legally becoming a Benefit Corporation because the B Corp™ Certification provides a great third-party measurement tool to meet our new performance assessment and transparency requirements as a Benefit Corporation. We believe in the rigor and integrity of the B Impact Assessment model and now we can benchmark our performance against an objective standard and track our improvements over time," says Kris Lin-Bronner, Strategic Advisor and CSR Manager at Dr. Bronner's. "As a Certified B Corp we are now in a more formal alliance with other companies who are committed to modeling ethical and progressive approaches to business. We hope to learn from as well inspire other companies as we continue to pursue our 'All-One' mission in all aspects of our business," continues Lin-Bronner.

To become a Certified B Corp™, B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies B Corps™ and supports companies using business as a force for good, conducted a rigorous evaluation of Dr. Bronner's and determined the company met the comprehensive performance standards to qualify for certification. In this process Dr. Bronner's answered more than 250 questions about its business practices and had those answers verified by B Lab. Dr. Bronner's scored an overall 149 points, compared to the minimum standard needed for certification of 80 points, and the median score for all Certified B Corps™ of 97. To view Dr. Bronner's assessment and score, go to: http://www.bcorporation.net/community/dr-bronners

"I am so excited that we are now both a Benefit Corporation and a Certified B Corp™, since it confirms and validates the model on which we run our business, inspired by the legacy of my grandfather and our company founder," says Michael Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner's.  "As a Benefit Corporation, we now have a legal mandate to use our profits to pursue social and environmental benefits, not just to enrich shareholders like a traditional corporation.  As a Certified B Corp™, we now have third party metrics that help illustrate what those benefits are and how we can continue to improve over time," continues Michael.

For more information on Dr. Bronner's commitments as a Benefit Corporation, view highlights of the company's Articles of Incorporation, at:

http://www.drbronner.com/article_highlights

Benefit Corporations are for-profit companies that pursue profitability alongside social and environmental goals. Benefit corporations are legally bound to generate social benefits through their activities, consider impact to multiple stakeholders in their decision making processes, objectively assess their social and environmental impacts and be transparent about their performance. The directors of Benefit Corporations are accountable to the social benefit goals of the corporation as defined by its articles of incorporation.

B Corp™ Certification is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to orange juice. Certified B Corps™ are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. A company has to meet a minimum performance benchmark aggregated across all categories to become certified. Today, there is a growing community of more than 1,400 Certified B Corps from 42 countries and over 120 industries working together toward 1 unifying goal: to use business as a force for good.

Dr. Bronner's commitment to progressive business practices including promoting sustainable agriculture, corporate accountability, and consumers' right to know is part of the company's mission to put into practice the social and ecological principles that inform Dr. Bronner's philosophy printed on the company's iconic soap labels.

For further information on Dr. Bronner's, please visit: http://www.drbronner.com.

SOURCE Dr. Bronner’s

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