Dive Brief:

• Imperfect Foods has been named a Certified B Corporation in recognition of the online grocer's sustainability efforts, according to a Monday press release.
• The designation, granted by the nonprofit organization B Lab, is given to companies that balance their business objectives with a strong focus on environmental and societal goals.
• Imperfect Foods has rapidly scaled its grocery delivery service and says it is on course to prevent more than 50 million pounds of food from being discarded in 2021.

Dive Insight:

According to Imperfect Foods, the company's achievement of Certified B Corporation status reflects its focus on "producing a specific positive benefit for people and the planet."

On its website, B Lab notes that companies that earn B Corporation status are "accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy." The organization says it is seeing "overwhelming interest" in the certification, and notes that about a third of B Corporation applicants are successful in their quest to win the designation. B Lab certified the first B Corporations in 2007.

About 4,000 companies in 77 countries have achieved B Corporation certification, according to the press release.

Imperfect Foods has played a prominent role as grocers have stepped up their efforts in recent years to repurpose foods that might otherwise have been sent to landfills. Imperfect Foods, which got its start selling produce deemed unsalable by traditional supermarkets and has since expanded into a full-service grocery seller, noted in the press release that it has delivered 25 million boxes of food and rescued more than 150 million pounds of food since it was founded in 2015.

In addition to striving to keep food from being wasted, Imperfect Foods is looking to cut the amount of energy it uses to run its facilities and transport products. In March, Imperfect Foods said it intended to become a net-zero carbon company by 2030, a goal it intends to pursue in part by running its fulfillment centers on 100% renewable energy by 2026 and using only electric vehicles by 2027.

Imperfect Foods saw triple-digit growth in 2020 as consumer interest in its offerings surged during the pandemic, and the company closed a Series D financing round in January that brought in $95 million — an amount that later raised to $110 million as new investors came on board. But the company has also seen internal strife, high-level executive turnover and layoffs, and sales have subsided in 2021, Business Insider reported in September.