Summer has been busy! We wished to have given all you out there another update before now, but summertime at the brewery has been a little crazy, and we had to pump the brakes on our B-CORP to-do’s for a little bit.
Don’t sweat – we’re on this, and we’re looking ahead ready to get ahead and increase our B-CORP Score. Here’s what we’ve been up-to B-CORP related, and what’s on our radar.
PEOPLE
Last few things to wrap-up on our people list:
First Aid
Now that we’re pretty much finished with our East Abby building & brewery expansion, AND we’ve got our Barrel Farm-Brewery project up and running (kinda, those beers will take some time before they’re ready) – we’re going to re-evaluate all our first aid resources and systems, and ensure we’re up to scratch. More specifics to come on this when we’re done!
Health and Safety
This also needs a review as our new project comes to life and we have new areas of our brewery added, some things on our list to get done are:
- Ensure we have a H&S crew committee, that meets regularly to review and update our practices
- Update our risk-assessment sheet for the whole business – ensuring all of our hazards, controls, and safety equipment is up to scratch. Create a regular review time where we check all our controls and equipment are in place per our assessment.
COMMUNITY
We’re currently researching how to increase our score on the community part of the assessment, using the online resources at: https://app.bimpactassessment.net/login
Here’s what we’ve got on our list to get started on straight away:
Supplier Screening Policies & Code of Conduct
We’re going to document our selection process for our suppliers and partners. We already have some strong values for what kind of businesses and people we like to support, but putting this down as a policy is what will get us the points we need!
So, we need to:
- Draft a best-practices document using input from our crew, describing what important criteria we will review each time we want to bring a new supplier into the business – and what our minimum expectations of conducting business are
- Ensure this policy is in line with recommendations from B-corp
- Decide on how we will get the information we need from our suppliers on an ongoing basis to make the right choices
- Review all current suppliers using this policy – identify any suppliers that we may need to re-evaluate
Actively use this policy when meeting/looking for new suppliers
Civic Engagment
We need to review how we use the business’s resources to increase the engagement in local non-profit community organizations – either on behalf of the business or encouraging personal engagement of us crew members. More to come on what we’ve developed to increase our involvement!
ENVIRONMENT
This is a big one! Another pillar of the B-corp assessment is our Environmental Impact. We’re going to draft a plan of action for this – reviewing all the b-corp resources available and applying them to our whole business.
Our main operations right now are our Tasting Room & Kitchen, Brewery, Farm and Barrel-house. We’ll look at all the opportunities in these areas to mitigate our negative impact on the environment. There will likely be a lot to do on this area, given the dynamic nature of our business – so we’ll probably be working on it for a while!
We’re going to get this put together, and report back to you on what we’re going to get DONE!
That’s the update for now – we’re looking forward to diving back into this hard as we come out of our busy season. It can be a challenge as a small, growing business to find time in the day and week to make this a priority – with all the urgent and important day-to-day things that need to get done. But we’re going to do it!
xo The Field House Crew