Ethical business accolade for organic vegetable delivery farm in Peterborough

Organic veg box company Riverford, based at Sacrewell, has become the second highest-scoring food company in the UK to receive the B Corp certification of social and environmental performance.

The accolade is in recognition of the employee-owned farm’s focus on worker wellbeing.

Riverford scored 124.6 points out of 200 in its first B Corp assessment - the second highest score of all certified UK food companies.

B Corp is a community of companies dedicated to formally giving people and planet the same weight as they do shareholders or profits.

There are currently 307 certified B Corp businesses in the UK.

Riverford’s highest score was in the ‘Workers’ section of the assessment, covering employee ownership, a democratic governance system including a co-owner council, and a very high level of employee health, safety and wellness.

It also scored highly on the Community and Environment sections for its sourcing of a high volume of organic fresh produce from UK family farms and its principles of organic farming to safeguard biodiversity, soil and water plus its work to reduce its impact on air and climate.

Riverford sustainability and ethics manager Zac Goodall, who oversaw the application, said: “Aside from being proud to be a co-owner in a progressive and environmentally conscious business, I’m particularly proud of the score we were afforded in the ‘Community’ section of our B Corps impact assessment.

“Our commitment to sourcing as much produce in the UK from independent suppliers as possible, bolstered by purchasing significant volumes from close to our packhouses (with a significant proportion of this coming from right here in Devon) were both key contributors to this section of the assessment, and our overall score.”

Founder of Riverford, Guy Singh-Watson, said: “Riverford has always sought to balance the needs of planet, staff, suppliers and customers, with commercial success being a means to an end, not an end in itself.

“That’s why Riverford has recently become a certified B Corp. This not-for-profit certification uses a broad assessment, substantiated by an evidence base, to score companies’ social and environmental performance.

“It is not perfect – but it is gaining credibility, and has the potential to nudge business towards broader measures of success.

“We see the most vital benefit as not marking our own homework; regular assessment will highlight areas for improvement, and help us balance the competing demands of one ‘right thing’ against another.”

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