MEET THREE BELIEVERS

One driving force for companies that choose to become benefit corporations is a recognition that they need to do more than sell a product or behave well. But leaders also say that being a B makes them better-run businesses.

BIGELOW TEA THE B PATHWAY Six years ago, when Cindi Bigelow first read about B Corps, she wasn’t all that interested in taking her family’s 75-year-old company, Bigelow Tea, through the certification process. But she did want to get her hands on the criteria that the nonprofit B Lab uses to evaluate firms and their business practices. “I thought that scorecard could be a blueprint for how to be a good corporate citizen,” says Bigelow, the third-generation Bigelow Tea boss. “That’s when the journey started.”

In fact, Bigelow was already on the right path. Cindi’s grandmother, Ruth Campbell Bigelow, started the company out of her New York City kitchen in 1945, when she whipped up the first batch of Constant Comment tea, her signature spiced orange blend. By the ’60s, the company had a profit-sharing plan, and its 401(k) match has been around for about 20 years. In 2012, it achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status and joined the Ethical Tea Partnership, whose members commit to auditing and maintaining sustainable and ethical supply chains. By then, Bigelow Tea had 880 solar panels to help power its Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters and was using compostable packaging for its tea.

Still, Cindi Bigelow saw value in having a third party measure and validate Bigelow Tea’s efforts to become a better company. Certification took about two years, much of which was spent on creating extensive documentation of the