Our impact strategy

To deliver on this mission we developed our Impact Strategy, which focuses on three pillars: Reduce, Care and Engage. These pillars guide our decision-making process on all different levels. From choosing suppliers that deliver responsibly sourced materials that meet environmental and social standards, to reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions.

We believe our mission won’t be easy – in fact, we have a challenging road ahead - and we would like to take you with us on our journey.

REDUCE

We want to reduce our impact on the planet in multiple ways. We’ve committed to the Paris agreement, which means that we need to substantially reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The first step of this massive challenge is that we’re measuring our emissions from all our operations globally. This will help us to find both easy and smart solutions where we can invest to lower our footprint.

CARE

At Bolsius, we care for all of us – both people an planet. On the people side, this means that for one we want to be a great place to work. We focus on ensuring the culture, diversity, inclusivity, development and wellbeing of our workforce. But we also support our local communities, by donating our time, products and contributions to support those communities and causes in need. On the planet side, we contribute to habitat regeneration, by working to preserve and regenerate biodiversity and increase carbon sinks.

ENGAGE

Collaborating with all stakeholders is the only way to create meaningful impact. That’s why we want to make all our employees sustainability champions. We develop climate and sustainability awareness amongst our people - and consumers - and put sustainability at the heart of everything we do. We also collaborate with partners in our value chain. For example by exchanging environmental data with suppliers to develop joint impact reduction plans and identify circular economy opportunities.

Sourcing sustainable wax

A raw material dilemma

One of the dilemmas we face in the industry lays in the sourcing of wax. How to deliver the best quality product and make the most future-proof decisions possible? The traditional main material in a candle is wax. Typically solid at room temperature, it can come from three main sources: paraffin (a by-product of petroleum refineries producing lubricants), animal- or plant-based fats. Unfortunately, choosing the best material is not always black and white.

Our footprint and decarbonization plans

To limit global warming to well below 2°C and do the utmost to limit it to 1.5°C requires the world to become carbon neutral by 2050. This means that CO2 released into the atmosphere because of human activities must be balanced by human driven increase in CO2 capture, whether leveraging technical or nature based solutions.

Based on our latest GHG-assessment results we have reviewed our footprint and work on building a 10-year decarbonization roadmap. Reviewing our FY2022 emissions via the GHG protocol has enabled us to redefine our strategy, reduction targets and make our commitment to the planet public via the Science based target initiative. We strive to be able to validate our targets early 2024.

We are a certified B Corp

As a B Corp, we're part of a global community of businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental impact. Organizations that use their business as a force of good. It marks the beginning of our journey towards continuous improvement and collective action.

What is B Corp?

B Corp Certification is a validation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on areas of employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain and materials. The 7,600+ Certified B Corporations worldwide are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

In order to achieve certification, a company must demonstrate high social and environmental performance, make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders - not just shareholders - and exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website. B Lab is the non-profit organization behind the B Corp certification. You can learn more about B Corp and B Lab on their website.

Why we believe in the B Corp movement

B Corp Certification is a validation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on areas of employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain and materials. The 7,600+ Certified B Corporations worldwide are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

In order to achieve certification, a company must demonstrate high social and environmental performance, make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders - not just shareholders - and exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website. B Lab is the non-profit organization behind the B Corp certification. You can learn more about B Corp and B Lab on their website.