In July, Rivanna was honored by Henrico County, Virginia and Keep Henrico Beautiful as Clean Business of the Year.

The Keep Henrico Beautiful Awards presented annually since 1995, recognize residential and business properties that are attractively landscaped, well-maintained and litter-free.

Nominees for a Clean Business award must participate in an ongoing recycling program, such as composting, curbside pickup or drop-off service. As the Clean Business honoree, Rivanna was recognized for our sustainable production model, carbon-neutral shipping processes, recycling and composting programs. Our commitment to renewable energy and our participation in the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program were listed as key strengths contributing to our win.

Once again this year we had the opportunity to volunteer with Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve places to call their home. We believe affordable housing plays a role that is critical in building strong and stable communities.

In the spring, we completed our B Corporation recertification. Based on the B Impact assessment, Rivanna earned an overall score of 147.3 points. The median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9 points. The score required to be certified as a B Corp is currently 80 points  While recognizing that we still have a great deal of work to do with respect to our social and environmental impacts, we are pleased with the increase from our 2017 score of 123.3 points.

Every year, the nonprofit B Lab recognizes the top-performing B Corps creating great impact through their businesses. These B Corps are named Best for the World™, as their verified scores in the five impact areas evaluated on the B Impact Assessment - community, customers, environment, governance, and workers - are amongst the global top 5% in their corresponding size group. In 2022, Rivanna was recognized a Best for the World™ company in two categories:  workers and environment.

We were thrilled to be recognized in the environment category as one of the top 5% of companies leading the way towards a more sustainable and regenerative planet. We remain deeply committed to putting our impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity first in our business practices.

In January, we installed an Electric Vehicle Charging station at our headquarters in Henrico, VA. Use of the charging station is free for all coworkers. Since we are a 100% participant in the Dominion Energy Green Power program, we are enabling our team to charge up with green power and encouraging those without electric vehicles to consider making the switch in the future.

We continued our Compost at Work program with one of our favorite fellow B Corps, NOPE (Natural Organic Process Enterprises), diverting 320 pounds of food scraps and organic materials from landfills. NOPE makes composting easy for us and we're proud to partner with them.

We're a small company, but we do our best to offer benefits that meet the needs of our diverse workforce and encourage each person to learn and grow. Our worker-friendly practices, such as strong benefits, job flexibility, and fair-change hiring, enabled us to achieve a B Impact Score in the top 5% and designated us as a Best For The World company in the Workers category.

Admir Hasanovic thought when he started at Rivanna in 2002 that he would try to stay with the company for 4 or 5 years. Twenty years later, Admir is still doing amazing work for Rivanna and we are grateful every day for his wisdom, his commitment to quality, his kindness, and his generosity.

Gretchen Wirth and Crystal Mario (company owners) also celebrated 20 (and 21) years with Rivanna in 2022. We have yet to all be in the same place to celebrate, but we're looking forward to doing so in 2023.

2022 was our first full year of offering a retirement plan, which includes a mandatory company contribution of 2% of earnings for every coworker, regardless of whether they contribute to their own plan. We believe that the mandatory company contribution provides an important, low-risk opportunity for new hires to learn about personal financial management by taking responsibility for their own retirement plans. We worked with Common Interests, a fellow B Corp, to set up our socially responsible retirement program. Investments are filtered through Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) screens to ensure we’re having the most impact.

In 2022, we continued our Rivanna contract with UPS to provide carbon-neutral shipping. UPS's carbon neutral option supports projects that offset the emissions of the shipment's transport. UPS has supported projects that include reforestation, landfill gas destruction, wastewater treatment, and methane destruction. UPS is working first to reduce emissions through supply chain optimization and then to offset emissions via recognized standards.

Through the UPS Carbon Neutral Program, we mitigated 7.2 metric tons of CO2 from January - December 2022.

We have been participating in the Dominion Energy Green Power program since its inception over a decade ago. Through the program, we match our entire monthly electricity usage with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

Since we began our work with refugees over twenty years ago, we have continued our partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC is our employment services partner of record. When we need more staff, we start with the IRC, and we encourage other employers to do the same. At home and abroad, refugee families are fighting every day to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. Through refugee resettlement and field work, the IRC delivers help to people affected by devastating humanitarian crises.