The Honest Kitchen 2022 Impact Report

2022

SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL Impact Report

Hello!

We’re excited to publish our 2022 Annual Impact Report and tell you about some of the positive changes we’ve made here at The Honest Kitchen. 2022 marked the start of a new era for our company, with the full-scale opening of our brand new Whole Food Clusters production facility in Topeka, KS, and decommissioning of our California production line, which improved transportation efficiency. We’ve also happily moved into a brand new office in San Diego’s Mission Valley, and you can read about some of the positive social and environmental impact of this landmark on page 10.

2022 also marked the twenty-year anniversary for our company, and it’s hard to believe that two whole decades have passed since I sold the very first box of food through our website, to a customer in Virginia who had somehow placed an order before I’d even managed to enter a test order to make sure the system was working!

Those very early days in my own kitchen involved working on recipes with my beloved Ridgeback, Mosi, taste-testing ingredients together and laboring over the recipe to get the nutritional content just right.

From there, the company began to grow in leaps and bounds, much faster than I was really ready for. I honestly believe the reason The Honest Kitchen grew so quickly was that it was rooted in a passion for doing the right thing. I was powered more by intuition than insights, putting pets before profits in every decision, such as only accepting non-GMO produce and avoiding cheap, low-nutrient fillers.

Passion and Integrity are still the very foundation of everything we do today, and while we’ve evolved greatly in many different ways, the way we make our decisions does not falter. We’ve been able to really cement our commitment to doing the right thing through a very exciting accomplishment this year, too: we’ve finally become a Certified B Corporation! You can read more about this on page 8.

WE’RE ON A MISSION TO HELP AS MANY PETS AS POSSIBLE GET ON THE ROAD TO GOOD HEALTH THROUGH

IT MAKES A POSITIVE, TANGIBLE IMPACT ON PET HEALTH AND IS MADE WITH CAREFULLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS AND THOUGHTFUL PRODUCTION METHODS.

Truly good food goes beyond the bowl to support minority suppliers, protect the environment and also generate resources that are used responsibly to support internal and external workers. Good food makes a difference in the wider community, too, through direct involvement and philanthropic contributions.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY GOOD FOOD?

BECAME A CERTIFIED B CORPORATION page 8

OPENED UP A NEW PRODUCTION FACILITY FOR OUR HUMAN GRADE CLUSTERS page 17

MOVED INTO A BRAND NEW OFFICE page 10

CERTIFIED GAP CHICKEN IN A NUMBER OF OUR RECIPES page 9

WE PURCHASED MORE THAN

18,000,000 LBS OF NON-GMO PRODUCE

9%

3,652,000 LBS OF ORGANIC PRODUCE

62%

OF OUR PACKAGING IS MADE FROM RENEWABLE MATERIALS & IS FULLY RECYCLABLE AFTER USE

100%

OF THE VIRGIN PAPERBOARD WE USE IS FROM SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY INITIATIVE (SFI) COMPLIANT SOURCES

17%

OF OUR SUPPLIERS WERE OWNED OR LED BY MINORITIES OR PEOPLE FROM UNDERREPRESENTED COMMUNITIES

65% OF OUR TOTAL WORKFORCE IDENTIFIES AS FEMALE

OUR TEAM COLLECTIVELY VOLUNTEERED MORE THAN 165 HOURS IN 2022

We’ve been working long and hard to get this incredibly important certification, and we’re thrilled to share the news with you — we hope it becomes one of the many reasons you feel proud to feed your pet The Honest Kitchen.

A few quick stats about what it means to be a B Corp:

Certified B Corporations, B Corps for short, are for-profit companies dedicated to using business as a force for good.

B Corps meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability to all of their stakeholders.

B Corps use the power of business to solve our most pressing global challenges. Unlike traditional corporations, B Corps are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all stakeholders: customers, workers, communities, and the environment. There are over 5,000 Certified B Corporations in over 70 countries, across 150 industries, inspiring tens of thousands of other companies to follow their lead by measuring their impact, changing their corporate structure, and building better businesses.

“WE BELIEVE THAT IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONTINUE TO RAISE THE BAR FOR OURSELVES AND BECOMING A B CORP IS THE PERFECT NEXT STEP TO CEMENT OUR ONGOING COMMITMENT TO LASTING, POSITIVE IMPACT.”

LUCY POSTINS, FOUNDER & CHIEF INTEGRITY OFFICER

GLOBAL ANIMAL PARTNERSHIP (G.A.P.) CERTIFIED CHICKEN

As part of our ongoing commitment to animal welfare, transparent ingredient sourcing and sustainability, we successfully transitioned several of our products to use chicken that’s certified by Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), one of the largest and most comprehensive animal welfare food labeling programs in North America!

Thoughtful sourcing has always been at the forefront of our focus — we first moved to add freerange chicken in all of our dehydrated recipes in 2009.

G.A.P.’s comprehensive standards are developed to allow for continuous improvement in farm animal welfare. The program’s species-specific standards reflect the latest research in agricultural science combined with achievable, practical application for improved welfare for the entire life of the animal. Accredited third-party certifiers audit every single farm every 15 months to ensure compliance with G.A.P. standards.

The following dog recipes are G.A.P. certified:

DEHYDRATED GRAIN FREE CHICKEN FOR DOGS

DEHYDRATED WHOLE GRAIN CHICKEN FOR DOGS

DEHYDRATED LIMITED INGREDIENT CHICKEN FOR DOGS

CHICKEN & CRANBERRY PARMESAN PECKS FOR DOGS

OUR NEW OFFICE

Our new office is located in the Mission Valley area of San Diego in a beautiful old building that was formerly the home of the Union Tribune newspaper.

The building and our office offer a variety of amenities so employees can properly look after their physical and mental health, including fitness facilities with on-site yoga classes, a meditation space, a lactation room and a variety of complimentary healthy snacks and beverages.

We’re incredibly proud of how resourceful and adaptable our whole team has been during the transition to remote working since 2020, and we’re proud to be able to continue offering a flexible, hybrid work model in order to accommodate individual needs.

Our new building also provides food waste recycling, ecologically sensitive low-water landscaping, energy efficient motion sensor lighting and battery recycling.

Land Acknowledgment Statement:

The Honest Kitchen would like to acknowledge, with respect, that the site our office resides on today is the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay Native Americans, a tribe made up of two groups, the Tipai and the Ipai, whose homelands were loosely divided across the San Diego River, which runs directly through this valley. Kumeyaay traders used what is now Interstate 8, which runs through this valley, to communicate and exchange goods hundreds of years before these roads were paved.

We acknowledge the colonization that has oppressed these nations and the treaties that were signed and then broken by the United States. The development of San Diego County as we know it today came at a dire cost to Native Nations and peoples who originally occupied this land. We recognize and pay respect to the rich culture and the many elders and ancestors who first welcomed Juan Cabrillo with open arms in 1542 as original stewards of this land.

PRODUCT page 13

PROCESS page 17

PEOPLE page 18

PRODUCT IMPACT

Ingredient Sourcing

SINCE 2002, WE’VE BEEN UNCOMPROMISING WITH THE QUALITY & INTEGRITY OF OUR RAW INGREDIENT SOURCING.

When possible, we choose local suppliers to help minimize the carbon footprint associated with transportation.

We choose several fruit and veggie ingredients grown in Europe, where most member states have voted to either partially or fully ban GMOs. We consolidate purchases from our raw ingredient supply partners whenever we can, which helps to minimize the environmental impact of freight.

When we choose the ingredients we’re going to purchase each year, we take a multitude of factors into consideration with food safety at the very top of the list. Obviously, great taste is absolutely essential, too, and even though we’re making our finished products for cats and dogs, we take pride in the fact that being truly human grade means we can have a little taste of every prospective raw ingredient ourselves.

Besides a good robust flavor, we seek out ingredients with vibrant colors because the pigments in raw produce do more than impart beauty — they supply vital phytonutrients or antioxidants, which have a direct positive impact on health!

As we start to think more about the social and environmental implications of our raw ingredient purchases, it’s essential to weigh up a wide array of considerations. When possible, we choose local suppliers to help minimize the carbon footprint associated with transportation. We consolidate purchases from our raw ingredient supply partners whenever we can, which helps to minimize the environmental impact of freight.

100% OF THE PRODUCE WE BUY IS CONFIRMED BY THE SUPPLIER TO BE NON-GENETICALLY MODIFIED. IN 2022, WE PURCHASED MORE THAN 18 MILLION POUNDS OF NON-GMO PRODUCE!

PRODUCT IMPACT Organic Ingredients & G.A. P . Chicken

We’re super passionate about the issue of genetic modification, not only because of the negative effects that GMOs have on the environment, soil and surrounding land, but also because increasing numbers of studies are demonstrating that consuming GMOs has adverse effects on animals and people. For example, a 2013 study on hogs by Judy Carman et al. found that those fed a genetically modified diet had considerably more stomach inflammation compared with a group fed a non-GMO diet. You can read more about GMO safety at nongmoproject.org/ gmo-facts. A total of 9% of all the ingredients we bought last year were Certified Organic, for a grand total of 3,652,000 pounds of organic produce purchased in 2022. This includes grains, quinoa, flaxseed, kelp, chia seed and coconut as well as a portion of our dehydrated chicken. Our Certified Organic quinoa is grown by hundreds of independent family microfarmers who use regenerative agriculture practices as part of a cooperative in Bolivia and Peru.

We bought a grand total of 1,500,000 pounds of chicken in 2022. 100% of the chicken in our dehydrated diets is free range and is G.A.P. (Global Animal Partnership) Animal Welfare Certified. We formalized our chicken welfare commitment by getting a number of our recipes Animal Welfare Certified in 2021 and beyond, with a formal approval seal appearing on product labels.

9% OF ALL THE INGREDIENTS WE

WE USED

3,652,000 LBS OF ORGANIC PRODUCE

WE USED

1,500,000 LBS OF DRIED G.A.P. CHICKEN IN 2022

PRODUCT IMPACT Fish Sourcing

OUR THREE BASE MIX DIETS, LIMITED INGREDIENT FISH RECIPE AND ALL DEHYDRATED FISH TREATS HAVE BEEN VERIFIED BY THE NON-GMO PROJECT.

WE BOUGHT

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a non-profit organization that helps safeguard the health of the world’s oceans by recognizing and rewarding sustainable fishing practices. In 2022, 99% of all fish purchased— that’s 823,706 pounds!—was MSC Certified Fish, including wild caught salmon, cod, whitefish and wolffish. The herring in our Smittens® is responsibly sourced fish, governed under the Latvian Ministry of Agriculture.

PRODUCT IMPACT Packaging

62%

OF OUR PACKAGING IS MADE FROM RENEWABLE MATERIALS AND IS FULLY RECYCLABLE AFTER USE

Currently, a total of 62% of our packaging is made from renewable materials and is fully recyclable after use.

Our dehydrated food boxes are made from 18% post-consumer paperboard, and our shipping cartons are more than 40% recycled material.

We’re currently investigating ways to reduce our total packaging usage with innovative materials to lessen the environmental impact of our boxes, bags and pouches. We also strive to minimize our use of plastic throughout our supply chain. Our items are designed to use as little plastic as possible, and we never use plastic void fill in our direct-to-consumer shipments.

100%

OF THE VIRGIN PAPERBOARD WE USE IS FROM SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY INITIATIVE (SFI) & FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL (FSC) COMPLIANT SOURCES

PROCESS

NEW TOPEKA FACILITY

Our brand new kitchen in Topeka, KS, is now open and fully operational! A huge benefit of moving production to this more geographically central location is the reduction in miles that our Whole Food Clusters product travels overall. Inbound ingredients, many of which are sourced in the American Midwest, also travel a much shorter distance.

REDUCING FOOD WASTE

We’ve proudly created a program to help reduce food waste by diverting test batches, tailings and any non-sellable finished goods to local hog farms as a source of nutrition.

SOLAR

Three of our production sites are over 50% solar powered.

PEOPLE

Workforce & Supply Chain Demographics

THE HONEST KITCHEN BEGAN IN 2002 AND WAS STARTED BY A THEN 27-YEAR-OLD FEMALE FOUNDER WHO’S STILL AN OWNER, SITS ON THE BOARD AND SERVES AS THE COMPANY’S SPOKESPERSON TODAY.

65% OF OUR TOTAL WORKFORCE IDENTIFIES AS FEMALE

62% OF OUR WORKERS IN MANAGEMENT POSITIONS OR HIGHER IDENTIFY AS FEMALE

As a responsible organization, part of our commitment involves going beyond our own direct impacts and actions to weave accountability and social/environmental responsibility throughout our entire supply chain.

We’ve recently enacted policies to formally commit to choosing suppliers that are owned or led by women or minorities, when all other quality factors for an ingredient are equal.

During 2022, 19% of our raw ingredient suppliers were womenowned or had women in their leadership roles. 17% of our suppliers were owned or led by minorities or people from underrepresented communities.

We’re committed to continually improving and raising the bar on everything we do, whether it’s helping our people to grow as individuals, sourcing ingredients that meet even higher standards and certifications, or reducing our carbon pawprint with more efficient processes and better packaging. Thanks for supporting The Honest Kitchen as we work to meet our social and environmental goals.

PEOPLE Community Impact

OUR TEAM COLLECTIVELY VOLUNTEERED MORE THAN 165

IN 2022 TO A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDING LOCAL FOOD BANKS, SCHOOLS, PET RESCUES, HOSPICE AND BEACH CLEANUPS.

WE’RE COMMITTED TO CONTINUALLY IMPROVING AND RAISING THE BAR ON EVERYTHING WE DO, WHETHER IT’S HELPING OUR PEOPLE TO GROW AS INDIVIDUALS, SOURCING INGREDIENTS THAT MEET EVEN HIGHER STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATIONS, OR REDUCING OUR CARBON PAWPRINT WITH MORE EFFICIENT PROCESSES AND BETTER PACKAGING. THANKS FOR SUPPORTING THE HONEST KITCHEN AS WE WORK TO MEET OUR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS.