In 2022, CompostNow began the process of becoming a certified B Corporation, a business framework that balances purpose and profit.
The rigorous assessment process covers all areas of business operations, from topics on governance and labor, to suppliers and environmental policies. Companies that score above 80 are invited to apply to become a B Corporation, and after a 10 month verification and review process our team at CompostNow is thrilled to be certified with a score of 84.9. In joining B Corp, CompostNow has aligned itself with 7,720 businesses across 150 industries, with just over 2,000 of them in the US and Canada.
B Corporations represent a global movement of people using business as a force for good. They meet higher standards of social and environmental impact, transparency, and accountability to stakeholders, rather than just shareholders.
“Becoming a B Corporation aligns with our commitment to being transparent, accountable, and continuously improving, and the application process has allowed us to formalize and document many existing aspects of our work and deepen our commitment to doing good along the path of building a great business,” reflects David Paull, CompostNow’s Chief Impact Officer.
For over a decade, our work at CompostNow has been grounded in a deep respect for our members, community, team, partners, and planet. From the beginning, we have felt that this work goes beyond the services we provide, and believe our actions support a better future for all.
Founded in 2011, in Raleigh, North Carolina, CompostNow was part of a national grassroots movement to rebuild soil health. At that time, our team collected food waste from homes in personal vehicles and washed buckets outdoors on the pavement. These early years helped our team create a strong connection with our community and laid the foundation for local partnership that allowed us to turn food scraps into compost for our members, community gardens, and local farms.
As the team expanded and diversified our service offerings, our commitment to improving the soil health in our community and quality of life for our team guided our decision-making processes. At CompostNow, we have continuously sought to improve the working conditions, pay, and quality of life benefits for our team members and have designed our operations and technology to be more efficient, impactful, and transparent as we have scaled.
Today, we are thrilled to offer elevated pay for all employees; expanded time-off programs that include paid holiday, vacation days, and sick leave for full and part-time team members; 401k programs; and health benefits for full and part-time team members that include dental and vision.
A through-line of our story is our commitment to soil health. From the beginning, we have prioritized returning compost to local farms and gardens through our Compost Give Back and Garden Partner Program, a testament to our belief in a closed-loop system that nurtures the planet. Throughout our growth, we have stayed grounded in our principles to take care of people and planet.
Through the collective impact of the households, businesses, and municipalities we serve, over 70 million pounds of food waste have been diverted from landfills and turned into over 22 million pounds of compost that have been distributed in our local community.
“The exciting part about the B Corp guidelines is that they challenge us to continuously improve. It’s more than a milestone,” continues Paull, “it’s a continuation and deepening of our commitment to a better way forward.”
With the guidance and direction of the B Corp framework, our team at CompostNow looks forward to continuing to challenge our approach to business in a way that betters the planet, our communities, and the lives of the people we work with.
You can find CompostNow’s B Corp profile, here.
