Saint Paul, MN—While advancing in both social and environmental efforts, National Co-op Grocers (NCG) has gained recertification as a Certified B Corporation (B-Corp). Businesses can obtain B-lab certification based on their quality of social, environmental, accountability, and transparency standards. NCG is celebrating its 12^th consecutive year, locking in a spot along with 6,557 B-Corps in 89 countries.

NCG was founded in 1999 in hopes of offering guidance in retail food co-ops within the United States. NCG encourages food co-ops to come together and amplify powers in resources, and now represents 159 co-ops with a combined $2.5 billion in sales annually. 

Since its original B-Corp certification in 2011, NCG has continued to meet B-Corp's evolving standards and expectations. In 2022 alone, NCG’s food co-ops sold more than $121 million of products from fellow B Corps. NCG thrives to push social and environmental impact within localized communities. In this latest recertification process, NCG’s top-scoring categories were Governance and Workplace, and NCG also performed well across additional B Impact Assessment categories including environmental and community. 

“Cooperative businesses, like NCG and the 159 retail food co-ops we serve, are intrinsically aligned with many of B Lab’s positions on governance and social impact,” said C.E. Pugh, NCG CEO, in a press release.  “What’s more, a key reason that communities organize and open food co-ops is because they want a more inclusive local food system and economy. Case in point, the average NCG food co-op works with 281 local producers in its community, connecting metro and rural areas.”

Certified B-Corp businesses stand strongly behind their goals. “Economic systems were built by people, and they can be changed by people,” members explain. The overall goal for those involved in B-corps illustrates a strong financially safe environment while welcoming all people to support loved ones and individual communities to succeed.

Related: Luker Chocolate Becomes B Corporation Certified

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