2021 Annual Report

An evolving community of leaders in natural

OSC Chapter membership has grown thoughtfully and with intention over the years. This year we welcomed three amazing new Core Chapter members: Katlin Smith of Simple Mills, Ben Mand of Harmless Harvest, Lee Wallace of Peace Coffee; and five stellar new Rising Star Chapter members: GW Chew of Something Better Foods, Julia Collins and Jen Berliner of Moonshot Snacks, Funlayo Alabi of Shea Radiance, and Sana Javeri Kadri of Diaspora Co. Each of these new members breathes inspiration, knowledge and progress into our community with their unique experiences and perspectives.

JEDI Rising Star Scholarships

2021 also marked the launch of our first round of JEDI Rising Star Leadership Chapter Scholarships intended to amplify the underrepresented voices in natural, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+,  persons with disabilities, and women founders. Diversity of perspective and leadership is vital to the evolution and our industry. Our partners at RSF Social Finance, and Sensiba San Filippo, who recognize this as well, provided the foundational support to help us minimize, in our own modest way, some of the barriers facing these leaders.  The 2021 scholarship recipients GW Chew of Something Better Foods, Funlayo Alabi of Shea Radiance, and Sana Javeri Kadri of Diaspora Co.

Interested in supporting emerging leaders? We will be offering an additional round of JEDI scholarships this coming year. Please send your nominations and introductions to info@osc2.org for consideration. Also consider underwriting a JEDI Rising Star Leadership Chapter scholarship, and put your impact dollars to work for the next generation of innovators in natural.

The OSC Team Evolves

From its founding by Lara and Ahmed to now with a robust board and team of six staffers, OSC continues to evolve to meet the needs of its member community.

Welcome Cynthia Billops! Cynthia joined One Step Closer in May as the VP of Operations, Membership & Belonging. Most recently, Cynthia  was Director of Programs at /dev/color – a peer-to-peer, membership collective of over 500 Black Software Engineers whose mission it is to reduce isolation for BIPOC in tech; to help one another level up and to grow wealth and capacity in our/their communities of origin. She has a strong background implementing and streamlining systems, processes and operations; an EdD in Educational Policy with a focus on optimizing small group interactions and is an active practitioner of /advocate for using Powerful Non-defensive communication (PNDC) whenever possible. She is delighted to be a part of such an ambitious, hard-working team and loves the fact that she can use her skills in Strategic Scaffolding to support and add value to the organization as well as it’s amazing CEO Leader Members! 

Ciao Michael Anzalone! The close of 2021 marked the end of on era for OSC as Michael Anzalone, Program Director, stepped back from his role to pursue his passion for public lands and the trails that take people to, through, and from them.  Michael began working with OSC back in 2013 as a Fellow while pursuing his graduate degree at the University of San Francisco.

Looking back, I’m amazed by all that OSC has brought to life, arm in arm with you, and in pursuit of uplifting people and the planet through an inspired community of leaders in the natural products industry.  Thank you all for the opportunity to grow, to explore, and to thrive here. Most importantly, though, thank you all for simply being you. I couldn’t ask for a better group of compadres on all of these trips around the sun. – Michael Anzalone

Next Level Leadership

In other celebratory news, 2021 also marked the graduation of our third Rising Star member to the Core leadership chapter. Congratulations to Shadi Bakour and Amer Orabi of Pathwater for their incredible growth and success this past year despite the challenges that COVID continues to present.

Shadi and Amer are the third company to make the jump from Rising Star to Core Leadership Chapter, following in the footsteps of Caroline Duell and Ryan Rich of All Good, and Miyoko Schinner of Miyoko’s Creamery.

Convening

In 2020, the OSC community, like much of the world, was thrown headfirst into virtual engagement, which was a marked departure from our in-person approach to engaging members.  Our  members adapted and found way new and innovative ways to connect. We blended the size of the engagements – 1:1 to small group to chapter-wide to inter-group sessions – and the level of development – from personal to company to industry to world.  All told we convened the member community hosted 45 gatherings – almost all virtual – including 31 Leadership Chapter sessions, 7 OSC University continuing education courses, 4 Lunch & Learns, 2 industry events and 1 JEDI training for members. In the coming year we will see a return of in person events and gatherings, but the virtual experience is here to stay, which allows us to pull from a broader set of leaders in natural.

Our Collaborative Nature

Packaging Collaborative

In its 8th year, OSC’s Packaging Collaborative expanded to over 40 companies! Our program offerings also grew – in addition to our historic work on shelf life testing with Clemson University and open source sharing of our members’ work during Quarterly Meetings, we’ve expanded our programs to include discounted LCA’s and packaging optimization projects with our partner Trayak, launched field testing to help bridge the gap between compostable packaging design and recovery with our partners at the Composter Manufacturing Alliance, and began the development of an open source Innovation Portal. 

Packaging Innovation Portal

The Innovation Portal is one of OSC’s biggest projects to date – it is a centralized platform that makes systems-level packaging resources more accessible to change makers across various industries, supporting them in their transition to truly sustainable packaging. In recent years, OSC has seen significant progress being made on material development, consumer awareness, and infrastructure access as a result of collaborative efforts between packaging stakeholders. However, the reality is not every company has the time, ability, or resources to locate and utilize the various tools and information available to them. The Innovation Portal includes tested and certified materials, resource partners, case studies, consumer insights, retail trends, and more – it will launch in February 2022, complimenting the industry portion of OSC’s One Step Closer to Zero Waste Campaign.

One Step Closer To Zero Waste Packaging Campaign

Our 2nd impact campaign seeks to create a platform for action and generate inspiration for the reduction and elimination of single use plastics in our products, packaging, and personal lives. It is clear that as an industry, we need to raise awareness on the topic, and find ways to mobilize both CPG stakeholders and consumers to join forces to combat plastic waste. The campaign, which will run through January and February 2022 (leading into Expo West), will include consumer call to actions, advocacy around policy on the topics of infrastructure, labeling and extended producer responsibility, and brand storytelling to share best practices and stories of progress from CPG brands around the globe. This way, we can raise awareness, celebrate industry progress, and mobilize policy momentum and community impact during this 8 week campaign.You can learn more about the campaign here.

Our Next Steps in Packaging

Before us lies a huge opportunity – in a study done by McKinsey, 60-70% of consumers would pay a premium for sustainable packaging and it’s estimated that a more circular economy could generate $4.5B in economic growth. It’s time to move forward together and redefine the ‘take, make, waste’ model into a regenerative and circular future.

J.E.D.I Collaborative

It was a huge year for J.E.D.I Collaborative! We wrapped up our first round of program offerings and moved from soft-launch mode to hosting a full industry launch event at Expo West. At our launch event on May 26th, we unveiled what we like to call “J.E.D.I 2.0,” a re-centering of our work around three strategies: 

• JEDI Strategy 1:  Support natural products companies to take long term action through processes, benchmarking tools and resources to become just, equitable, and inclusive of all people
• JEDI Strategy 2:  Connect capital to BIPOC Entrepreneurs
• JEDI Strategy 3:  Use our platform and connections to amplify BIPOC-led Initiatives; thereby increasing the capacity of the industry to develop a network of and connect resources to BIPOC talent and entrepreneurs

These strategies guided our work in 2021. We spent much of 2021 building new and improved programming to help companies in the natural products industry go deeper into their JEDI work. We built out a whole new series of programs called Pathways to Action that will be launching in 2022. Over 30 companies participated in one of our offerings across our CEO Action Initiative, Women’s Peer Mentoring Circle and Early Adopter Program in 2021, and it’s our hope with Pathways to Action that we can now make an even greater impact within the natural products industry. We’ve also been hard at work building and partnering with more existing efforts to support connecting capital with BIPOC entrepreneurs and amplifying BIPOC-led initiatives in 2022.

Climate Collaborative

And finally, the Climate Collaborative, saw a significant jump in the number of participating companies, growing from 463 companies in 2020 to 733 at the time of this report. When the Collaborative initially launched in 2017, most of the early engagers were companies that were already deeply involved in climate action. As we continue to grow the community, we expect to see a more diverse representation of companies on their climate action journey.

The Climate Collaborative is actively working to help remove barriers to climate action and to provide tools that support companies of all sizes and at all phases of the climate action journey. It is through listening to our community, talking to our members, and seeing how our Climate Collaborators engage with our resources that we can assess what is most needed.

During October and November of 2021, the Climate Collaborative team engaged in a stakeholder inquiry process to help us see where the Climate Collaborative can continue to be of most service into the future. The insights shared along with the data from the Tracking Progress Survey will help it determine the most critical strategic priorities in this next phase of growth for the Climate Collaborative.

40% OF RESPONDENTS ARE EXPLORING SETTING A NET-ZERO TARGET, AND 25% OF RESPONDENTS HAVE ALREADY SET A NET-ZERO TARGET

The Climate Collaborative Team and Board feel deep gratitude for the ongoing work of the companies within our community. Despite a pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and the emergent nature of the climate crisis, companies are committed as ever to taking meaningful action. We’re honored to work alongside all of you in support of this critical work.

Our 2022 Intentions

While the path ahead remains shrouded in uncertainty, we are incredibly grateful to be we working with and alongside this amazing community of leaders. To help guide our way, OSC, and its member brands have expressed the following intentions:

• Increased Focus on Member Engagement – We’re excited to bring on a Member Engagement Manager in 2022. We are committed to improving communication and connection between members and between OSC staff and members as well as to adding value to our CEO Leaders interactions: enabling transformative conversations and actionable initiatives! 
• JEDI Integration – JEDI work impacts all work. Members will continue to see a focus on JEDI in 2022. We’ll be weaving JEDI principles into our membership model, themes into our chapter meetings, and training into our OSC University offerings. We will also be continuing two of our most successful cross-industry, peer-to-peer training and support groupings: our CEO Action Initiative and our Women’s Peer Mentoring Circle.
• Sharing Our Work and Our Community – In 2022, we’ll have a greater emphasis on storytelling, social media, and public relations. We look forward to sharing all of the incredible work our member brands are doing and compiling our collective impact work in a meaningful way. 

We can’t wait to continue this incredible journey with you all in the coming year!

Gratitude For Our Partners

OSC would like to extend a special thank you to our amazing community of partners. Through it all, they adapted with us, never wavering in their support, and more gracious than ever with their time an insights. Special thanks go out to Jake Hebert of Futamura, Bill Acevedo of Wendel Rosen, Larisa Rapoport of Baker Tilly, Brett Schafer and Jeanne Cloutier of Elk Packaging, and Karen Burns, Jennifer Cantero, and Scott Anderson of Sensiba San Filippo.