2021 Impact Report

In October 2021, we were pleased to be a sponsor for Project Playhouse, a 2-day volunteer program hosted by Habitat for Humanity Metropolitan Richmond. In addition to making a cash contribution, our team spent the weekend designing, building, and painting a playhouse for children to explore, play, and grow with a space of their own. Our playhouse was donated to a local family.

Our team votes for the disbursement of our charitable contributions. In 2021, the Blue Sky Fund in Richmond was a two-time winner of the team vote. Thanks to our support, Blue Sky Fund was able to relaunch its in-person experiential outdoor programming for City of Richmond students in the 2021 school year, and reconnect youth with the restorative power of nature to heal from the pandemic.

Rivanna Natural Designs was recognized as one of the Best For The World™ B Corps of 2021. The Best For The World are B Corps whose scores in one or more of the five impact areas assessed towards the certification reach the top 5% of all B Corps worldwide. At Rivanna, we were recognized for our efforts in the area of Community.

Many of our customers seek us out because of our eco friendly award products and our commitment to the environment. Our customers are not always aware that Rivanna is equally committed to reducing inequality, lowering levels of poverty, creating healthier communities, and providing high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose.

As all B Corps are already businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose, this is a recognition that makes us incredibly proud!

We regularly monitor and record emissions and have set specific reduction targets relative to previous performance:

Scope 1 Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) – 27.6.
Scope 2 GHGs – 24.75

In 2021, our Carbon Intensity for Scopes 1 and 2, not including the use of carbon credits and offsets, was in the lowest range for a manufacturing company (0-150 metric tonnes of CO2/$million of revenue).

We used carbon credits and offsets to bring our Scope 1 and Scope 2 Emissions to Zero!

We acknowledge that we have much to do measure and reign in our Scope 3 emissions (estimated at 2444 in 2001), but we are pleased with the progress that we made in 2021.

We have a company-wide recovery and recycling program that includes paper, cardboard, plastic, glass & metal, and composting. In 2021, we diverted 3.45 metric tonnes from the waste stream through recycling.

We also reduced our overall solid waste generation by 16% over the previous two years.

We are members of the Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan coalition of businesses united by our commitment to a thriving democracy. We stand together in support of fair and transparent elections, in which voting is safe and accessible. and we use the combined influence of our platforms to empower every American to use their voice.

We pay living wages and advocate for a fair minimum wage. As a member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, we are one of more than 1,000 businesses and business organizations that has signed the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage statement calling on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

We have kept our commitment to 100% green power every year since 2005. 10 years ago, when Dominion Energy set up a program to buy Green-e Energy® certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from renewable energy facilities on our behalf, we jumped right in. This year, we celebrated our tenth anniversary as a Dominion Energy Green Power Partner. We match our entire annual electricity usage with RECs and Dominion guarantees that renewable energy is generated and delivered to the power pool in the amount specified.

In 2021, we continued our partnership with UPS to provide 100% carbon neutral shipping for all our customer shipments worldwide (package and freight). This was especially important to us in terms of mitigating our climate impacts in 2021. Because of pandemic precautions, many of our awards were drop shipped to individual recipients rather than offices or events as people continued to work from home or in-person events were cancelled
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Carbon Neutral shipping from UPS is verified by Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), an inspection, testing and verification company. Additionally, the UPS carbon neutral process is certified by Natural Capital Partners. This certification is given to organizations whose CO2 emissions have been measured and reduced to net zero in accordance with The Carbon Neutral Protocol.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people affected by humanitarian crises—including the climate crisis—to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.

Rivanna was founded in 2001 with the goal of creating green jobs for recently-arrived refugees. The Charlottesville, VA office of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) helped our founder, Crystal Mario, understand the workplace needs of IRC’s refugee clients and determine the structure and direction. With input from the IRC, we started a small manufacturing company, accessible by public transportation, with flexible hours, training for non-English speakers, decent benefits, and living wages. We hired our first IRC client, Admir Hasanovic, in 2002. Admir is now our Woodshop Manager. We continue to hire IRC clients and included the IRC Richmond office in our 2021 annual charitable giving.