Download the full State of the B report here
This Manly based brewery is on a mission to brew the tastiest beer in a way that minimises negative social and environmental impact.
Why did your business become a Certified B Corporation?
It’s important to us to make a positive impact on the communities we love – and quality beer for years to come depends on treating your planet right, like your best mates, and addressing climate change. Our original Brewpub in Manly is down the street from a marine protected sanctuary and it’s not rare to find a co-worker or customer out in the surf or out on a trail in the bush. We love our home. It’s organic to care about the impact we’re making.
What changes did you make during the certification process?
Becoming a B Corp solidified the work we do to take a holistic approach to sustainability and it keeps us honest. 4 Pines “Save The Pines” and “1 For The Community” programs help embed a culture of shared responsibility company-wide. We’re proud to be leading industry best practices here in Australia and to be 1 of now 25 B Corp Certified breweries worldwide.
For us, our B Corp status is a mark of our honesty and integrity, even through times of great change or change of control.
What are the positive impact your business has on environment, workers, and/or community?
We are a Certified B Corporation with the aim to be more sustainable each year. From day one we wanted to offer people great taste sensations through variety in their beer, quality craftsmanship, natural ingredients and traditional, time honoured techniques. But brewing beer takes a toll on the environment. We have to take responsibility for that and always ask ourselves, “How can we do better here?”.
We set Save The Pines goals company-wide, to make sure we’re doing what we can to address climate changes, support the local communities we love, and to be a great place to work. Because of our approach to environmental management in our breweries, we were listed as a Best for The World Honoree in 2018, scoring the top 10% of all B Corps globally in the environment impact area.
Do you have impact improvements planned?
We underwent an extensive B Corp Impact Assessment Gap Analysis to support a 3-year plan for improvement. The outcome will be a set of new 4 Pines 2022 Sustainability Goals that will have a tremendous impact on our environment, workers and community. And every year we engage our team in achieving a improve B Impact Score to benchmark our progress. Watch this space!
What benefits have you experienced from being a Certified B Corporation?
For us, our B Corp status is a mark of our honesty and integrity, even through times of great change or change of control. We’re able to point to B Corp when we engage our employees, parent company, customers, and partners. We’ve also greatly benefited from being a leader of B Local Sydney which means that we’re able to build strong relationships with people who are building a thriving “B Economy” locally. As a product centric B Corp, it’s also great to see the B Corp community choose to make responsible sourcing decisions by drinking our beer. We return the love by purchasing products and services that have the B Corp seal of approval – everything from our toilet paper to our solar analytics platform.
Kiera Murphy, Sustainability Manager, Four Pines
B Lab AUNZ gratefully acknowledges Kiera Murphy’s role as a key B Local Sydney Chair.
This case study is featured in B Lab’s State of the B Report 2019.
