B Corp Certification is a designation that 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. In order to achieve certification, a company must:
• Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.
• Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.
• Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.
KeepCup was founded by Australian siblings Abigail and Jamie Forsyth in 2009. It all began when the siblings began a café business in Melbourne in 1998.
As the business grew, so did their concerns about the volume of packaging being consumed, particularly disposable cups; lined with polyethylene, they were non-recyclable.
In 2007, following the successful trial of a reusable soup mug, and the unsuitability of existing thermoses and mugs for refill in a café environment, they decided to design and manufacture their own – a barista standard reusable cup for people to enjoy better coffee on the go.
They took a huge gamble that usability, low-impact manufacturing and design aesthetics could drive behavior our change and make a difference to how people think about convenience culture.
The sustainability report book includes the identity, purpose, and mission behind KeepCup. It also details the target audiences, product, packaging, and how it's productive for the environment.