Companies earn Benefit Corporation Certification after they meet stringent standards of corporate purpose, accountability, and transparency. Spud is a for-profit company, but we understand the importance of our social and environmental impact and business transparency, this is why we are proud to declare we are a B Corp!
Certified B Corporations strive to succeed in business, while maintaining awareness of their social and environmental impact. Certification contracts a company to be conscious of how their actions will affect their workers, community, and the environment.
Spud is proud to be part of this community for change. We envision an economy that utilizes business as a force of good. We believe that business should conduct themselves in a manner that represents care towards people and places, and that we should aspire to help, not harm. This is a global movement, with almost 1,000 companies currently involved. B Corporation Certification is a pledge to redefine success in business.
At Spud we are extremely conscious of our social and environmental impacts. We thrive supporting our local community. In Edmonton we provide the Bissell Centre with fresh, organic food as well as non-perishables. We run an annual coat drive to help those who have less protection. In addition, Spud contributes to the Hope Mission, the Boyle Street Community Centre, and Change for Children, which extends our supportive reach internationally. In Calgary, we partner with Project Warmth, in Victoria we partner with the Yellow Moustache, and in Vancouver we donate coats from our coat drive to the Union Gospel Mission.
Spud is the lowest food waste producer in Canada. We turn over 80% of our inventory within 48 hours- and what we do not sell, we donate. Canada wastes over $31 billion dollars of food annually. This gross amount of waste happens when grocery stores over-order, in an attempt to make their displays aesthetically pleasing. However, at Spud we don’t have to have these elaborate in-store displays and what we do not sell, we donate.
Despite all efforts, when we do find ourselves with extra food, we donate it to Quest Food Exchange. We are proud of our partnership with Quest, a not for profit grocery store in Vancouver. We donate our extra food to this program which serves those who cannot afford healthy organic food, but understand the importance of good food.
In addition to community outreach and reducing food waste, we emphasize engagement and employment of local farmers and vendors. We do not support mass-scale industrial farmers, which contribute almost 40% to world wide factory emissions and extreme deforestation. We support local farmers, that take a natural, dramatically less harmful, approach to farming. One in which ethical considerations are always of importance, and the effect on the environment is always a mindful matter.
As a B Corporation we want to make change. We have created a new way to think about the food system. We want to continue to find ways to educated consumers on the importance of ethical food consumption by supporting agriculture with a lower impact on the environment, and learn how to cut our food waste day by day.
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