Overview
With a commitment to quality, local production, and sustainable practices, Chameleon Like specializes in providing products that are captivating on the inside as well as outside. Their journals and packaging solutions elevate their clients’ brands and fuel exceptional ideas.
Services Provided
- B Corp Certification Consulting
- Project Management
Challenge
After decades fighting its industry’s reputation for wasteful marketing practices, Chameleon Like, Inc., a California-based producer of customized journals, planners, and other promotional items, embraced a journey to formalize its processes and achieve B Corp certification.
CEO and President Pierre Martichoux, and Cesar Gonzalez, director of employee engagement, say their company has long focused on sustainable practices, but wanted the third-party endorsement that certification provides. Chameleon Like chose B Corp certification to help it codify its values, interact with similar companies, attract talent, and identify areas for improvement.
As it began the initial assessment process, the company realized it needed help assembling the required documentation and managing the complex submission process. The company turned to Sensiba, which has served as its external audit firm for nearly 20 years.
“The swag industry is not very sustainable. It’s getting better, but it produces a lot of plastic. Becoming a B Corp gives us standing to help change that.”
Pierre MartichouxCEO and President, Chameleon Like
Solution
Cesar Gonzalez teamed with Callie Labriola, materials and logistic manager, to collaborate with Sensiba in gathering documentation about the company’s sustainability practices and identifying improvement opportunities. The company began the certification process before the COVID pandemic, and found that some of the improvements it identified helped it emerge as a stronger organization.
Chameleon Like conducted training sessions at a Houston production facility to help team members there understand the certification process and their ongoing roles in reducing waste and promoting sustainable practices.
The company also enhanced its employee benefits, such as providing health care, dental, and vision benefits, interest-free loans, profit-sharing, and life-skill training programs. Together, the changes increased employee engagement and morale.
Chameleon Like also reinforced its commitment to supporting community organizations. It’s a member of 1% for the Planet, and donates 5% of the revenue from its Paperzen product line to underfunded schools. More than 0.5% of overall revenue is donated to charities.
Result
Obtaining B Corp certification is providing tangible benefits for Chameleon Like, including interacting with other members of the B Corp community and collaborating with a certified B Corp pen manufacturer. At industry shows, signs celebrating Chameleon Like’s certification attract attention from customers familiar with the B Corp concept as well as questions from attendees curious about what the designation means.
Chameleon Like has discarded the promotional-industry practice of sending unsolicited product samples that, in many cases, wind up in landfills. “That’s something that we didn’t necessarily think about before, but as we think about the amount of waste everywhere, customers appreciate us asking before we send a sample pack,” Martichoux says.
Chameleon Like has also reaffirmed a commitment to local sourcing and domestic production, which reduce waste and the carbon emissions associated with shipping products internationally.
At its Gilroy, California, plant, Chameleon Like’s journals are sourced from responsibly managed forests and the facility uses low-water desert landscaping.
And with an eye toward B Corp recertification, Chameleon Like continues to monitor metrics within the five categories by which B Lab measures organizational performance (governance, workers, community, environment, and customers) to identify improvements.
“We’re dedicating time that’s non-negotiable to working on our processes,” Gonzalez says. “We communicate our progress throughout the company so everyone understands how valuable this is to us and our customers.”
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