2024 Social Nature Public Benefit Report

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 2024, our community members wrote over 647,311 online product reviews. 

We also support our team’s own development and sustainability education:

• We offer quarterly learning and development opportunities to help our entire team develop leadership skills including management training, AI tools to support capacity and growth, and how to set effective goals.  
• We conduct annual 360 performance reviews which provide our team members with valuable feedback from their manager and peers to support their career growth.
• We celebrate the emerging leaders on our team via peer nominated Annual Leadership Principle Awards which recognize those team members that live our values
• We inspire our team to make healthier and more eco-conscious choices: for example, we stock our office with natural products, we provide our team with volunteer opportunities, we host Earth Month challenges and prizes,, we purchase staff gifts from values-aligned companies, and we encourage our team to attend natural product industry tradeshows and online events to network and educate themselves.

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 our employees physical and mental wellness in any way that they 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
• An employment anniversary program that rewards employees with additional time off, health, and wellness benefits as they grow with us

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
• 71% of employees in management positions identify as female
• 62% of the employees at Social Nature identify as female

In 2024, Social Nature continues to build partnerships with instrumental groups in the better-for-you space. We became a partner of the Naturally Network, the largest membership organization representing the natural, organic, and better-for-you consumer packaged goods industry.  The goal of this partnership is to drive discovery with a focus on early stage and high growth better-for-you brands while creating value for these brands by offering data to support retail success, innovation, and additional placements. We also became members of the Canadian Organic Trade Association, an organization that promotes and protects the organic sector and encourages the universal adoption of organic.

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.

Annalea co-founded the Canadian Women in Naturals community in 2016 because  she 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 she believes that they should have a seat at the table. 

All of the Canadian Women in Naturals 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.