2023 was a milestone year for Pure Strategies. We celebrated Pure Strategies’ 25^th year in business and the 6^th Anniversary of our first B Corp certification. As the busy year unfolded, Pure Strategies continued to advance on our mission of transforming business to create a more sustainable future. We did this through dedicated client work and employee volunteer efforts in our communities.

The core of our business is working with companies to advance environmental and social performance. In 2023, our team provided sustainability consulting support to clients that included top leaders in more than 15 industries, with a major focus on retail, food and beverage, and apparel. We were privileged to continue our work with Walmart, Ben & Jerry’s, MilliporeSigma, Kroger, Toyota Motor North America, and many other leading companies. This report highlights some of this client work, while demonstrating ways that we continue to advance B Corp values that align with our own vision of a world where the climate is stabilized, nature is restored, and we have achieved a safe and socially equitable world.

Moving Sustainability Forward with World-Changing Ideas

In 2023, we worked with Seventh Generation to unveil a new approach to evaluate, disclose, and act on the climate performance of key business relationships of banking, insurance, marketing, creative services, philanthropy, advocacy and other corporate activities. The new approach, Climate Fingerprints, has been named as a finalist on Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas list: 19 Companies Actively Working to Address the Climate Crisis.

It was exciting to see that some of our clients made the list of Fast Company's most innovative companies in 2023, including TAZO, Lush, and Simple Mills. TAZO publicly recognized Pure Strategies for the sustainability efforts and impact that we helped them to achieve. In the article, Fast Company notes, “Many of this year’s most innovative companies in food focused on products and packaging that help the planet. Twenty-nine-year-old tea company TAZO overhauled its entire supply chain to sell tea from farms that use regenerative farming practices. Simple Mills was recognized for championing biodiversity and using unloved, yet vital, ingredients, such as buckwheat, which rejuvenates soil and helps farmers prevent the spread of weeds.”

Our team continued to support the expansion of corporate efforts for nature. Major automotive maker, Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) is looking to do its part to reverse the impacts of human activity that have accelerated biodiversity loss. Its 2050 ambitions include “living in harmony with nature”. TMNA worked with Pure Strategies to help develop specific goals and plans to progress toward its nature aim. Their nature goals included biodiversity restoration efforts at manufacturing locations and in areas beyond the supply chain to total at least 26,000 acres of pollinator habitat by the end of 2025. By the end of 2023, TMNA had supported the development of 10,338 acres of pollinator habitat - with more habitat restoration planned in 2024.

Pure Strategies also launched the Nature Action Forum for Business, a sustainability learning cohort, to help companies take action on their nature programs. Participants in the inaugural program included Stonyfield Organic, Everlane, Lush, Ralph Lauren, Once Upon a Farm, and several other leading companies. This program continues into 2024 with a new cohort of companies.

In 2023, Pure Strategies continued our groundbreaking work with FMI The Food Industry Association, helping them to create a second playbook - the Sustainable Packaging Assessment Guide that is publicly available at no cost. The guide provides a standardized set of questions to ask suppliers to help develop a sustainable packaging baseline and monitor progress. The timing for this resource coincides with the increase in regulatory requirements for companies to report this type of information and improve the sustainability of their packaging through extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws.

The playbook also provides guidance to assist companies and their suppliers in advancing efficient design, responsible sourcing, and circular systems for packaging with topics ranging from material sourcing to design, to end-of-use, with a particular focus on recyclability.

Climate action continued to be a top priority for many of our clients’ corporate sustainability strategies. Last year, we continued our work to help businesses of all sizes take needed steps to understand their carbon hotspots, establish meaningful targets and plans, and then work with them to make the appropriate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. For example, we helped companies to assess their carbon footprint and set ambitious science-based targets for climate and helped to reduce emissions from Scope 3 sources. In addition, we helped businesses to overcome Scope 3 data challenges to help meet supply chain targets. We also helped the National Retail Federation (NRF) to release its new report The Carbon Footprint of Retail Products to help consumers understand the climate impacts of shopping.

Creating Change Through Thought Leadership

Through articles, industry recognition, and well-attended webinars and presentations, our team continued to make an impact and extend our global reach beyond our client sustainability work. In 2023, Pure Strategies’ VP of Sustainability Consulting, Cheryl Baldwin was named one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of DC based on a methodical review of women executives and leaders across the area. She was identified for her career track record, including her leadership position at Pure Strategies. The recognition came from Women We Admire (WWA), a membership organization of over 1,200 of the most accomplished women leaders in business, law, consulting, education, non-profit and other sectors.

In 2023, we continued to help our clients understand the connection between the climate crisis and the need to protect and restore nature and biodiversity. In some of our articles in GreenBiz, we explained how climate and nature are interconnected and the critical role businesses can play in managing deforestation, a notable and preventable source of greenhouse gas emissions. We explored how packaging has become a focus of emerging regulations and that companies will need to make the shift to more sustainable packaging.

Pure Strategies held its first Climate Week NYC events in 2023. Our team hosted well-attended sessions including Lessons from FLAG, a workshop on Connecting Corporate Climate and Nature Strategies, and a panel on Brands Scaling Scope 3 GHG Solutions. Feedback on our events was positive including one attendee sharing that our nature session was “the best session they attended all week.” We are already planning for 2024 Climate Week with valuable events.

Community Engagement and Giving Back

Our business and staff continued to grow in 2023, and the cumulative annual corporate giving and employee matching programs resulted in donations of $16,179. The top organizations for our giving in 2023 were the Climate Collaborative, Change is Simple, and The Food Project. Additional giving and paid volunteer time went to several organizations with values that align with our own.

For example, we supported the important work of The Farmlink Project, to help connect farmers to communities facing food insecurity. The Farmlink Project delivers millions of pounds of fresh produce to families in need. We donated to The Trustees of the Reservation, The Shelter House, Salvation Army, and The Lazurus House to support basic needs in our communities for clothing, shelter, food and more. And we volunteered for the Mystic River Watershed program - monitoring and collecting data used to support the food chain of other marine life and improving biodiversity in the Mystic Lakes.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)

In 2023, Pure Strategies continued with its successful “Future Leaders in Corporate Sustainability,” Mentorship Program, which provides an opportunity for students, recent graduates, and early-stage professionals who are interested in a career in corporate sustainability, especially those with identities underrepresented in the field of corporate sustainability, to participate in a four-month long formal mentoring program. The program welcomed new mentees in the Spring of 2023, Jenny Litzau and Tyler McCafferty. For this mentor program and our internship program, we purposefully reach out to historically black colleges and universities and other organizations to connect with underrepresented communities in the field of corporate sustainability to help advance progress in this area.

We added to the Pure Strategies staff, increasing diversity and inclusion, and the representation of women on our team. Take a look at our current staff here.

Putting B Corp Values into Daily Practice

Throughout 2023, we continued to put B Corp values into daily practice, particularly for climate and nature action. Pure Strategies has a small carbon footprint (at about 50 tons per year). We track our emissions and work to reduce and neutralize remaining emissions. A few examples of our efforts include environmentally preferable purchasing - such as selecting lower-impact food for our meetings and energy-efficient office equipment. Our travel planning also considers ways to reduce emissions, such as minimizing total travel and using lower-impact options such as public transportation and bikes. We work with Native to compensate for the remaining emissions.

As a founding member of the B Corp Climate Collective, we offered insights to the Financial Responsibility Work Group and attended several impact improvement workshops and cohorts for working on our DEI and climate activism initiatives. In 2023, we engaged in feedback on the next set of B Corp standards and attended Town Halls. On a local level, we are a member of the B Local Boston and have sponsored and helped organize the annual BLDNE event.

Renewed Hope for a Sustainable Future

2023 was a milestone year for Pure Strategies, as we celebrated 25 years in sustainability consulting. We reflect on the past 25 years and are extremely proud of the progress we have made – helping our clients to be leaders in environmental and social performance. We are grateful for what this milestone has meant to our business and for the meaningful project work we have led for our clients. We are excited that we continue to have “firsts” – including the introduction of the Pure Strategies Nature Action Forum and our debut at Climate Week NYC.

Pure Strategies is dedicated to our mission and continuous improvement to bring transformative and meaningful progress in corporate sustainability performance. We realize there is more work to be done and a need to accelerate progress, but we are optimistic that we are on the right path, and that, by working together, we can continue to make progress, and advance corporate sustainability action to create the sustainable future we need.

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Bob Kerr, Co-Founder and Principal at Pure Strategies.

Katrina Shum, Pure Strategies’ Benefits Corporation Board Member, oversees the company’s Benefits Report and implementation of B Corp social and environmental values across the company.

Katrina is a sustainability leader with two decades of experience. She has developed and implemented high impact environmental and social programs across the value chain that build brand value and drive operational efficiency and business resilience. She believes in building meaningful relationships, guiding with empathy and the power of businesses to create an equitable and thriving planet for all.

With diverse experience in retail, manufacturing, personal care/cosmetics, food and beverage, CPG, and hospitality/service, Katrina is adept at drawing connections between emerging opportunities, risks, trends, research, and real life. She crafted actionable strategies and led cross-functional teams as the Head of Regeneration & Sustainability at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. She also initiated new pilots and programs, building the foundation for more sustainable food systems as a Sustainability Director for Aramark. Internationally, Katrina has worked on ecotourism and community-based tourism projects with local and indigenous communities in Mongolia, Laos, and Malaysia. She also serves on the Board for EMBERS, an award-winning social enterprise creating economic and employment opportunities for those facing barriers to work.

Katrina’s areas of expertise include corporate sustainability strategy, climate action planning and impact measurement, circularity and zero waste, cross-functional leadership, multi-stakeholder engagement and embedding sustainability into operational processes, policies, and the built environment. Katrina holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a BS from Cornell University.