Orba Shoes is now* B Corp™ certified.
We’re still small, but we are feeling mighty! Why? We’re now independently certified as a B Corp… a “Business for Good”.
Before we even heard of the B Corp Community, we knew we wanted to be more than a for-profit business – we wanted to be a business that creates positive impacts on our workers and the environment. Becoming a Certified B Corporation® is proof that we are succeeding in our efforts to be a business for good and are using the power of business to address social and environmental problems.
The B Corp assessment and review process is rigorous, especially so for a new start-up, but we made it! And it’s our firm commitment to being more sustainable by embedding high standards of practice into the core foundations of our business that have helped us achieve this certification.
* 10 December 2021
What is a B Corp?
By joining the B Corp community, we are one of more than 4,000 businesses worldwide that are committed to operating under the highest standards of social and environmental practices. While B Corporations might be different in size and from many sectors, what joins us together is the common goal of not only achieving financial sustainability, but also having positive impacts on societies, the economy, and the environment.
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How we did it.
We minimise our impact on the environment through supply chain management and the selection of the materials that make Orba shoes. Most of the materials that make our shoes are highly renewable, plant-based and biodegradable materials, with a large number of them being third-party eco-certified such as Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). This ensures that our raw materials are sustainably sourced and processed, with workers being paid fair wages with good working conditions. We positively impact the lives of our workers by providing minimum living wages and organise and fund training programs to help our smaller suppliers grow in a more efficient and sustainable way.
We are incredibly proud to achieve this milestone so early in our journey, but we are not perfect. We are continually working on increasing our sustainability within our materials selections, our supply chain and in the communities we work in. Our future priorities include:
- 100% eco-certified materials and a fully eco-certified shoe
- Compostability according to EN 13432
- Cradle-to-cradle analysis to accurately identify our impacts, including carbon footprint
- Working with waste management systems to deal with the increase in biodegradable products.
