Hello Chef is now a certified B Corp!

We did it! We are officially a B Corp certified business!

We are proud to be the first UAE-based food company to join a global movement of businesses that are dedicated to building a better world for all. So, what does becoming a B Corp mean?

B Corp is a global certification and is the only certification that measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance. Companies must pass a rigorous assessment and score a minimum of 80 points in order to be certified.

Getting here wasn’t easy. The assessment process forced us to take a good look at ourselves and make some tough decisions, but we believe it’s all worth it. Becoming a B Corp not only means that we meet high environmental and social standards today, but it holds us to account for years to come, ahead of our reassessment in 2026.

For us, it’s not about a badge of honour. It means we have taken the first step in showing we care about our impact on people, communities, and the planet. We have made a lot of changes to ensure our business is a force for good, and there is still so much to do to reach our goals.

So what have we done so far? We have largely used this process to benchmark our current performance and set strong foundations in areas that we strive to improve. We have applied this approach to initiatives across five key themes in line with B Corp requirements: governance, community, workers, customers and environment.

We began measuring a number of key sustainability metrics (outlined in our published Sustainability Report) including packaging materials per serving, electricity consumption per serving, carbon footprint per serving and food waste as a percentage of revenue, to name a few. 

As a result, a notable change that customers can expect in the upcoming months is the arrival of our recyclable spice sachets, which will limit our overall use of packaging material and plastic use by a considerable amount. This solution will cost the business more but will result in a dramatic reduction in our packaging per serving and therefore our impact on the environment.

We also created a policy to help improve our environmental impact in the office and while working from home. This sparked our office recycling program which has already recycled hundreds of kilos of paper, electronics, and kitchen pantry waste. We also continue to collect and recycle delivery boxes and plastic containers from customers on a weekly basis. We do not claim to have conquered our impact on the environment – far from it. But we are now confident that we are on the right track, with the correct measures in place and a desire to do better.

We have made several changes to improve our internal and external policies, refining how we work together as a company and how we deal with third parties, including our suppliers and delivery providers. We also have published our main customer-facing policies that matter, making us more transparent as a business. These include outlining our stringent approach to data privacy and product terms of use, to name a few.

We have aligned our salary structure to pay or exceed the minimum living wage for the UAE, as benchmarked by global non-profit, WageIndicator Foundation. We have extended our parental leave allowance to exceed the UAE’s minimum expectations in order to give our staff more quality time with loved ones at key points in their life. And, we implemented a five-day working week for all employees, after previously employing our operations staff on a six-day working week – as is often the case in this region.

We’re proud of all of these initiatives, and we still have so much more to accomplish as a B Corp certified company. To our customers, thank you for your continued support – without which, we could never have dreamed of getting to this point. This is only the beginning, and we can’t wait to see what else is in store for Hello Chef!

Read more: What becoming a certified B Corp means to Hello Chef