B Corp: the future for food business? Interview with Ryan Kohn, Propercorn
In this second interview in a series of discussions with leaders of the B Corp movement, I met with Ryan Kohn, co-founder of Propercorn.
We discussed the benefits of using the B Corp framework to embed considerations of people and planet at an early stage of business. We also explored the myriad of challenges that food packaging poses for businesses looking to do the right thing for the planet…
Propercorn became B Corp certified in 2018. As founders, what was it that drew you to the B Corp movement?
B Lab’s whole premise of using business as a force for good is totally aligned with how we approach business. It’s not always “what” you do in business, it’s “how” you do it and there’s a lot of emphasis on the “how” through the B Corp movement.
We’ve set the business up in a way that is conscious around people and planet. We realised we scored pretty well on the B Impact Assessment right from the start, so it didn’t take us too long to certify.
What’s so great about the process is that it highlights the areas you’re doing well in, but also shows you the areas where you could improve, so it’s a really great learning tool. I’d say to any business looking to become a B Corp, start looking at the B Impact Assessment, it’ll give you plenty of ideas of ways to improve the running of your business. It gives you a real sense of the things you need to be thinking about.
Propercorn’s focus on people, community and the world chimes neatly with B Corp’s social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability standards. Did you find that going through the B Corp certification process gave you further ideas and momentum to advance Propercorn’s standards and impact?
The tool they have in place for the B Impact Assessment is brilliant, because you can bookmark things, you can star things and go back to them. It saves your progress. The first time around I made a spreadsheet of areas where I thought we could make improvements or where we didn’t currently do something but, as a business, should be thinking about it. As I’ve started to consider recertification (which is a requirement every three years) I’m again going through the B Impact Assessment questions, noting where I think “actually, that’s a really good idea, we should be thinking about that”.
Naturally, everyone in the business is conscious around how our actions affect the planet and people, so it is always front of mind. In terms of getting ideas on doing things that continue to change the way we run the business for the better, that’s definitely where B Corp has really helped.
Do you think there would have been any benefit in becoming a B Corp at an earlier stage in the business? What would your advice be to a food start-up considering going through the process?
Yes. You have to be running for a year before you can be a certified B Corp, but as a new business, you can apply for B Corp Pending status. Any business that is starting out now should definitely be thinking about it from the outset. It’s beneficial in so many ways. Building the requirements into the fabric of your business early saves you time, makes you more efficient, actually gives you lots of really useful things that will bring about a better culture in your business.
Businesses want to work with other businesses that are doing things in the right way. Even in our industry, the likes of Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose are all looking to work with companies that are really putting people and planet at the front of their agenda. That’s becoming more and more important for them, but they obviously have thousands and thousands of suppliers. The easier we can make it for the big players to make the right decisions, and put brands into their stores who are thinking about things in the right ways, the better.
Consideration of people and planet is the way the business world is moving, thankfully, and you’re going with this amazing tidal wave of movement. There’s definitely a B Corp community too. Once you’re a certified B Corp, there are lots of lovely spin-offs and shared learnings that you benefit from.
From a commercial point of view it definitely makes sense as well. I’m not saying that’s the reason to do it, but if you’re starting a business, you’d be missing a bit of a trick if you didn’t build it in from the start.
Did you find it particularly challenging to convince Propercorn’s board of directors and shareholders of the benefits of the B Corp mission lock?
No, actually we had real support, from the beginning of the process. Yes, there was paperwork to go through to include the mission lock in the Articles of Association, but there was always real enthusiasm for the movement. They were really keen for us to certify as a B Corp, so we were definitely all on the same page in that sense.
In your experience, what is the single biggest challenge for food businesses to overcome, when applying for B Corp Certification?
I haven’t found it a very difficult process. For us the biggest challenge has been finding the time and getting the engagement across the business, with certain areas of the Impact Assessment relevant to different parts of the business. I think when you’re doing something that feels really good, where you’re learning and you can implement things really quickly, it doesn’t feel so much a challenge as an opportunity.
Propercorn has an impact score of 86.3 out of 200, compared against a median score of 50.9 for “ordinary businesses*”. Are you aiming to increase your impact score and, if so, can you tell me a bit about what you are currently working on?
One hundred percent, yes, as a business we just keep evolving and getting better.
We’ve set our target to become carbon neutral as a business by 2030. We are about to embark on an audit to evaluate our C02 emissions across the business, including scopes 1,2 and 3, then we’re putting plans in place to reduce those emissions. We’re also educating every single person in the business on carbon literacy, so we’ll achieve a carbon literate score of silver.
We’ve also been working with a charity partner, Beam, an amazing tech platform that crowd-funds employment training for homeless people so they can sustainably support themselves.
Our learning and development for the team has evolved and become much more sophisticated and there are just so many other things we’re doing that I’m sure will further our B Impact Assessment score.
The other thing to point out is that it’s easy to assume that B Corp means environment, and while environment is one of the areas covered by the B Impact Assessment, it’s one of five different areas. Whilst we’re making big strides in the environment, we are really developing in other areas too.
You talk on the Propercorn website about the challenges of finding recyclable film that keeps your snacks fresh and delicious. Can you tell me any more about the developments on this, the options you are exploring and whether you have worked with other certified B Corps facing similar challenges?
Yes, so the first thing I would say about packaging and plastic is that it’s a total minefield. You have to be really careful to avoid buzzwords like compostable and biodegradable.
We looked at compostable packaging options, but in this country currently only 30% of councils can collect home compost, and of those councils only 10% of people use them. So we’re only talking about 3% of the country actually having and using a home compost system.
If someone was to buy a bag of popcorn or any snack product and eat it walking along the street, what would they do with the compostable bag? If they put it in the bin it will end up in landfill, and won’t compost, because it needs to have the right conditions. You can’t recycle it. If you put it in the recycling bin it will just mess up the recycling stream.
With that in mind, compostable packaging isn’t really a solution for us, right now. If there was a system in place to deal with compostable packaging in the UK and to deal with it easily, that would be amazing, but there isn’t yet.
We’re currently working with packaging specialists to explore new materials options. It’s the real bugbear across our business and we’re really keen to find a solution.
Everyone in the B Corp community is in a similar boat. What we don’t want to do is put a bandaid on it that isn’t really going to address the problem. There are initiatives like Terracycle, but we don’t feel it’s the solution for us, as it relies on consumers finding and using collection points.
We think our money could be better spent offsetting our carbon emissions. For example, while we’re focusing on reducing emissions across our supply chain, could we invest in solar panels on our manufacturing site, so the site is powered by renewable energy and creates less emissions?
We think better to invest our money to reduce our emissions, whilst working with packaging companies to find different substrates, that can be processed within the systems we currently have.
Plastic packaging has been an amazing material in some ways…it’s just that we’ve given it no value, so everybody has just discarded it like it doesn’t matter and it’s ended up in the oceans. Hence, plastic isn’t always the enemy, it just depends what we’re trying to focus on. If it’s carbon emissions, sometimes plastic can be a lot better than other products, by preventing things like food waste. It’s commonly quoted that if food waste was a country it would be the third biggest emitter of carbon in the world. If you got rid of plastic packaging and there was more food waste, that would be far worse for the planet in terms of carbon emissions.
Plastic has been overused, but there is a place for it, and whilst we look for other materials we can use, we need to be thinking about closed loops systems that allow us to collect, reuse and recycle.
As we begin 2020, with an increasing focus on the climate crisis, what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the food industry over the next decade?
For me, there should be laser focus from the world on the fact that we need to limit the rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees. We’re already seeing pretty catastrophic events around the world, so it should be the number one priority.
That means reducing our carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. Any greenhouse gas gets converted into a carbon equivalent, so when people talk about carbon neutral, they’re talking about greenhouse gas neutral. Methane is 25 times worse than carbon, so I think for businesses, people and governments the focus should be on how we reduce all greenhouse gas emissions and limit that increase in temperature.
What is the most exciting development you’ve come across in food sustainability?
For me it would definitely be the development of plant-based meat alternatives. I had an Impossible Burger for the first time about 2 or 3 years ago when I was in America and it was absolutely brilliant. I don’t eat meat so to have that option was great.
I love the idea that plant-based alternatives are now such a fast-growing sector, which is just going to go from strength to strength, it’s game changing.
What’s your favourite restaurant in London?
I would probably say Bocca di Lupo. I love sitting at the bar ordering nice tapas sized plates. It’s always good vibes and the food is always brilliant.
*According to the B Lab UK website, Ordinary Businesses are those “whose primary objective in business is to generate high financial returns. They may be interested in the possibility of using their business to serve a higher purpose, but are not actively pursuing this objective.”
