The Netherlands, Utrecht, 18 July 2023 – Ahold Delhaize’s Dutch e-commerce brand, bol.com, announced today that it can now call itself B Corp. This certification shows bol.com is on the right track towards a more sustainable and socially responsible organization. With its 13 million customers and 52,000 local sales partners, bol.com is proud to be an e-commerce platform of this size to achieve the certification. A B Corp must meet high, verified standards in terms of social and environmental impact, accountability and transparency. During the certification process, bol.com was assessed on all aspects of the business; from employees to suppliers and customers. Bol.com sees the certification as a milestone and means to assess, set targets and further improve more sustainable and socially responsible business practices.
Boukje Taphoorn, Chief Marketing & Sustainability Officer at bol.com, emphasizes that in addition to a sense of pride, the B Corp Certification sets a new standard for the future: "Of course it's fantastic that we are getting recognition in this way for our more sustainable choices and the social steps we have already taken so far. But we do not see certification as an end in itself. With the B Corp Certification, we are making a commitment for the future to continuously increase our positive impact on society. In addition, the certification process makes us even more aware of our impact on the earth. As one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the Netherlands and Belgium, we believe it is important to contribute to making more sustainable choices available and facilitating more sustainable options for everyone in the chain. That doesn't stop at the environment. We also want to do so in terms of corporate culture, transparency and social impact."
Wouter Kolk, CEO Ahold Delhaize Europe and Indonesia said: “I am proud of bol.com’s achievement. Being a company with this amount and variety of products, customers and sales partners, means that every step has significant impact. Bol.com’s commitment to taking customers and sales partners along on its journey, aligns perfectly with Ahold Delhaize’s goal to make healthy and sustainable choices easy for everyone.”
Process towards B Corp
Every year, bol.com reports progress on corporate social responsibility and the sustainability of its own processes. Today, bol.com also presented its 2022 sustainability report. The sustainable and social steps made, partly form the basis of the route to B Corp Certification. Tessa van Soest, Executive Director B Lab Benelux: "With the achievement of the B Corp Certification, bol.com has reached an important milestone. We support bol.com's efforts to encourage customers to make increasingly more sustainable choices and to help their sales partners become more sustainable. We welcome bol.com to the community and look forward to bol.com's future steps in their sustainability journey."
How bol.com is making more sustainable choices
In recent years, bol.com has been working on concrete steps in the field of corporate social responsibility. Some examples:
- Bol.com became the first e-commerce company in the Netherlands and Belgium to be certified to the Climate Neutral Standard in April 2022, and received the certificate again in 2023. The certification and annual audit helps bol.com keep a sharp eye on whether it is on the right track in reducing its footprint;
- The bol.com fulfilment center, bol.com's logistics center, has been running on 100% green electricity since 2020, generated by its solar roof with 13,000 solar panels and wind turbines next to the building;
- 23 advanced packing machines in the bol.com fulfilment center provide smarter and tailored packaging of items together, for smaller packages, less packaging material and as little empty air as possible.
- In July 2022, bol.com founded Ampère, a startup that collects parcels from sales partners and brings them to delivery services as sustainably as possible. The delivery services, in turn, bring the parcels to the customer in a sustainable way. For example, the vans run on HVO, a renewable diesel made from vegetable oils. In addition, Ampère has a dense network of delivery points, making it easy for sales partners to deliver their parcels locally;
- On its website, bol.com helps its customers make more sustainable choices by labelling products as 'Sustainable Choice' and, in collaboration with Milieu Centraal, it is investigating how the company can better guide consumers to make more sustainable choices;
- As an employer, bol.com offers a vitality program, the option of holiday exchanges and a bonus scheme.
- Bol.com is committed to equal opportunities for children in the field of reading development and digital skills through its Bollebozen program. For example, bol.com has reached more than 250,000 children through various activities with Bollebozen by 2022, such as developing Letter Fun Packages to combat the reading dip during the holidays;
- Subject to customary conditions, including approval of the Consumer & Market Authority, bol.com is acquiring all shares in Cycloon. Intensifying the cooperation will enable Cycloon to scale up faster. This will optimize the synergy between both organizations and enable bol.com and Cycloon to realize more impact in making delivery more sustainable and social.
B Corp Certification: how does it work?
Every B Corp goes through an evaluation of its operations in five areas: governance, employees, community, environment and customers. Most companies score around 50 points in this evaluation. To get certified, you need to score a minimum of 80 points. Bol.com, compared to many other B Corps, is a relatively large company. When companies like bol.com seek certification, B Lab, the independent organization behind B Corp Certification, takes an even more thorough look at all business processes. Companies with B Corp status go through a rigorous assessment every three years to maintain it.
Throughout the B Corp process, which has lasted more than two years, bol.com has continuously worked on improvements for a more sustainable and social bol.com. The process consists of several steps: a risk analysis, impact assessment and improvement and verification of the results by B-Lab. The result is the publication of the assessment that provides full transparency on bol.com's sustainability performance. View bol.com's full B Corp assessment here. The certification was achieved with 81.2 points.
