In this month’s episode of Common Roots, we’re chatting with Sam Mogannam, second-generation owner of the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses. As a long time fixture of the Bay Area community, Bi-Rite is proud to uphold the principles of leading with love, pursuing with passion, and acting with integrity. What started 60 years ago as a family market has been transformed into a family of three markets, a creamery, and a nonprofit, 18 Reasons, which focuses on increasing food security by teaching people valuable food skills.
Part of what has made Bi-Rite so successful over the years is their commitment to living their values; as Sam states, “We consider our community to not just be the neighborhoods that we operate in, but also our staff, our guests who come and shop, and all of the makers, producers, farmers, and ranchers who provide us with the amazing food.”
Sam Mogannam
Sam also identifies the environment as a key stakeholder in the business, and environmentally friendly business practices have been a part of Bi-Rite’s operations since the beginning. “We’ve been measuring our waste stream for the past several years. We’ve been recycling and composting since we started, and we’re over 85% diversion with our waste stream, and our goal is to eventually get to 90%,” he says.
Something that’s helped them stay accountable to running a sustainable and ethical business is their B Corp certification, which they began exploring in 2014. “In 2013, we wrote a 10-year vision for what we wanted 2024 to look like. The categories within our vision were all the same basic categories that B-Labs uses when certifying B Corps.”
Bi-Rite Market Divisadero Location Interior
This overlap meant that B Corp has become a great tool for Bi-Rite to measure their progress. “One of the things I love about the certification process is that it gets harder every time. So, it’s constantly pushing you to make improvements in your business,” he says.
Beyond the business benefits that B Corp Certification has brought Bi-Rite, Sam says the choice to get certified was ultimately about operating in line with his values and building a foundation of trust with his community. “[Being B Corp Certified] is a lot to do, but it’s the right thing to do. I think that by being in the natural foods industry, we’ve already made a values-based choice… at the end of the day, what we’re doing is feeding people and it’s a very intimate relationship. The greater level of trust that exists, the stronger that relationship will be.”
Listen to the full episode here.
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