Grove Collaborative Announces B Corporation Recertification & Releases 2023-2024 Sustainability Report

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Company joins the 5% of B Corporations that have maintained certification for more than ten years, provides annual update on sustainability programs

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GROV) (“Grove” or “the Company”), the world’s first plastic neutral retailer, leading sustainable consumer products company, Certified B Corporation, and Public Benefit Corporation today launched its fifth annual Sustainability Report for 2023-2024. The comprehensive report provides detailed updates on key company commitments, progress, and partnerships across material issues relating to Grove’s business, including plastic, carbon, forest health, ingredient standards, and justice and equity. Grove today also announced their B Corporation recertification by B Labs with a score of 100.9 points. The progress on key programs in the past calendar year and improved metrics of Grove’s entire social and environmental impact reinforce Grove’s continued commitment to transform the consumer products industry into a positive force for human and environmental health.

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“We’re thrilled to be recertified as a B Corporation - the highest credential for a sustainable business - with an even higher score alongside the launch of our fifth annual sustainability report. These achievements are a reflection of our dedication to transparent and sustainable business practices, while also inspiring the wider consumer products and retail industries to follow suit,” said Jeff Yurcisin, CEO of Grove Collaborative. “Sustainability is our core differentiator as a company, and while we have made great strides in reducing single-use plastic from our product assortment, more needs to be done at scale beyond our business. A sustainable future cannot coexist with our industry’s current use of single-use plastic, and we need our industry peers to join us in our efforts to stop the damage plastic is causing our planet and our health.”

Key highlights from the 2023-2024 Sustainability Report can be found further below. To read the full report, go to: http://grove.co/sustainabilityreport2024.

B Corporation Recertification

A Certified B Corporation is a third-party standard by global nonprofit, B Labs, requiring companies to meet rigorous social sustainability, environmental performance, and accountability standards and be transparent to the public on how they are assessed. Every three years, B Corporations must go through a detailed recertification process to maintain their certification status, which measures a company's performance in five impact areas – governance, environment, workers, customers, and community. The average company who takes the B Impact Assessment scores a 50.9 and the minimum to become a Certified B Corporation is 80 points. Grove Collaborative is proud to report that it earned a score of 100.9 points and has maintained its certification for more than ten years, a milestone attributable to only about 5% of the nearly 8,400 certified B Corps today. The primary drivers of Grove Collaborative’s score include:

  • Becoming a Public Benefit Corporation: Grove Collaborative became a Public Benefit Corporation in 2021, marking a significant change by requiring the Company to balance the interests of stakeholders and their stated public benefit: the development, promotion, and distribution of consumer products as a positive force for human and environmental health.
  • Improved Climate Strategy: Since 2020, Grove measures and reports on full scopes 1-3 emissions (direct and indirect emissions) and has carbon neutral offices, fulfillment centers, and customer shipping.
  • Environmentally Preferable Product Assortment: Grove demonstrated that a greater share of its product assortment contains more recycled, certified compostable, or otherwise recyclable product materials, bio-based and non-toxic ingredients, and sustainability-related third-party certifications.

Grove's dedication to upholding its B Corporation status, particularly following its recent recertification with an impressive score, underscores its steadfast commitment to modeling more sustainable business practices for the consumer packaged goods and retail sectors. Grove’s mission is to influence the broader industry through transparency and progress and maintaining our B Corporation status is a reflection of this commitment.

Go Beyond Plastic™

The core of Grove Collaborative’s sustainability commitment and stated public benefit as a consumer products company and retailer are programs aimed at reducing plastic waste, both to support customers’ needs for trusted, sustainable products, as well as move the broader industry away from its reliance on single-use plastic. Beyond Plastic™ is Grove’s plan to solve the plastic crisis for consumer products to reduce single-use plastics in its product assortment. Grove Collaborative has been plastic-neutral since 2020, recovering the same amount of ocean- and nature-bound plastic from the environment for every ounce of plastic that is sold online and in retail stores. Key strategy and metric updates to Grove’s plastic initiatives include:

  • Plastic Recovered: Collected 2.4 million pounds of plastic in 2023 alone in partnership with plastic recovery platform rePurpose Global as part of Grove’s plastic neutrality commitment, bringing our total plastic recovered to over 15 million pounds since 2020.
  • Plastic Intensity: Reached the lowest total ratio of pounds of plastic sold per $100 of revenue for all sales across Grove.co and retail partners, reaching an average 1.10 pounds of plastic per $100 of revenue in 2023, down from 1.17 pounds in 2022.
  • Beyond Plastic™ Badges: Launched digital badges on Grove.co, including “100% Plastic Free,” “95%+ Plastic Free,” and “No Single Use Plastic,” to make it easier than ever for customers to shop sustainably and make more informed purchasing decisions based on the amount of plastic in each product.
  • Beyond Plastic™ Assortment: Increased the percentage of owned brand assortment that meets Grove’s Beyond Plastic™ standard for “100% Plastic Free,” “95%+ Plastic Free,” and “No Single Use Plastic” products, with the total percentage of products that qualify reaching 79% in 2023 (up from 71% in 2022) and total revenue from those qualifying products increasing to 66% in 2023 (up from 64% in 2022).
  • Beyond Plastic™ Impact: Reported on the overall impact of customers adopting Grove Co. concentrated formulas or refill systems to reduce plastic waste, as well as reduced plastic Grove Co. and third party products. Sales of these products avoided 1.7 million pounds of plastic in 2023 alone.

Other Core Sustainability Programs

Additional updates in the annual sustainability report on core sustainability priorities related to Grove’s public benefit statement include:

  • Forests & Fiber: Grove is committed to protecting forests by prioritizing FSC Certified paper packaging and alternate materials, such as bamboo, in Grove products. Grove has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to support Indigenous-led conservation of 2 million acres of rainforest in Southeast Alaska and committed $1.5M in funding through 2030.
  • Climate & Carbon: Grove is committed to decarbonization and high quality carbon offsets. Grove has provided a carbon strategy overview, including carbon neutral facilities and customer shipping, carbon offset projects, and its focus on Science-Based Targets.
  • Healthier Homes: Grove is committed to creating and curating products that meet Grove’s transparency, ingredient, and cruelty-free standards. Grove has provided an update on the company’s transition to Natural Origin Fragrances and how its standards avoided over 60,000 pounds of synthetic fragrances in 2023.
  • Justice & Equity: Grove is committed to making the natural products industry more inclusive, representative, and equitable. Grove has provided an update on our goal to allocate a minimum of 15% of our virtual shelf space to BIPOC-owned brands.

About Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc.

Launched in 2016 as a Certified B Corp, Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GROV) is transforming consumer products into a positive force for human and environmental good. Driven by the belief that sustainability is the only future, Grove creates and curates more than 210 high-performing eco-friendly brands of household cleaning, personal care, health and wellness, laundry, clean beauty, baby, and pet care products serving millions of households across the U.S. each year. By serving as the trusted destination for conscientious consumers who want to make the right choices for their families and the planet and providing access to knowledgeable Grove Guides, Grove makes it easy for everyone to build sustainable routines and Be a Force of Nature.

Every product Grove offers — from its flagship brand of sustainably powerful home care essentials, Grove Co., to its exceptional third-party brands — has been thoroughly vetted against the Grove Feel Good Standard, which guarantees strict ingredients criteria, 100% plastic neutral orders, carbon neutral shipments, and high quality performance in addition to being certified cruelty-free and ethically produced. Grove is a public benefit corporation on a mission to move Beyond Plastic® and is available at select retailers nationwide, making sustainable home care products even more accessible. For more information, visit www.grove.com.

Ryan.Zimmerman@grove.co

Source: Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc.

Released May 16, 2024