Danone North America becomes the largest Certified B Corporation® in the world, while Danone Canada becomes the largest consumer-facing Certified B Corporation® in Canada.
Counting these two new additions, a total of eight Danone entities have now earned B CorpTM Certification, including dairy subsidiaries in France (Les Prés Rient Bio), in Spain and in the UK, organic baby food brand Happy Family in the U.S., Aguas Danone de Argentina, and AQUA in Indonesia.
As a result, approximately 30% of Danone's global business is now covered by B CorpTM certification, marking significant progress towards Danone's ambition to become one of the first certified multinationals.
Scaling up the B CorpTM movement to multinational companies is part of Danone's long-standing commitment to deliver economic success and social progress. This is encapsulated in the company's 'One Planet. One Health' vision, which reflects its belief that the health of people and the health of the planet are connected and interdependent.
Danone Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber commented: "People rightly expect large organizations like Danone to use their scale for positive impact. We do not take this responsibility lightly. B Corp certification is one measure that provides consumers, investors and other stakeholders with a robust framework to assess whether the company they support is having a positive impact on society and the planet. As a company with annual revenue of approximately €25 billion and more than 100,000 employees across 120 countries, our progress towards global
B Corp certification proves that profitable and sustainable business is possible, no matter how large your business is."
A rigorous B CorpTM Certification reflective of core commitments
B CorpTM Certification is a mark of trust: a promise that a company is doing business in a way that meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability and is certified by B Lab®, a third-party non-profit.
Since 2015, Danone has partnered with B Lab® to help define a meaningful and manageable path to certification for multinationals and publicly traded companies, as well as accelerate growth of the B CorpTM movement into the mainstream.
Bart Houlahan, co-founder of B Lab® commented: "A successful B Corp movement needs an inclusive community of companies of all sizes: from listed companies to small sole-proprietors. When we founded B Lab®, our vision was to empower the world's entrepreneurial leaders to use business as a force for goodTM. For that vision to become a reality, we need multinational corporations to lead by example. Therefore, we could not be more excited that more Danone subsidiaries have undertaken the significant effort to become certified. We hope Danone's ambition and progress will inspire others to follow suit."
