As a BC Benefit Company and Certified B Corp, we conduct our business in a responsible and sustainable manner, promoting various public benefits, as outlined below.
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At Social Nature, we are committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 of ensuring responsible consumption and production patterns. We do this by helping grow demand for and supply of natural products and educating consumers about more sustainable consumption choices.
At Social Nature, we want to see more natural products on grocery shelves and in people’s cupboards.
Growing consumer demand for natural products:
We grow demand for natural products by making it easy for people to discover and try natural products; specifically we reduce the barriers of price, education and convenience. Anyone that joins our online community gains access to special offers for free and discounted natural products that they can redeem at grocery stores near them.
We also educate consumers by sharing why each product that we feature is better for people and the planet. Our community members are also encouraged to share an honest online review for each product they try on SocialNature.com, which helps inspire other people to #trynatural. In 2023, our community members wrote over 940,000 online product reviews.
Growing the supply of natural products:
We grow the supply of natural products by helping natural brands grow. Through our digital sampling services we help brands acquire their target consumer. In 2023, we distributed over 1.3M natural products to our community members to sample and review.
The top attributes of the natural products that we feature on SocialNature.com are:
- 36% Vegan
- 31% Certified GMO-Free
- 26% Certified Organic
- 14% Certified BCorps
We also empower natural brands with consumer insights that help them produce better products. For example, we’ve seen brands switching to more biodegradable packaging and more eco-friendly packaging alternatives as a result of our community member’s product reviews.
At Social Nature, we are committed to and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 of ensuring decent work and economic growth.
In 2023, we promoted a work environment that was:
- Recognized as a Great Place to Work® in Canada
- A living wage employer, with 100% of our team making at or above the living wage for their area.
- Recognized by the Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies based on our growth rates over the last 4 years
We also support our team’s own development and sustainability education:
- We offer quarterly learning and development opportunities hosted by our executive team coach to help our entire team develop leadership skills including communication training, how to deliver effective feedback, and how to set effective goals.
- We invest in executive coaching for our senior management team.
- We inspire our team to make healthier and more eco-conscious choices: for example, we stock our kitchen with natural products, we provide our team with quarterly volunteer opportunities, we host Earth Month challenges and prizes, we purchase staff gifts from values-aligned companies, we facilitate Slack channels on #mindfulness and #healthyrecipes.
And finally, we support our team’s health and wellness by offering:
- A flexible work environment that supports hybrid work whereby people can work from home and/or can come into an office that is centrally located and close to public transit.
- Competitive extended health, dental and vision benefits and an annual health and wellness spending account to improve your physical and mental wellness in any way that you see fit.
- A generous paid time off policy with up to 35 days off per year
- A parental leave policy to support all employees who are welcoming a new child
At Social Nature, we are committed to and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality and empowering women.
Internally, we endeavor to support the growth of women through their careers, resulting in:
- 75% of the executive team (VP and above) identify as female, including the founder & CEO
- 69% of employees in management positions identify as female
- 60% of the employees at Social Nature identify as female
Additionally, our Founder and CEO Annalea Krebs, co-founded the Canadian Women in Naturals Community which hosts bi-annual events for Canadian women working in the natural product industry and has an online community of over 380 members.
This initiative is non-profit and volunteer run, and provides a safe space for women to connect, share experiences and ask for support to help further themselves in their careers and to help grow their natural product businesses.
We co-founded the Canadian Women in Naturals community in 2016 because we noticed a large underrepresentation of women in senior decision making roles in the natural product industry, including the associations that support the industry. Women are the primary purchasers of natural products and we believe that they should have a seat at the table.
All of our events encourage senior women to bring a mentee so that we can support the next generation of women working in the natural product industry. The events build community and provide resources to the attendees.
At Social Nature, we are committed to and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 of climate action and Goal 11 of sustainable cities & communities.
In 2023, we undertook a tremendous shift in our delivery model through the process of digitizing coupons to eliminate the need for printing and shipping paper vouchers. This new form of sampling products was launched in beta at the end of 2023 with a full commercial rollout in 2024.
With this digitalization we are reducing our environmental impact by eliminating paper, printing, and shipping with a target of at least 80% of our services being fully digital.
