#bcorpmonth

Did you know that Down to Earth Markets is a Certified B Corp and that March means B Corp Month for us and other B Corps? In case you aren’t familiar with B Corp certification, it is a designation signifying that a business demonstrates high social and environmental performance, has made a legal commitment to its social performance obligations by changing its corporate governance structure, and exhibits transparency in its impact measurement and reporting. Certified B Corporations are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Down to Earth Markets is not only mission-driven, but committed to demonstrating its impact on our area of focus with this external certification process. 

Down to Earth Markets has held B Corporation designation since 2014. To maintain our certification, the company undergoes a rigorous application process and point-based evaluation system every three years. As a company rooted in social change and using our business as a force for good, it is important for us to embrace the highest B Corp standards and hold ourselves to these corporate values through continued recertification. 

The theme for B Corp Month this year is We Go Beyond. Here is an overview of how Down to Earth Markets goes beyond every day to strengthen our regional food system – and the local economy – while aligning our business values with the values of community and environmental care. 

1. We Go Beyond: Down to Earth Markets was Founded on Social and Environmental Change

Certified B Corps are companies driven to make a positive social and environmental impact that is demonstrated by achieving a high B Impact Assessment score. Down to Earth Markets was founded by Miriam Haas with social and environmental impact at its core when she launched the company’s first Ossining-based farmers market back in 1991. Out of concern for the lack of transparency in the global food industry and limited access to fresh, local foods in many New York communities, she set out to connect with nearby food sources. Two Hudson Valley farmers answered her call, and together they began selling produce directly to shoppers at the weekly market. Today Down to Earth Markets connects cooks and eaters with small-scale regional farmers and food producers at our farmers markets across Westchester, Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. 

2. We Go Beyond: Down to Earth Markets Practices Good Corporate Governance

As a Certified B Corp, Down to Earth Markets must meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. We are required to build a corporate governance structure that is accountable to all stakeholders. Down to Earth Markets considers the impact on our community, employees and the environment with every business decision that we make. We embrace certification, local sourcing and community-scale commerce as the best ways to ensure transparency in business and our food system. In addition, Down to Earth Markets has achieved New York Benefit Corporation status -- a corporate form designed for for-profit entities that want to consider society and the environment, in addition to profit, in their decision-making process.  

3. We Go Beyond: Down to Earth Markets Provides Economic Opportunity

Down to Earth Markets actively seeks out early-stage farms and food producers to give them a marketplace entry-point to help jumpstart their businesses. We see micro- and small-scale businesses as the preservationists of our rich and eclectic foodways, but also essential to the health of our regional economy. In addition, we assert the critical importance of having a robust local food production system to food system transparency and food security. 

Our markets act as both incubators and steppingstones by providing venues through which farmers and foodmakers can reach a wider audience with their products. At the core are our farmers who often live in rural, upstate communities that are geographically more isolated and economically challenged. Down to Earth Markets provides an opportunity for these underserved populations, thereby strengthening our regional food system to provide an alternative to industrial food and create a viable economy for small-scale farms.  

4. We Go Beyond: Down to Earth Markets Promotes Better Environmental Stewardship 

Down to Earth Markets believes that seasonal, local food is a vital part of our heritage that ensures the health of our communities and environment. The impact can be found in multiple areas: 

Our farms raise many different crops, preserving their lands’ health and biodiversity. The majority of farms that operate within our markets use regenerative or low-impact agricultural techniques that promote and protect the health of our ecosystems. These include seasonal production, organic growing, cover crops, reduced tillage, on-site composting and other healthy soil practices. 

By providing communities with locally grown, in season produce our farms incur fewer food transportation miles and associated carbon emissions than that of industrially produced food.  

The meat and poultry our farms produce has been sustainably and humanely raised requiring significantly less land-use change, water waste and energy expenditure than that of industrial factory farms. 

Prepared foods are made with ingredients and at a scale that eliminates the toll of factory food production. 

The products sold by our farms and food creators have minimal to no packaging which helps reduce the volume of trash entering our waste stream. 

Down to Earth Markets encourages shoppers to bring their reusable shopping bags and asks vendors to refrain from providing single-use plastic produce and shopping bags unless necessitated by the type of item.

This month we join our fellow B Corporations in raising awareness about what B Corp Certification is and what sets us apart. For us here at Down to Earth Markets, our B Corp Certification is an assertion that, while along with our partner farmers and food makers we participate in the business of trade at our farmers markets, we have choices about how we do business. After having operated as a mission-driven company since our founding in 1991, in 2014 we went through the rigorous certification process and signed on to the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence. As the Declaration states, "we envision a global economy that uses business as a force for good." We believe:

That we must be the change we seek in the world.

That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered.

That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all.

To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.