We’re proud to have completed our first full year as a B Corporation in 2018! Certified B Corps meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. With financial performance, this way of measuring a company's impact is known as the triple bottom line. B Corps empower all of us to vote with our dollars every day, and make business a force for good.

 

Since earning our certification, the “B the Change” movement has grown from 2,100 B Corps worldwide to 2,655 today, including companies such as Patagonia, Eileen Fisher and Method. In North Carolina there are 45 B Corps, of which 31 are in the Triangle and 11 are in Durham. Bull City Burger & Brewery, Eastern Carolina Organics, Baldwin& and Southern Energy are among those in our community leading this movement. Together we're redefining success in business.

 

 

As part of V&V’s certification, we committed to setting social and environmental impact goals each year and reporting on our results annually, so that our employees, partners, and community know about our performance. We’re excited to share our results from 2018 here, and our new goals for 2019, which build on our success and the lessons we’ve learned.

In addition to other triple bottom line practices we adhere to in our business, such as sourcing our goods from women-owned businesses, operating in a walkable downtown, investing in the revitalization of our historic storefront, and being a living-wage certified company, we achieved these results based on our 2018 goals:

ACTUAL: 61% of our apparel collection was made from all-natural fiber textiles in ‘18. *We realized we needed to be more specific with this goal and connect it to our apparel collection, which includes the vast majority of our goods, instead of our entire collection including shoes, jewelry, and other accessories. We have applied this to our goal in this area for ‘19.

ACTUAL: 52% of our entire 2018 collection was made in the USA!

ACTUAL: The energy used by our storefront and office was fully offset every month in ‘18 by our investment in wind power through Arcadia Power.

**ACTUAL: By dollars spent on materials (like cardboard boxes or poly bags), we fell far short on this goal with only 4% of our packaging spent on recycled shipping materials in ‘18. However, by number of shipments in boxes (not recycled) vs bags (recycled), 52% of our shipments used recycled materials. This is due to shipping far more orders in poly bags than in boxes over the course of 2018, which was a positive shift for us. *We’re expanding on this and expect to improve greatly in this area in ‘19 as a result.

DONATION: We donated $2,600 to UMD and $2,000 to SEEDS in ‘18, which positively impacts our community and neighbors in need.

DONATION: Our team volunteered over 50 hours of on-the-clock time to these organizations in ‘18.

• 50%+ of the entire collection will be made in the USA

• 50%+ of apparel collections will be made of natural fiber textiles

• Fully offset our storefront and office energy use by purchasing wind power through Arcadia Power

• Donate 50 hours from our team of on-the-clock volunteer time to support UMD and SEEDS

• Meet or beat our monetary donations to UMD and SEEDS from 2018

 

Please ask us how we're doing with our goals throughout the year when you pop in the shop or by dropping us a line at bonjour@vertandvogue.com. Better yet, if you’re local to Durham, why not join us at SEEDS or UMD - you can volunteer, too! Or pledge to buy 50% American made goods or 100% renewable energy this year. Follow us on Instagram and let us know how you're doing!

What you measure matters. We know that measuring areas of industry that greatly affect the well-being of people and the planet is critical to combating climate change and creating a healthier and more caring world. Please join us on this journey and “B the Change” you seek!

When we each make small changes in our daily lives, our efforts add up to a much larger cumulative action. You can vote every day for companies you believe in. Take this short quiz to find B Corps you can incorporate into your daily routine.