PLUSfoam®, a 100% recyclable materials company and pioneer in the closed-loop manufacturing movement, has just been named as a Certified B Corporation.

Certified B Corporations are progressive businesses that focus on solving social and environmental problems. In order to achieve Certified B Corporation status, companies are vetted by the nonprofit organization B Lab as having met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance as well as having high standards of accountability and transparency.

Today there are 990 Certified B Corporations in over 32 countries around the world. PLUSfoam will join other visionary companies such as Patagonia, New Belgium Brewing, Preserve and Seventh Generation, all of which have attained B Corp status. PLUSfoam is proud to be the first materials company in this growing and cutting-edge movement and will use the rigorous B Corp assessment as a framework to continuously improve its practices as it scales its business.

“Our commitment to the environment has been a core value at PLUSfoam since we founded the company in 2009,” said Brett Ritter, CEO at PLUSfoam. “Becoming a Certified B Corp is a tremendous honor and demonstrates PLUSfoam’s commitment to not only do what we do, but to do it in a way that is also good for the world.”

The PLUSfoam team believes deeply that business has a higher social purpose beyond maximizing profit, and on a daily basis PLUSfoam works diligently to make the world a better place. PLUSfoam was established to do things differently, to put an end to manufacturing waste and prevent post-consumer goods from ending up in landfills, waterways and incinerators around the world. PLUSfoam, often used to replace traditional foams, plastics and rubber, is a proprietary compound that allows customers to create sustainable products without having to sacrifice performance characteristics. Becoming the first materials company in the world to be a Certified B Corporation further highlights PLUSfoam’s innovative business model and unique company culture.

The environmental mission at PLUSfoam has two components. The first occurs at the factory level. When other companies decide to use the material, PLUSfoam works with their factories to turn post-manufacturing scrap into valuable material once again. PLUSfoam’s unique chemistry and process ability allow the material to be recycled continuously with nominal degradation and without adding any additional agents.

The second component occurs at the consumer level. PLUSfoam makes it easy for end-users to send post-consumer goods back for recycling. This is a cornerstone of PLUSfoam’s business model. PLUSfoam brand partners actively participate in the reclaim effort by incentivizing their consumers to recycle their used goods with PLUSfoam by offering them a discount off of their next purchase. PLUSfoam is regularly expanding its network of recycling centers and making it easier to recycle a product regardless of global zip code.

"We’re thrilled that PLUSfoam is joining the growing community of Certified B Corporations," said B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert. "PLUSfoam’s business model, which significantly decreases manufacturing waste and enables consumers to close the loop by recycling used products, is an example of the kind of business that is redefining success and making a difference in the world.”

PLUSfoam continues to change the way businesses and their customers think about the products they consume by working with enterprising companies that share a like-minded vision for reducing waste and doing what is right for our planet. In 2014 alone, brands such as Manduka, Vans, Roxy, Telic, Patagonia, Speedo and Sperry have all launched new products “Powered by PLUSfoam™.”

About PLUSfoam® Compound Technologies, LLC
PLUSfoam® is committed to "saving the planet...one product at a time™." Using its proprietary, 100% recyclable compounds, PLUSfoam makes materials and components for manufacturers of branded consumer goods. PLUSfoam often outperforms the materials they are intended to replace such as traditional foams, plastics and rubber. PLUSfoam operates reclaim facilities in the US, Canada, Europe, China, Korea and Japan where consumers can return any products made with PLUSfoam. Details about the PLUSfoam post-consumer reclaim program can be found at www.PLUSfoam.com.

About B Corp
Certified B Corporations meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include consideration of stakeholder interests, and build collective voice through the power of the unifying B Corporation brand. As of March 2014, there were 990 Certified B Corporations from over 60 industries and 32 countries, representing a diverse multi-billion dollar marketplace.

About B Lab
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement to redefine success in business so that all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world. B Lab drives this systemic change through a number of interrelated initiative: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing legislation to accelerate growth of social entrepreneurship and impact investing (20 states have already passed benefit corporation legislation); 3) developing B Analytics, a customizable platform for measuring, benchmarking, and reporting on impact 4) providing free, powerful tools for businesses to measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance (more than 15,000 businesses use B Lab’s free B Impact Assessment). For more information, visit www.bcorporation.net, www.b-analytics.net and www.benefitcorp.net.

PLUSfoam

PLUSfoam

PLUSfoam® is committed to "saving the planet...one product at a time™." Using its proprietary, 100% recyclable compounds, PLUSfoam makes materials and components for manufacturers of branded consumer goods. PLUSfoam often outperforms the materials they are intended to replace such as traditional foams, plastics and rubber. PLUSfoam operates reclaim facilities in the US, Canada, Europe, China, Korea and Japan where consumers can return any products made with PLUSfoam. Details about the PLUSfoam post-consumer reclaim program can be found at www.PLUSfoam.com.

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