BETTER TOGETHER:
Idaho B Corps and Certified Companies Partner for GOOD Social Justice Alley at Oliver Russell: a concrete reminder to GIVE BACK. BY SAMANTHA STETZER
Russ Stoddard was a river guide, journalist, published poet, and corporate employee before merging his professional expertise with a personal calling more than 30 years ago. “I just always had it in me [that] I wanted to create a company that was more meaningful than just making financial profits and figure out how I could use my limited time on the planet and the resources I have,” Stoddard says. That “more meaningful” agenda led to the founding of Oliver Russell, a Boise-based “social impact” marketing agency. It soon CREATING GOOD When Cherie Hoeger formed Saalt, a sustainable period care and menstruation cup company in 2018, obtaining a B Corp certification was an inherent part of the plan. Today, as a certified B Corp, Saalt donates 2% of all its revenue to period
became the second certified B Corp in Idaho and the first Public Benefit Corporation in the state. Since then, numerous Idaho and Treasure Valley businesses employing the B Corp model have obtained the rigorously-earned third-party certification. By doing so, these businesses commit to give back through profits, actions, and in-house policies. Stoddard and other local B Corp business leaders consider the certification a promise to their employees, consumers, community, and the world that business can manifest as much global good as profit.
programs across the globe, including in Venezuela, where her husband’s aunt outlined deplorable conditions for women and girls in need of period products, a conversation that inspired Hoeger to form the company. Today, Saalt has donated nearly 30,000 cups in 35 countries.
Cherie Hoeger displays the SAALT sustainable menstrual cup.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SAALT
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“The combination of the for-profit and not-for-profit models allowed us to bring our personal dream of philanthropy and use it within a business structure,” Hoeger says. The company’s practical function, which is manufacturing period care products, mirrors its purpose. Profit has followed. “Menstrual health, education, and sustainability” is the job and the mission, Hoeger explains. The company’s B Corp ethics are also reflected internally, providing flexible hours and in-house daycare to help their employees offset the costs of childcare. Clean-up efforts for environmental protection, social-good media campaigns, and menstrual educational programs in Kenya and Nepal reflect the company’s global impact. Likewise, Oliver Russell uses its B Corp status to give back.
