Visiting More of Oxford's Best B Corp Businesses (Pt.2)

Welcome back to our Oxford B Corp trail part 2!

After visiting some of Oxford's best B Corp companies in Part 1 Here, we're now rounding off by stopping by four more brilliant businesses. 

Keep reading to find out where the trail takes us next (you might be surprised by some high street favourites you didn't know were B Corps!)

6. Ace & Tate

For something a bit different on this stop, we headed in to Ace & Tate on the high street. This beautifully laid out store is full of chic Scandinavian-designed glasses and sunglasses in a range of colours and styles.

As a brand who set out in 2013 to provide top quality vision care alongside stylish eyewear, Ace & Tate have been disrupting the industry ever since. Offering in store optician appointments and eye care information, they provide customers with exceptional choices. While recognising their areas for improvement, Ace & Tate aim to reduce waste through recycling programmes - turning old lenses into new glasses cases for example, switching to lower impact materials, and using renewable energy. They are committed to transparent sustainability reporting and consistently pushing to do better.

7. FatFace

From here, we continued along to the FatFace store, a large open space full of cheerful summer prints and colours. 

From two friends selling t-shirts to fund their skiing trips in 1988, to an international brand bringing thoughtfully crafted clothes to outdoor adventurers, FatFace has come a long way. Their 2023 B Corp certification recognises their work to reduce plastic and high impact materials from their supply chain as well as extending garment usage through product repair guides and donation programmes. Through their FatFace Foundation, they have now donated over £2 million to a range of charities. 

8. L'Occitane

The second beauty stop on our map was L'Occitane, a store which feels like stepping into the French summertime with their beautiful scents and warm colours.

L'OCCITANE en Provence, set up 1976 is a beauty and wellness brand built around the best natural ingredients France's countryside has to offer. Promoting biodiversity is a core pillar of their business and they currently work with biodiversity researchers to help preserve organic lavender plants threatened by climate change. Their successful instore refill programme works to reduce waste and their 2023 B Corp certification is just the beginning of their sustainability goals.

9. Pieminister

Finally, we made our way back to the Covered Market to visit the last stop on our list. After all this exploring, we were in need of a bite to eat and the scent of Pieminister's freshly baked pies was very enticing!

On a mission to reinvigorate Britain's culinary classic, Pieminister was set up in 2003 in Bristol. Since then, they have sold award-winning pies all over the country and certified as a B Corp in 2022. They aim for responsible ingredient sourcing across their supply chain and to reduce their impact by cutting carbon emissions and moving to 100% reusable or recyclable packaging.

This stop brought us to the end of our B Corp trail having enjoyed a fantastic range of brands and products. It's so inspiring to see the hard work that businesses small and large are doing to reduce the impact of the products they make, and improve global working conditions, all while giving back. 

We hope this trail has inspired you to shop mindfully and shown you some, maybe unexpected, ways to support sustainable practice. 

Make sure to pop into the Y.O.U Oxford shop to have a go at the trail yourself and collect all the stickers to enter our prize draw where you could win a bundle of B Corp goodies!

Keep up the B Corp Momentum:

With stops 1 to 5 on the B Corp Oxford trail

Check out Y.O.U Underwear's journey to B Corp certification

And, learn more about the B Corp assessment standards 

Images courtesy of Y.O.U Underwear