Bonduelle Fresh Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French-owned Bonduelle and home of the Ready Pac Bistro brand, is now a Certified B Corp, achieving certification in December of 2022.

B Corp refers to a company that has received certification from the nonprofit, B-Lab, which was founded in 2006, and has a mission to transform the global economy to benefit all stakeholders — people, communities and planet.

A Certified B Corp designation shows a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. 

For a company like Bonduelle Fresh Americas to achieve certification, it needed to demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing a stringent risk review.

“The certification process involves verified performance on a set of indicators across the whole company; governance, workers, environment, community and customers, so it’s very comprehensive,” said Gretchen Grani, vice president, environmental, social and governance (ESG) for Bonduelle, who prior to joining the company worked for other Certified B Corps for about 11 years. 

To become a Certified B Corp, Bonduelle also made a legal change to its corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status.

“That is an unusual aspect that is distinct from other certifications,” Grani said, explaining the company will renew the certification every three years. 

The impetus to become a Certified B Corp came from the board of directors and global CEO Guillaume DeBrosse. The effort here in the U.S. was led by Bonduelle Fresh Americas CEO, Andrea Montagna, who was passionate about achieving certification. He had a clear vision on how to get there, the benefit to the business unit, and value to the stakeholders.

“We have had really positive feedback from our customers and our certification has been able to distinguish us as a trusted supplier,” Grani said. “It’s a way for us to validate our positive impact.” 

It took the company two years — characterized by a very intensive process of changing policies, processes, documentation and the legal structure. 

“It was also the impetus behind several new initiatives including our inclusive hiring initiative,” Grani said. “It’s also called the Second Chance hiring, giving those with barriers to employment another opportunity. We took away the drug tests and other barriers of the background check that are often associated with chronically underemployed groups.”

Bonduelle also launched its zero-waste initiative at all of its plants and group-wide launched science-based greenhouse gas targets that were verified by SBTI.

“Often, you’ll see an increase in employee engagement and recruitment and we have found that our employees certainly liked the idea of working for a Certified B Corp — it is something that’s energizing to them,” Grani said. “We did a workers’ survey and it did show positive sentiments and that they felt proud to work for Bonduelle Fresh Americas.”

Soon, the B Corp logo will be added to Bonduelle Fresh Americas packaging.

“That’s a way for consumers and our customers to feel good about our products, knowing it’s a trusted company,” Grani said. “It’s a point of differentiation.” 

Photo: Gretchen Grani