Certified since 2015, Honest to Goodness is a family-owned online retailer, wholesaler and distributor of certified organic food and natural food products based on Gadigal land in Sydney.
From its humble beginnings over 20 years ago as a market stall, Honest to Goodness now offers over 1000 organic and natural products in both grocery and bulk sizes that are beneficial to your health and are easy to incorporate into everyday life.
Their vision is simple yet powerful: to make healthy living simple, sustainable and accessible. On a mission to empower the community to make wholesome, sustainable and ethical choices that benefit both people and the planet, let’s head Behind The B to learn five things you might not know about Honest to Goodness with Founders Matt and Karen Ward.
Honest to Goodness Founders, Matt and Karen
1. You can get together for the good stuff
Honest to Goodness started with a vision of connecting consumers to producers through a desire and demand for quality, taste and fairness. And like the road to better business itself, the more of us that are the part of the movement, the better our impact.
A buying group is essentially a community of people who get together to combine their buying power for good. Various forms of buying groups exist, ranging from a small group of family, friends, work colleagues or neighbours – to larger buying groups that are run by members to support regional communities.
Honest to Goodness has a loyal following of buying groups and long-term or ‘hardcore’ customers who link up and lead the charge in demanding high quality, wholesome, tasty food and packaging reduction, making the sacrifices required to live a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
2. Get in the Bulk Bin
Want to shop with zero waste? Their retail store in Alexandria, NSW, is (organic) jam-packed with healthy snacks, pantry essentials and bulk organic goodies.
By 2021, bulk products accounted for nearly half (44%) of total floorspace for the company with fill-your-own bulk bins, flours packed in resealable and recyclable paper, liquids in reusable containers and products available in bulk (4KG and greater).
The retail store also stocks damaged and dented packaging that’s still usable,’ offered as ‘imperfect picks’ to customers; one step more to ensure there’s minimal waste. They’re also currently working on a ‘REFILLOSOPHY’ – an innovative liquid refilling station to make buying liquids in bulk easier.
3. Measure what matters, then share it
We can only manage what we measure. This is one of the most fundamental truths in business, let alone a business trying to improve its impact on people and the planet.
In May, 2021, Honest to Goodness published their first Impact and Sustainability Report. They found that outlining all of their achievements and initiatives, and then sharing them with customers for additional transparency and accountability, was a great way to reflect on and celebrate the work that’s been done, and also plan for future improvement.
While the company always supports sustainable and organic growers, they recently launched a new product range of ASP Certified baking flours. The grains produced using this unique regenerative Australian Sustainable Products certification have been found to produce 75% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional grains.
Without measuring these critical outcomes through a University of Queensland study, they might not have been able to see how effective these new products were in contributing to improving long term soil recovery and fertility.
4. A commitment to NetZero by 2030
Like their fellow B Corps, Honest to Goodness is serious about sustainability. One of their core values is a commitment to promoting collective social and environmental responsibility by pledging to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2030.
In a world-first for the business community, over 500 B Corps from across the globe (and 40 in our region) have publicly committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to achieve Net Zero by 2030 at the recent UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid. This is 20 years ahead of the 2050 targets set in the Paris Agreement.
“Our commitment [to Net Zero] seems even more critical now than ever, particularly due to recent extreme weather conditions in Australia with bushfires and drought, bringing with it unproductive land, dreadful air quality and water restrictions.”
Honest to Goodness
Putting words into action and leading the way for sustainable business across the globe, B Corps like Honest to Goodness are working with local experts to ensure they properly set their baseline and make moves to actively reduce all emissions by this date.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
5. The power of building genuine supplier relationships
Honest to Goodness chooses to work only and directly with suppliers and partners who share their values. They value building long-lasting, genuine relationships with sustainable, like-minded growers and suppliers to maintain the trust and integrity. This approach also prioritises the accountability of a short-supply chain.
“Our aim is to source close to product origin, and in ways that benefits the suppliers and local community. Working with our suppliers in this way ensures we receive a consistent high quality product and why our average supplier relationship is over five years, and growing.”
They require all suppliers to:
- Have active OH&S practices in place to prevent staff from injury and robust Reporting Policies in place to ensure grievances can be made confidentially;
- Be pursuing packaging solutions that reduce their environmental impact;
- Actively work to reduce waste and improve water and energy efficiencies;
- Use some form of renewable energy (the lowest being 25 per cent and the highest 65 per cent).
This collaborative and values-led partnership approach is a key cornerstone of the B Corp movement globally, and it is how we ensure that we are building and inspiring best practice amongst businesses, sharing insights and learnings, strengthening our standards, and driving public awareness that will ultimately change consumer behaviour and transform the global economic system.
Thank you to Honest to Goodness for this fantastic piece, published as part of B Corp Month 2022 as we invite you #BehindTheB to uncover what makes a B Corp a better business.
Find out more about the B Corp Climate Collective, a group of Certified B Corporations and other businesses working to halt and reverse the current climate trajectory ↗