Panino Giusto is the first Italian B Corporation in food services: “with a panino, we will make the world a better place”.

The transformation in a Benefit Corporation, told through the words of Roberta Pontrelli, Panino Giusto’s CFO and Impact manager of the project.

Roberta Pontrelli, Panino Giusto Italia CFO and B Corp project Impact Manager tells more about Panino Giusto’s new identity, a transformation that makes it the first Italian B Corp in the food services sector, joining over 3000 B Corporations working in over 150 different sectors, and in more than 60 countries all over the world:

 “We have reached the required score to obtain the certification in less than a year, and then, we passed and scored even better. We’ve had this B Corp vocation in our DNA for a very long time: from fighting against food waste (which is reflected in our choice to make sandwiches exclusively on order), to educative and inclusive practices for underemployed workers like young migrants, to the great space that women cover in our company, in fact 80%of  all Panino Giusto store managers are women.

 Creating a fairer world through a sandwich is the new Panino Giusto’s vision that, starting today, becomes part of a network of companies certified for their respect for the highest standards of social and environmental performances, for their transparency and responsibility. In this interview Roberta Pontrelli explains what it means and why is it so important for Panino Giusto to be a B Corporation. 

What does it mean to be a certified B Corporation?

 The B Corporation movement is a worldwide phenomenon with a common vision, perspectives and ideas. Starting from the social responsibility that each and every one of us holds towards future generations, business becomes a strong regenerative force and becoming, in fact, the strongest power of change in the world. We believe so much in this ideal that in October 2019 we also became a Benefit Society, intended as a juridical variation, which means we contemplate social wellness in our charter. 

Why invest on this kind of activities?

 Nowadays we face with the direst of situations and we mustn’t delegate to others what we can do ourselves. Every B Corp company must become an example to follow, because we possess the awareness that those responsible for change and the only ones that can make something to improve the society we live in, is us.

Is it possible to conciliate economy and ethics?

 Of course, B Corp companies prerogative is to carry on with their economic activity while at the same time protecting the environment and the people living in it. In the long run, this approach has a positive impact on economy and the companies create new value, instead of consuming the already limited environmental resources. We are proud to be part of the Italian B Economy, to practice it and spread its culture.

How do you measure the impact of a company on society?

Companies consume resources to create their business. B Corp movement, however, is a regenerative movement and gives back to the environment more resources than those it consumes, this is done through structural investments that have a positive return in the medium/long period.

There are different methods to measure the impact of a company on a community. We evaluated ourselves for more than a year with the help of B Lab Assessment  (a no profit committed to a global movement made of people that use their business as a positive impact force and that evaluates companies that want to become B Corp) to improve our internal processes in terms of sustainability and safeguarding of communities and of environment. We were certified in January 2020 with a score of 87,1 – a good result considering that the minimum pass score to join the movement is a score of 80.

On which projects were you evaluated and which ones do you intend to carry on during this year?

Having a B Corp vocation engraved in our DNA really was of help, from fighting food waste through our choice of making sandwiches only on order, to educational and inclusive practices for underemployed workers like young migrants, up to the great space that women cover in our company. As of today, the score we attained is referred to many factors, starting from people themselves: for example with smart working and programs dedicated to female empowerment.

When we use the term “people” we also include our customers: one of our next objectives is, in fact, offering to all of Panino Giusto store managers, a course on how to unblock breathing airways, in fact choking is a common accident in restaurants and food services, an accident that can sometimes be fatal. We will also progressively equip our venues with defibrillators to benefit our clients and all people in the vicinity of our venues.

We already started making surveys with our third party collaborators and created a code of conduct for our suppliers to apply to, because our choices can affect the ones made by others too. In the environmental field, we are implementing the bio choice, a local (within 80km range) supply chain policy, we are also implementing water consumption monitoring and we are already using a 100% renewable type of energy, supplied by another B Corp, which makes all this networking circuit even more virtuous. For plastic recycling we already chose returnable glass bottles in all our venues, that will soon become plastic free.