If you’re seeking out a way to impress investors and business partners, attract employees, increase visibility, build clout with your consumers and stand out in the crowd, certifications are one way to make that happen.
Certifications open your business to perks including new relationships, collaborations, funding, and respect from peers, including competitors. Of course, a well-run business by thought leaders that is truly sustainable, helps the environment, gives back to the community, and delivers products and processes that are revolutionizing multiple industries doesn’t hurt either.
Who Benefits from Certifications?
When a business has the evidence to gain approval from other industry thought leaders, it builds trust with consumers who expect it. What does trust equate to these days? As Forbes.com puts it, “consumer trust is the currency of business, now more than ever.”
At Greenfield Groves Inc., we are proud to hold industry-specific certifications that give our target audience a sense of trust before they even experience our products, customer service, industry knowledge, vertically sustainable supply chain, and more. In a time where our world has lost trust in so many elements of our lives due to COVID-19, people crave protection and care. Our certifications set us apart from others and signify our strengths while validating our social promises to be a clean, transparent, sustainable health and wellness company.
Certifications that Matter
At Greenfield Groves, our team works in tandem to reach our common goals of delivering enterprise and consumer-level solutions with a purpose. Our Benefit Corporation status proves our unique commitment to our business model. This status brings together a harmonized focus to satisfy shareholder value and designates the enterprise value to our customers, employees, partners, community, and the environment.
Who are our customers? Our primary brand, Herban Goods, is focused on educating and providing whole-body wellness solutions to women and their loved ones. Our research tells us women bear an overwhelming load of responsibility and need solutions that fit within their lifestyle. They are also the primary decision-makers and purchasers of household goods and possess increasingly dominant spending power nationwide.
Getting certified as a woman-owned business is no easy task and therefore when it does happen, it makes a very powerful statement. Forbes.com says, “It can potentially help land women entrepreneurs more business opportunities and government contracts.”
We know women NEED an intuitive personal and family care platform. We know women NEED deeper transparency and trust in their personal and family care products. We know women NEED Greenfield Groves. Our founder, Lindsay Giguiere is a driving force behind our commitment to being a leading benefit corporation.
Lindsay maintains a keen focus on providing women and their loved ones traditional, holistic, and alternative solutions for their health and personal care needs. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it best. “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”
According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, there are a total of 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States. Greenfield Groves is proud to be included in that number.
Women Focused Certifications and Memberships
Greenfield Groves holds numerous women-founded and led certifications that separate us from the masses.
Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
WBENC is the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the U.S. and a leading advocate for women business owners and entrepreneurs. Certification validates that our business is 51 percent owned, controlled, operated, and managed by a woman or women. We are honored to be part of this talented group of women. WBENC is also an approved Third-Party Certifier for the United States Small Business Administration’s (SBA), Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting Program.*
Michele Burchfield, co-founder of Blume Honey Water said her certification with WBENC was a grueling process but got through it in time to put the WBENC logo on their label, which has its benefits. She said companies like Target and Starbucks have initiatives to work with WBENC-certified companies.
The Female Founder Collective is a network of businesses that support women. Their mission is to enable and empower female-owned and led businesses to positively impact communities, both socially and economically. Greenfield Groves is thrilled to be part of such an exclusive group.
Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network
Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network was established in 2009 to empower women entrepreneurs to grow their business. DWEN helps a group of like-minded women share best practices, build business opportunities through collaboration, explore international expansion, and access new resources and technologies that support business growth. There are quite a few benefits when accepted into this network of highly skilled and driven women.
Sustainability Driven Certifications
It is important to maintain certifications spanning a definitive focus on the environment, sustainability, health, and safety. This is what our consumers demand, and we deliver on our promises of sustainable product creation and packaging, green farming through planting, cultivation, and harvest, and use of alternative energies in our growing, harvesting, curing, extraction, and manufacturing practices.
The Leaping Bunny Program is the gold-standard in cruelty-free certification for personal care and household goods companies. Certification by the Leaping Bunny Program signifies no animal testing in cosmetic and household products.
Eco-certification is where an independent agency (governmental, non-governmental organization (NGO) or an industry consortium) tests or verifies that a certain sustainable practice has been followed in the production of a given good or service. We are in the final stages of our eco-certification, which is extremely important to setting us apart from other businesses that don’t qualify, even though they claim to be eco-friendly.
FSC is the world’s most trusted sustainable forest management solution and the original pioneers of forest certification. Our pending certification will validate that we comply with the highest social and environmental standards on the market.
Industry Organization Certifications:
Greenfield Groves holds itself to the highest quality standards when it comes to all of its ingredients including adaptogens, hemp-derived CBD, CBN, CBG, and therapeutic botanicals. Even though the cannabis industry is relatively new, it’s already been saturated and with stricter regulations heading our way, those who are backed by certifications, are transparent, and have a vertical, sustainable supply chain will succeed. We feel confident saying we have checked these boxes while many have not. This builds trust and confidence in Greenfield Groves that we have worked so hard to build.
Amit Rikhi, CEO of ZoneIn CBD says, “You’re going to see a lot more education and a lot of companies trying to get across that trust bridge. You’re going to hear a lot more about COA (Certificate Of Analysis) in the market.”
Graham Farrar, President of Glass House Farms, says that “Any brand that doesn’t own or have a contract for control of its supply chain is going to have a really hard time. I wouldn’t be surprised if, by the end of 2020, we see 40 percent of the brands that are on the shelf now no longer there.”
The initiative of the U.S. Hemp Authority® Certification Program is to provide high standards, best practices, and self-regulation, giving consumers and retailers confidence in hemp and CBD products. With only 50 companies awarded certification, we feel honored to be part of this intensive certification process.
The Association for the Cannabinoid Industry
The ACI is committed to a safe, legal, and well regulated CBD market in the UK. Their vision is to create an innovative, sustainable sector that meets the highest standards in product quality, consumer satisfaction, and environmental stewardship. ACI membership is made up of the world’s leading CBD manufacturers and brands, and we look forward to joining this team as our membership is finalized.
At Greenfield Groves, our Leadership Team is committed and focused on pursuing additional certifications, memberships, networks, and industry organizations. This recognition from peers and experts will further elevate and reinforce our commitment to being a modeled-after company promoting good social corporate citizenship to our customers, partners, employees, community, and shareholders.