At BÉSICS^® our goal is to provide high quality, high performance products from start to finish. For us, it starts with making our products out of renewable resources (plants!). Renewable means the source material regrows in a short period – with sugarcane and vegetables, every year, and with trees, a few more. Non-renewable resources (like fossil fuels) take millennia to rebuild. Choosing renewable resources is a more sustainable option in the long term, and reduces the demand for our limited fossil fuel supplies. Equally important is that these resources are sustainably grown, and managed in ways that help their ecosystem support future growth.

HOW WE ASSESS IT

We start by keeping detailed product formulas to ensure our product’s renewable content, and back this up with third party certifications that confirm their bio-based (a.k.a. renewable) content. To vet sustainable resource management, we value the work of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and Chain of Custody programs for tree-based products, while we use our own on-site assessments for sugarcane.

The certification schemes we use to choose our material sources include:

1. Non-GMO and Offset Programs
2. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
3. Sustainable Forests Initiative (SFI)
4. Vincotte OK Bio-based
5. USDA Bio-Based

A huge aspect of our quality control and safety assurance is in the manufacture of our products. As we develop every product, we affirm that BÉSICS^® processors maintain food-safe requirements from entry to exit. The formal way to do this is through international organizations that provide third party certifications. These unbiased assessments are voluntary for the suppliers, and are a prerequisite for becoming a BÉSICS^® product.

HOW WE ASSESS IT

To meet our B2 standards, our suppliers have had their operations tested according to international standards for health and safety for food contact. In addition to only sourcing products from manufacturers that comply with these international standards, our CEO personally visits overseas suppliers with our on-site checklist.

The certifications for safety in manufacture that our suppliers hold are:

1. British Retail Consortium (BRC)
2. ISO Overview
3. ISO 14001
4. ISO 9001
5. NSF

Exceptional products come from exceptional people, and we put high value on a decent, safe, and supportive workplace both at home and with our suppliers abroad. For our home operations, we actively respect and implement workplace standards set by the Canadian government. For the operations that are further away, we have used internationally recognized standards for workplace conditions to compile our own checklist that we apply on site.

HOW WE ASSESS IT

Before we choose a product we have to visit the facilities that make it with our workplace conditions requirements in hand. The environment we’re looking for abroad includes a legal age of workers, no prison or forced labour, fair pay, time off and overtime, and, where appropriate, factory accommodations.

At home, in addition to using Canadian standards for workplace conditions we provide custom flex time for employees, encourage and fund out-of-office training, and foster and support career development in addition to our daily atmosphere with office stretch breaks and employee-chosen snacks.

The products you eat from should be the same high quality as the food you put in them, so our responsibility to you is ensuring every item we sell is fit for your food. To do this, we work with both required and voluntary national regulatory agencies that approve consumer products for food contact. This requires deeply digging into every product formulation and supply chain, so you can be sure our products are safe for you and your family!

HOW WE ASSESS IT

To get an unbiased assessment of our product safety we turn to national regulatory agencies. With their full complement of scientists that oversee all consumer products entering our market, their resources help us understand every factor of our product’s composition. Supporting this process, our suppliers vet their products with third party international certifications.

The national regulatory agencies we turn to are:

1. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
2. Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada

The third party certifications most useful for our product lines are:

1. Migration Studies – Food Contact
2. Bacterial presence (coliforms)
3. Hazard Analysis and Critical Point System (HACCP)
4. ISO 2200:2005 Food Safety

Since food makes great compost, it makes sense that the products food is served on can also go in the compost! All of our products are certified compostable by internationally recognized agencies, but we go beyond this to ensure compostability in our market areas. We know acceptance varies by compost facility, so we are spearheading research into on-site compostability with local and international partners to answer the question of how to make sure compostable products go to the right place after use.

HOW WE ASSESS IT

To select a product, it must meet the formal international standards for compostability that use third party laboratory testing. Once we have chosen it, we need to see how our it fits into the real-world waste stream, so with our ongoing facility survey we bring you our Where to Compost BÉSICS^®map to find facilities accepting our products nearest you!

The international standards we rely on the most and the certifying bodies that use them include:

1. ASTM (D6400, D6868) applied by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI)
2. European Norm 13432 applied by DIN CERCO and Vincotte OK Compost: Industrial and/or Home

A carbon footprint describes the approximate amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, a product or a company. Our initial aim is to do a complete carbon assessment of our immediate operations at our headquarters, and then in future years calculate our carbon footprint to both ends of our supply chain, for each product. We’re just starting this in 2014, so keep watch as it develops!

HOW WE ASSESS IT

Our carbon footprinting is in the works! If you’d like to learn more about doing a carbon footprint, these are some of the resources we’re using to develop ours: If you’d like to learn more about doing a carbon footprint, the first resource we’re using to develop ours is Climate Smart.