Our Values

The next steps in Chilly’s B Corp journey

“B Corp Certification does not mean that a company is perfect, nor that it has achieved its highest impact. It does show that it is part of a global community of business working collectively for economic systems change, and that in order to stay committed to this work it must meet rising standards for social and environmental performance.” (B Lab 2024)

We are committed to continuously improving – something that the B Corp movement encourages too.

To maintain our certification, Chilly’s must undertake an assessment every three years, demonstrating that we are still meeting B Lab’s standards. These standards evolve over time, continually being developed and becoming increasingly rigorous. This not only provides us with targets to aim for but ensures we are never resting on our past achievements, and are always striving to become even more responsible.

The B Impact assessment consists of five areas. The following are our scores across these areas. We’re keen to continue to build on this, and to address the gaps we found through doing the assessment.

The two areas where we are focusing our efforts are the environment and our community, as these are our lowest scoring areas. Through the B Impact assessment, we have identified actions we can take to drive positive impact, a lot of which are outlined throughout this report.

Governance

Governance evaluates a company's overall mission, engagement around its social/environmental impact, ethics, and transparency. This section also evaluates the ability of a company to protect their mission and formally consider stakeholders in decision making through their corporate structure (e.g. benefit corporation) or corporate governing documents.

Chilly’s score: 16.6 / 20 = 83%

Workers

Workers evaluates a company’s contributions to its employees’ financial security, health & safety, wellness, career development, and engagement & satisfaction. In addition, this section recognizes business models designed to benefit workers, such as companies that are at least 40% owned by non-executive employees and those that have workforce development programs to support individuals with barriers to employment.

Chilly’s score: 30.8 / 40 = 77%

Community

Community evaluates a company’s engagement with and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires from, and sources from. Topics include diversity, equity & inclusion, economic impact, civic engagement, charitable giving, and supply chain management. In addition, this section recognises business models that are designed to address specific community-oriented problems, such as poverty alleviation through fair trade sourcing or distribution via microenterprises, producer cooperative models, locally focused economic development, and formal charitable giving commitments.

Chilly’s score: 15.4 / 40 = 38.50%

Environment

Environment evaluates a company’s overall environmental management practices as well as its impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity. This includes the direct impact of a company’s operations and, when applicable, its supply chain and distribution channels. This section also recognises companies with environmentally innovative production processes and those that sell products or services that have a positive environmental impact. Some examples might include products and services that create renewable energy, reduce consumption or waste, conserve land or wildlife, provide less toxic alternatives to the market, or educate people about environmental problems.

Customers

Customers evaluate a company’s stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels. In addition, this section recognises products or services that are designed to address a particular social problem for or through its customers, such as health or educational products, arts & media products, serving underserved customers/clients, and services that improve the social impact of other businesses or organisations.

Chilly’s score: 3.1 / 5 = 62%

Transparent communication & limitations

We not only want to tell our community about the positive work we are doing, but also to hold ourselves accountable.

A huge part of our transparency policy is being achieved through publishing our Responsibility Report. This is why we have decided to include not only our wins, but also our limitations in the report – targets we’re struggling to meet, reasons why we have chosen one route over another,how we are continually working to improve, etc. We are not perfect, nobody is. But we recognise perfection as a journey rather than a destination, and we are working to be as responsible as we can be.

We will publish Chilly’s Responsibility Report every year in June to share where we are on our journey.

Partnerships

Cobrand
Chilly’s works with companies, universities, community groups, charities and individuals to engrave logos and names on our products. We’ve worked with some incredible organisations over the years, from Google and Vodafone to National Geographic and the Scotland Rugby Team.

While we love working with brands on co-branded products, Chilly’s has made a commitment to not intentionally co-brand its products with businesses whose direct business operations are deemed high impact. The list currently includes, but is not limited to, Oil, Gas, Tobacco and Mining industries. This list will be subject to addition in the future and Chilly's has the right to choose not to co-brand its products with any business.

Collaborations
Chilly’s has had the pleasure of collaborating with many industry leading brands and individuals to connect their creative identities with our products. Collaboration is a key element of our brand direction and how we build and strengthen relationships with new audiences to promote the use of reusable products.

It's very important to us that our partners align with our values and we carefully select those who we work with, and sustainability often plays a part in this. From our fellow B-Corp partner Emma Bridgewater, to sustainable fashion designer brand RÆBURN, to plastic recycling and battery upcycling expert’s gomi – all collaborations tell a story of progress and a dedication to growth in the reusable product space.

We celebrate all of our current, past and future collaborations who have supported our journey to achieve our mission.

Future of Chilly’s Charity Partnerships
As we grow and move forwards into different reusable spaces, Chilly’s has been looking to evolve the way it works with its charity partner. As such, we made the decision to end our partnership with City to Sea at the end of 2023. We really admire what the City to Sea team are doing and are extremely proud to have worked with them over the past four years.

In 2024, we’ve been exploring some new charity partner options, and are excited to develop this further. We’ll be announcing more once we have finalised our new partnerships.

City to Sea & Refill Campaign

From 2019-2023, Chilly's was partnered with City to Sea, whose Refill campaign mission aims to tackle plastic pollution at source, something Chilly’s is also passionate about.

During our partnership, Chilly’s donated nearly £700,000, enabling City to Sea to grow the Refill campaign from a small pilot in Bristol to the movement it is today – live in seven countries around the world.

The focus of the Refill campaign is prevention of single-use plastic items through upstream solutions, long-lasting behaviour change and practical solutions - such as implementation of refill fountains available to the public on the go.

Through the funding provided by Chilly’s, the Refill campaign is helping hundreds of thousands of people to take action where they live. In 2023, Chilly’s and Refill produced a “Refill Heroes” series that celebrates some of the amazing Refill communities.

Cardiff - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-cardiff
Mermaid Quay, a waterfront destination of shops, bars and restaurants in the heart of Cardiff Bay, joined Refill in 2019. Since then, the Refill campaign and message has proudly been shared with their community.

Chester - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-chester
Refill Chester is run by Sustainable Chester and managed on a voluntary basis by people who are passionate about protecting the environment at a local level. They’ve been pioneering the Refill Revolution supported by Chilly’s for over five years, starting off with making a splash in Chester City Centre and making drinking water more accessible to residents and visitors alike, and have now expanded beyond Chester to other regions in Cheshire.

Dorset - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-dorset
Refill Dorset is run by Litter Free Dorset, a community campaign working to make the land, rivers and sea of Dorset free from litter. They work with local communities to coordinate Refill projects across Dorset, aiming to reduce waste and improve water quality for residents, visitors, businesses and wildlife to thrive and enjoy.

Eastbourne - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-eastbourne
The Refill campaign in Eastbourne is run by Plastic Free Eastbourne, led by Refill Coordinator Oliver Sterno. Refill Eastbourne is working hard to expand their network of Refill Stations, encouraging the many visitors to the area to bring reusable water bottles to refill rather than buy bottled water. Eastbourne is proud to be home of the first National Trust property to become a Refill Station ~ Birling Gap on the South Downs. Water is a hot topic in Eastbourne and their downlands are a precious resource of it, with a chalk aquifer that provides the town with about 75% of its fresh drinking water.

Hounslow - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-hounslow
In partnership with City to Sea’s Refill campaign, in early 2023 Hounslow Council declared the borough an official ‘Refill Destination’.. The west London borough aims to promote a circular economy, with a particular focus on Heston, which they are working to transform into a demonstrator circular economy neighbourhood.

Leeds - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-leeds
Refill Leeds is run by student representatives at the University of Leeds, actively working with the student union to recruit volunteers and map water Refill Stations across the campus.

Margate - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-margate
Chilly’s & Refill are working together to spread the Refill Revolution across the UK, providing communities, individuals, groups, and local authorities with the tools they need to create lasting change in their community.

Putney - https://www.chillys.com/uk/journal/p/refill-community-stories-putney
Refill Putney is run by Positively Putney BID, a business improvement district working to maximise Putney’s potential and making it a vibrant and attractive place for those who work, live and visit. They coordinate Refill Putney as one of their environmental initiatives to improve Putney town centre.
Visitors to Putney, the people that live there and those that do business there are already taking steps to reduce their plastic waste, but Refill Putney are working to help them go even further and have more impact. They want to ensure that all businesses in Putney sign up to the Refill scheme and encourage visitors to stop using single-use plastics.