Success Through Sustainability
5 minutes with Ben Arbib, Founder of Nurture Brands & Co-Founder of Rebel Kitchen
When you founded Rebel Kitchen, sustainability was always one the company’s core values. What makes sustainability a business success factor in your view?
Yes indeed, sustainability is one of the core pillars that we have built the business on. From day one it was very important to us that we made the right decisions with regards to people and planet. Measuring your business success can be done in a number of ways. For us we have used the framework of B Corp and have used their detailed audit of our entire business every 2 years to improve our scores in all parts of our business. This is an amazing tool to use internally to get the whole team to really drive through changes that improve sustainability that the whole team can be proud of.
Sustainability has become more important for many businesses in recent years. Has the COVID-19 pandemic further increased the awareness for sustainability?
Yes, sustainability has become more important for many businesses in recent years as it’s really no longer an option not to focus on it. For businesses that perhaps were not focusing on it, they are either being forced to by consumer pressure or simply their competitors are raising the bar forcing them into taking it more seriously. For sure COVID-19 seems to have shifted the wider populations relationship towards sustainability.
Perhaps having more time at home and a less hectic lifestyle has reconnected people to nature and the environment around them? It’s really down to the micro purchasing decisions we make every day to shift the dial and the biggest driver of change really has to come from the end consumer.
With sustainability being such a buzzword, a lot of brands are being accused for ‘green washing’. What is your advice for new founders on how to be authentic?
Many companies have indeed been accused of green washing including some rather large ones. It’s very easy to talk a good game and have glossy parts of your website telling your consumers what a great job you’re doing but really for me the proof is in the pudding. The companies that are green washing will get found out eventually so really for me as a founder we always focus on doing our best in all areas and keep looking of new ways to improve where we need to improve. For me that’s going to be a lifelong mission!
For new founders my advice would be to do everything you can possibly do from Day 1. Yes, making more conscious decisions often costs more than going for the cheapest/quickest option, but when you start baking all those decisions together very quickly you can be locked into a certain way of doing things that can take years to undo. Authenticity and truth go hand in hand, so if you want to be authentic tell the whole truth and be fully transparent with everything you do. That is being authentic, consumers appreciate it and will get behind you if you are making the best possible decisions from a sustainability point of view.
The truth always comes out!
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