Our Journey to B Corp and why it matters.
Meet Finn, an indispensable piece of the Otis puzzle and a driving force behind our journey to becoming a Certified B Corporation company.
Finn shares the ins and outs of this journey, what a B corp actually is, and why we should care where we spend our money.
Hi Finn, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live and your favourite pastime outside of slinging NZ oat milk?
I’m lucky enough to live in Mount Maunganui, with my partner Bella and our dog, Archie. Naturally being so close to the beach with an energetic border collie, I’ll either be surfing or running.
Tell us a bit about your role at Otis?
We are a small team, so while my title is National Sales Manager, there is lots of cross over. While my main responsibility is making sure your local supermarket has Otis on the shelf, or your favourite cafe has us behind the machine, I manage to find myself in all areas from operations, to marketing, to sustainability, including taking Otis through the B Corp journey.
March is B Corp month, where we get to celebrate all the hard working brands that strive to hold themselves to a higher bar.
Can you tell us what B Corp means to you, and Otis?
Otis has a very clear north star, to diversify NZ’s agriculture and improve environmental outcomes through oats. That’s what we come to work each day to do.
So achieving B Corp certification is one way of validating all that work for team internally, while promoting continuous improvement and hopefully also reminding those that drink Otis that they are contributing positively too!
Personally, having grown up swimming in our rivers, surfing around the world, seeing the huge amount of plastic pollution (particularly in Asia) and what purely profit driven production and consumption does to our environment, B Corp certification and being part of that community helps hold everyone to a better standard.
You led Otis on its B Corp journey, how was this journey?
Long. For smaller businesses, you might be doing a lot of the right things, but being able to put that all together and pull all the proof points, that can take months and months while trying to fit a normal work day in. Really diving into the supply chain it might initially bring more questions than answers, so while you can feel great about all the points you can score toward certification, you’ll come to understand all of the points you are leaving on the table, and what further work needs to be done.
All in, it creates a great foundation and direction for how Otis can keep building in this space.
Why should consumers care about choosing B Corp products and companies?
In this current global socioeconomic climate, particularly in the last 12 months, we are unfortunately seeing a trend of environmental commitments being put aside by governments, huge corporates making excessive profits, climate change events ramping up and inequality increasing.
That being said, there’s also lots of technological innovation and advancements that we should be excited about too!
So it’s more important than ever for consumers to be mindful that, while it’s a challenging time for a lot of households, every dollar we spend has an impact.
How you fill your trolley each week can drive change.
B Corp is one barometer customers can use to identify brands and products that at have clear commitments beyond profitability, those that walk the walk and not just talk the talk with whatever sustainability buzz word is being thrown around at the time.
Who’s our money going to, and what are they doing with it is a good question to keep asking ourselves when spending our hard earned.
Can you tell us what you and the team are doing to keep raising its bar, and any exciting projects coming up?
I wish more people knew about our 1% fund! Every litre of milk sold contributes to the development and sustainability of oat growing in NZ - breeding more nutritious, drought tolerant varieties, giving farmers more yield, etc. The bigger the incentive for oat growing here at home, the more this drives change locally.
I’m also excited to see the return of our organic milk, as this is a real journey in itself to bring to life, as well as just launching our new High Fibre milk last month!
Plus lots of other things I can’t speak to just yet…
Also can’t forget that the wider container return scheme for cartons continues to grow, so across the country there are more and more places to return your empty cartons, ensuring they are recycled here in NZ to have a second life!
