Sir Kensington’s has always done things differently. In a world of zig, we zag, so that you may enjoy extraordinary, unconventional condiments that better every bite.
We work to source ingredients more thoughtfully, leaning on gold standard certifications such as Certified Humane Free Range eggs, and enable our team to thrive in a people-centered culture. We are incredibly proud of these things, and of how they set us apart. Dive deep into our Impact Strategy here!
Now, before we get all teary-eyed about our saintliness in saving the world one scoop at a time, let’s be clear: we weren’t founded on a social mission. If we’re being honest, we just wanted to put out a ketchup that tasted like real food. But in 2018, eight years after our founding, we began to realize that being a responsible business wasn’t just about touting the convenient, feel-good halo of being a natural foods business. The world was in an increasingly urgent environmental crisis, and capitalism’s effects were wreaking havoc on vulnerable people and resources.
We realized that we needed to hold ourselves to a higher standard not only by measuring our goodness grade but to be real and be rigorous about how we can continuously improve.
If we really wanted to be proud of our work and set an example for others in the industry, we’d need to be more deeply accountable to measurable outcomes. Research; goals; accountability; measurement— these are not the flashy (and often effective) tools of greenwashing, but unsexy and behind-the-scenes work that is necessary to start reforming a bigger problematic system.
It is our pleasure to present to the world what are the first, and certainly not the last, impact goals for Sir Kensington’s. After a thorough process of a materiality assessment, stakeholder conversations, and supply chain analysis, we came to understand where the values of our company intersected with our harmful impacts on the planet and people, and where we had to push ourselves to do better. By putting these goals out there in the world, we vow to be transparent with our progress and explain any shortfalls. We commit to acknowledging and owning our impacts, and to always trying to do better. We only ask that you all continue to hold us accountable for doing so - plus, it will only make you enjoy our condiments that much more.
We set the following goals to push ourselves in these key areas:
1. Supporting Sustainable Agriculture
Goal: Double our volume of certified organic ingredients by 2023.
Organic agriculture is a verified way to reduce chemicals and harm in our food supply and environment. When we reduce these chemicals, we protect our waterways and our soils, and make conditions safer for the people who grow and harvest our ingredients. Research also shows organic production has a lower carbon footprint, making this one way we can reduce our contribution to climate change.
2. Using More Responsible Packaging
Goal: Achieve 100% recyclable and 100% recycled content in rigid plastics and fiber (e.g. paper labels and corrugate) by 2022.
Obvious as it might be, as a packaged goods company, we must acknowledge how the packaging we put on the earth creates unintentional harm. We have the responsibility to address the materials we use, how we use them, and what will happen to them once they’re no longer needed. Sourcing recycled content is an effective way of contributing to a circular economy, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of material that ends up in landfills and oceans.
3. Enlisting our Team in Positive Environmental and Social Impact
Goal: Link performance incentives for 100% of team members to sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) indicators by the end of 2020.
In order to use business as a force for good, it’s crucial that every team member sees impact as part of their job. This goal means that each Sir Kensington’s team member is held responsible for helping us manage our social and environmental impact. By tying performance incentives to our company impact goals— just as they are tied to business performance goals— we are building impact into the engine of our business operations, making it a key aspect of what drives us day to day.
We’re under no illusions that these goals are enough. These goals represent just a few of our first steps. Rest assured that we continue to work beyond these three targets on values-led sourcing across our portfolio of ingredients, on transforming our company around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) values, advancing in our B Corp assessment rating, deepening our community partnerships, and much more. But we hope these ambitious goals which we believe address some of our biggest harms on the planet will signal that we’re not messing around, and we have the courage to publicly hold ourselves accountable for improvement. We hope other companies that haven’t made target-setting part of their sustainability efforts will be inspired to do so, too.
We invite anyone reading this to come on this journey with us. Shoot us a note at hello@sirkensingtons.com to let us know what you think, how we can do more, how you’d like to partner with us, or hey, we’ll also take a couple pats on the back if you’ve got them. But as a certified B Corporation that is focused on long term, continuous assessment and improvement, we promise to never believe that what we’re doing is enough, and to always knock that bar an inch higher. Who knew that when you picked up that jar of mayo, you’d be helping underwrite progress in the food industry? We certainly had no idea when we cooked our first batch of ketchup.
- Scott, Co-founder & CEO, Rebecca, Director of Impact Strategy, and the Sir Kensington’s team
photo by: Lucy Hewett