On 13 August 2026, an email landed in my inbox that I'd been waiting a very long time to receive.
SNOAP was officially B Corp Certified.
Our verified B Impact Score: 93.5.
The threshold for B Corp Certification under the assessment we completed is 80 points, so seeing 93.5 after around 18 months of work was an incredibly proud moment. B Lab describes the B Impact Assessment as a comprehensive way of measuring and managing a company's impact, with supporting documentation used as part of the verification process.
But for me, the number isn't the most important part.
The most important part is what sits behind it.
B Corp Certification gave us the opportunity to put SNOAP under a microscope: why we exist, what we make, how we operate, how we treat people, how we choose suppliers, how we manage our environmental impact and how we make decisions as the business grows.
And that matters enormously to me because SNOAP was never created simply to sell another bathroom product.
It was created to change the way we wash.
Why B Corp mattered to SNOAP
SNOAP began with a problem in our family bathroom.
Like many families, we wanted to reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles we were using, but conventional soap and shampoo bars simply weren't practical for our busy family of five.
I wanted the environmental advantages of a solid product with the convenience people expect from a dispenser.
That eventually became the SNOAP Refillable Soap Dispenser System.
The system transforms solid soap and shampoo bars into powder when required, giving people another way to wash without relying on bottle after bottle of liquid wash.
From that original idea came the patent, years of product development, our appearance on BBC's Dragons' Den, investment from Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones, and a growing community of households and businesses using SNOAP.
Today, SNOAP has helped replace approximately 1.25 million single-use plastic bottles.
But growth only matters to me if the impact grows with it.
That's one of the reasons becoming a B Corp felt like such a natural next step.
What does being B Corp Certified actually mean?
A Certified B Corporation — commonly called a B Corp — is a business that has gone through B Lab's certification process examining social and environmental performance and accountability.
For the assessment SNOAP completed, companies were evaluated across five broad areas:
Governance. Workers. Community. Environment. Customers.
The B Impact Assessment also required companies to provide documentation supporting their answers, which is then subject to verification.
This distinction matters.
B Corp isn't simply about whether a company sells an environmentally preferable product.
It looks much further into the business.
And for SNOAP, that meant scrutiny of the company behind the dispenser.
The five areas that put SNOAP under the microscope
Governance
This looks at the way a business is run: its mission, ethics, transparency, accountability and how social and environmental considerations are embedded in decision-making.
For SNOAP, that is fundamental.
Protecting the planet while giving people an effective and convenient way to keep clean has to remain the North Star of the decisions we make, not something we remember when it's time to write the marketing.
B Corp pushed us to formalise that thinking.
As a small business, we were already doing many things because we believed they were right. But there is an important difference between a founder saying, “This is how I want my business to operate,” and putting the policies and processes in place to help ensure those principles continue as the company grows.
That was one of the biggest benefits of the process for me.
My intentions for SNOAP are now increasingly embedded into the way SNOAP operates.
Workers
The Workers area examines the company's relationship with the people who work within it, including areas such as financial security, health and safety, wellbeing, development, engagement and satisfaction.
For a growing SME, some things that happen naturally in a small team don't necessarily begin life as formal policies.
B Corp made us document them.
How can staff communicate ideas? How are people supported? What policies exist? What happens as the team grows?
It forced us to think not only about the business we are today, but the employer we intend SNOAP to become.
Community
A business doesn't operate in isolation.
The Community area considers the impact a company has on the communities in which it operates and sources, including areas such as economic impact, civic engagement, charitable giving and supply-chain management.
For SNOAP, our supply chain was particularly important.
It's not enough for us to make claims about the finished product. We need to understand where things come from, who we work with and the standards behind those decisions.
Our soaps and shampoos are made in the UK. Our packaging choices include FSC-certified materials, and we continually examine the waste and materials associated with operating the business.
As SNOAP grows, so does our responsibility to understand the impact created along that chain.
Environment
You might expect this to be the easy section for a company built around reducing reliance on single-use plastic bottles.
It wasn't.
And I think that's exactly how it should be.
B Lab describes the environmental assessment as covering environmental management as well as impacts involving areas including air, climate, water, land and biodiversity, including relevant supply-chain and distribution impacts.
So yes, the refillability of the SNOAP system matters.
Our packaging matters.
Our supply chain matters.
How we manage waste matters.
But the assessment went into the ordinary details of running the company too.
Where does our energy come from?
What happens to our waste?
What water-saving measures do we have?
Even things as unglamorous as the low-flow flushes on the toilets at SNOAP HQ became relevant.
That's what I came to appreciate about the process.
Impact isn't one big environmental claim. It's hundreds of decisions.
Refillability is only part of the story
Of course, the reason SNOAP exists remains central to everything.
The SNOAP Refillable Soap Dispenser System was designed to make using solid soap and shampoo more convenient, helping households and organisations move away from repeatedly purchasing products packaged in single-use plastic bottles.
Our dispensers are designed to be refilled with solid bars rather than replaced each time the product inside runs out.
And we're thinking beyond the useful life of the dispenser too.
While SNOAP dispensers are recyclable, our dispenser repurposing initiative is intended to go further: returned dispensers that have reached the end of their useful life can ultimately be chipped and the material re-extruded into other products.
For me, that's the mindset B Corp reinforces.
Don't look only at the product.
Look at the system around it.
Customers
The Customers area examines how a business looks after the people who buy and use its products, including product and service quality, ethical marketing, data privacy and customer feedback.
This part matters enormously to us.
SNOAP asks people to change a deeply established behaviour.
For decades, we've been taught that washing means pressing a pump and dispensing liquid from a bottle.
SNOAP does something different.
So our responsibility doesn't end when someone places an order. It includes helping customers understand how to use the system, listening when something isn't working for them, improving our instructions, responding to feedback and making the transition as straightforward as possible.
That applies equally to the thousands of households using SNOAP and to organisations exploring SNOAP for their businesses.
For business customers in particular, changing a washroom system isn't simply a product swap. It involves users, facilities teams, purchasing, refill frequency, waste, cost and behaviour.
That's why we're increasingly working with businesses to understand not just what they buy, but what happens after SNOAP is installed.
From one trial to 33 nurseries
One of my favourite examples of that is Tops Day Nurseries.
SNOAP began with a trial in one nursery.
That became a rollout across 33 nurseries and Head Office.
For me, that's what sustainable change should look like.
Not asking people to accept something less convenient because it's supposedly better for the planet.
Instead, build a better system that people can actually use day after day.
Because the more people and organisations that use SNOAP, the greater the potential impact.
From Dragons' Den to B Corp
There's another reason this certification feels particularly significant.
Our B Corp journey began in March 2025, shortly after SNOAP appeared on BBC's Dragons' Den.
That appearance changed the scale of the business almost overnight.
All five Dragons made offers, and we ultimately chose Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones as our investors.
Dragons' Den gave SNOAP extraordinary visibility.
B Corp gives us a very different kind of validation.
It provides independent scrutiny of the company behind the product and adds another layer of credibility to the environmental and social commitments we're making.
And as SNOAP increasingly talks to larger organisations and distributors — some of whom have specifically asked whether we're B Corp Certified — that matters.
What our Dragons had to say
Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones backed SNOAP in the Den, so hearing Peter's reaction to this latest milestone means a great deal.
Lisa and Antony Hicks with SNOAP investors Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones following SNOAP's appearance on Dragons' Den.
“I’m delighted that SNOAP has been awarded the prestigious B Corp certificate. This is an important illustration of how the company takes responsibility for its impact on the environment, the community, its customers and employees. Reaching these standards requires a great deal of hard work and the certification is the reward for all of that effort.”
— Peter Jones CBE, SNOAP investor
What achieving 93.5 means to me
When the confirmation finally came through, my first reaction was probably relief.
A huge sigh of relief.
Then excitement.
There had been so much work behind it.
Every stage felt major because every stage required us to look closely at another part of the business, find the evidence, document what we were doing and sometimes formalise things that had previously simply been part of the way we worked.
But underneath the relief was something more important.
Confirmation.
Confirmation that the principles SNOAP was built around stand up to external scrutiny.
I'm enormously proud of our 93.5 B Impact Score.
But I'm probably even prouder of what we learned getting there.
B Corp isn't the finish line
This is the part I really don't want to get lost in the announcement.
We haven't finished.
Certification isn't an excuse to put a B Corp logo on the website and decide the work is done.
Quite the opposite.
We now have a framework against which we can continue looking at our impact, documenting it and finding ways to improve.
Our next stage includes developing SNOAP's impact reporting so that we can communicate more clearly what we're doing, where we're making progress and where there is still work to do.
Because there will always be more to do.
That's rather the point.
More customers. More impact.
I've said many times that SNOAP is about positive impact more than it is about profit.
But those two things aren't necessarily enemies.
For a business like ours, growth can be the mechanism through which impact grows.
Every household that changes the way it washes.
Every organisation that changes its washroom system.
Every solid bar used instead of another succession of liquid-filled single-use bottles.
Every conversation that makes someone question why we've become so accustomed to buying water-heavy wash products in disposable packaging.
It adds up.
That's why our ambition isn't simply to sell more dispensers.
It's to change the way the world washes — one refill at a time.
Becoming B Corp Certified doesn't change that mission.
It strengthens our responsibility to deliver it. 💚
FAQ: SNOAP AND B CORP CERTIFICATION
Is SNOAP a Certified B Corporation?
Yes. SNOAP became B Corp Certified in August 2026, achieving a verified B Impact Score of 93.5.
What B Corp score did SNOAP achieve?
SNOAP achieved a B Impact Score of 93.5. The qualifying threshold under the B Impact Assessment used for SNOAP's certification was 80 points.
What does B Corp Certification assess?
The B Impact Assessment used for SNOAP's certification considered the company's impact across Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers, with supporting documentation forming part of the verification process.
Why did SNOAP become B Corp Certified?
SNOAP was created with environmental impact at the centre of its business model. B Corp Certification provided a framework through which the wider company — not simply its products — could be assessed and its policies, processes and impact subjected to external scrutiny.
Is SNOAP's B Corp Certification only about reducing plastic?
No. Reducing reliance on single-use plastic bottles is an important part of SNOAP's mission, but B Corp Certification looks much more broadly at how a company operates. The assessment considers areas including governance, workers, community and supply chain, environmental practices and customer stewardship.
What is the SNOAP Refillable Soap Dispenser System?
The SNOAP Refillable Soap Dispenser System transforms solid soap or shampoo bars into powder as required. It was designed to combine the advantages of solid washing products with the convenience of a dispenser, reducing the need to repeatedly purchase liquid wash products in single-use plastic bottles.
What happens next for SNOAP as a B Corp?
Certification is a milestone rather than an endpoint. SNOAP intends to continue measuring, documenting and improving its impact, including developing its impact reporting following certification.
