B Corp: A Path to a Better Planet
Walden has been a proud B Corp since 2017. This designation is for “businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” At Walden, we endeavor to be pioneers in sustainable agriculture, providing our members with the highest quality, responsibly sourced food.
As an impact-focused company, it is our directive to intentionally build, grow, and strengthen the communities we serve. As a public benefit corporation, our mandate is to:
- connect adjacent rural and urban communities to reinvigorate sustainable local agricultural systems;
- produce the healthiest products possible with industry-leading standards of animal welfare and environmental sustainability; and
- create incentives for farmers to move to more regenerative practices, including those that are not simply “do less harm,” but that provide a net positive benefit to the environment and surrounding communities.
It is very important to us that we report on both our accomplishments in 2023, as well as where we need to improve. Below, we’ve detailed a brief summary of these efforts, but our full annual report can be found at the link here.
In 2023, Walden celebrated our ten-year anniversary. For the past decade, we have worked steadily to build a business on a solid foundation of values and principles. As we enter our next ten years, we are taking a good hard look at our business model and how we can best act on those values and principles. Good businesses, even great businesses, can fail if they refuse to change. In 2024 and beyond, Walden will be making changes big and small to ensure that our business, and the values behind it, persists for decades to come.
COVID brought many operational and supply chain challenges to our business, but also gave us the chance to share the Walden experience with families around the Northeast who may not have considered a meat share before. Overnight, our offering of local meat, safely and consistently delivered to your door, became more important than ever before. Our team worked tirelessly to keep our doors open and serve the thousands of new families that came to us during COVID. We deepened our commitment to local partnerships, our team members, and our farm partners. Our business grew substantially, and fast.
In this new era, our team is adapting to new challenges. Rising inflation has made it near impossible to keep our costs steady. Cattle prices have soared to record highs, and the domestic cattle inventory is still at a 73 year low, making finding enough 100% grass-fed and finished beef exceptionally difficult. While these macro challenges are affecting businesses across the U.S., Walden has faced our own specific challenges.
As a certified B Corporation and legally incorporated Public Benefit Corporation, we hold ourselves to the highest standards when it comes to treating our farmers, employees, and other vendors well. We refuse to cut corners and compromise on what matters most to us: supporting the highest farming standards in the industry, being a great place to work, and offering exceptional service to our community of members and neighbors.
In 2023, we re-launched our lamb program, bringing back a member favorite and adding another crucial partner farm to our New York state roster. We also grew and diversified our beef partners substantially and re-launched a program that allowed grazers to custom finish Walden-owned cattle. This meant investing substantially in cattle and taking on more risk in our business. We made these commitments in service of our members, our values, and our vision of a thriving, independent food system.
In 2024, we are working with our existing beef partners to ensure that they can finance and grow their own cattle herds. We are also folding new regions into our cattle sourcing to ensure we have a consistent, year-round supply of beef raised the Walden Way. Our commitment to connecting rural and urban communities, producing the healthiest products possible, and creating incentives with a net positive benefit is steadfast. How we achieve these benefits, which are core to Walden, has to and will start to change.
Many of these changes will expand our impact, broaden our reach, and solidify the foundation of our business for the future. We are proud to share how we pursued our mission in 2023 in the report below. We’re thankful to the members, farmers, butchers, Walden team members, and supporters of our business that have made this impact possible.
—All of us at Walden
1Source: bcorporation.net
