Ramborn becomes Luxembourg's 1st B Corp Certified Consumer Brand

Ramborn Cider Co. has become the first consumer brand in Luxembourg to be granted B Corp certification.

Luxembourg’s internationally award-winning cider maker and orchard revivalist has become the first cidery in Europe and the first food and drinks producer in the Grand Duchy to achieve Certified B Corporation® status.

Certified B Corporations® (B Corps™) are for-profit companies that use the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. By attaining certification as a B Corp, Ramborn has joined a global movement alongside the likes of Ben & Jerry’s, Innocent Drinks and Patagonia. As of 2020, there are more than 3,300 B Corps in 150 industries and 71 countries around the world.

Carlo Hein, Ramborn’s founder and chairman, started the company in 2016 with the idea of making cider and perry to help revive the region’s traditional meadow orchards, which he had noticed were falling into disrepair. He explained: “Every day we discover more value in these trees, the possibilities afforded by their precious fruit and the endlessly rich habitat they provide to thousands of species".

Since its beginnings, Ramborn has protected and revived 954,679 m2 of richly biodiverse habitat for over 5,000 species. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical need to protect biodiversity, with the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO) both identifying biodiversity as a key component of both global recovery from coronavirus and prevention and mitigation of future pandemics.

Carlo Hein added: “We continue to uncover the damage caused by neglecting traditional meadow orchards, the devastating loss of biodiversity caused by a global shift towards industrial fruit sources and the catastrophic cost of business as usual in our industry. This also highlights the importance of acting local: working with our own community and local economy, with the aim of having a positive social, economic, and environmental impact on in our immediate surroundings”. 

Over the last 100 years, there has been a decline of 90% in the number of such trees in the region, from 1.2 million to 120,000. Ramborn’s work has removed 31,000 Kg net of CO2 from the atmosphere. That’s equivalent to about 17.5 g per bottle, making it a carbon negative product.

Commenting on the certification news, Hubertine Roessingh, Director B Lab Benelux, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Ramborn into the B Corp family, and to see the growing community of B Corps in the Grand Duchy. Now more than ever it’s crucial that consumers know what impact their purchases have on society and the environment – and Ramborn have become the first Luxembourgish consumer brand to take this step. They have brought a fresh energy to the B Corp scene in Luxembourg, and are leading the way for other businesses to join them on this journey”.

But for B Corps, certification is not the finish line. Instead, Carlo Hein sees this as the first step: “Being a Certified B Corporation allows us to fully evaluate the impact of our business and gives all of our stakeholders – customers, suppliers, staff, and neighbours – the confidence that we are accountable to the highest, most rigorous ethical business standards possible. We are always finding ways to further improve our impact; certification is just the beginning".