PLANET BEFORE
LiLy Canter EXAMINES THE GROWTH OF THE B CORP MOVEMENT AND LOOKS AT HOW FIRMS CAN PRIORITISE THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT
HE shift towards kindness in people, planet and profits has gained great momentum this year with more companies seeking sustainable business models. One of the ways of proving your business’s sustainable credentials is to certify as a B Corporation or ‘B Corp’.
Certifying as a B Corp is a symbol that your business is having a positive impact on communities, employees and the environment.
B Lab, the organisation that awards the certification, was founded in the US in 2006 and took root in the UK in 2013.
There are now 425 B Corps in the UK making it the second biggest B Corporation community in the world, as well as the fastest growing. It represents more than 40 industries, in excess of £4billion in revenue and covers some 22,000 plus employees. High profile B Corps include The Body Shop, The Guardian, Jamie Oliver Group and Ella’s Kitchen.
‘This year, B Corp has really taken off. During the pandemic people have had more time to sit down and look at it. It is also coming from consumers as well who are putting the pressure on companies,’ explains sustainability adviser Nancy Hyne of True Horizon.
Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance together with public transparency and legal accountability. The aim of the movement is to ‘build a more inclusive and sustainable economy’.
The certification process measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance from supply chain and materials to charitable donations and employee benefits. At its core, it is a commercial philosophy which rejects maximising profits at all costs and instead focuses on profits which protect people and the planet.
‘The traditional idea for a company can lead to societal and environmental damage and risks turning businesses into death machines. But business should be a life machine.
B Corp formalises and codifies this process,’ says
James Perry, who founded
B Lab UK after certifying
Cook, the frozen meal
‘it shows that profit and purpose do not have to be mutually exclusive’
business he co-owns. Certification focuses on three key requirements.
The first is a company’s performance in relation to workers, communities, environment and governance.
The second is the requirement to embed legal articles within a firm’s constitution which promote the interests of workers, communities and the environment.
The third step is a declaration of inter-dependence which re-enforces that a business will work in collaboration with others.
What arE thE BEnEfIts?
Certification can be used as both a marketing and recruitment tool.
‘Most people do it out of conviction. But it is an effective way of attracting and retaining talent, particularly younger talent who want to work for purpose-driven businesses. ‘It is also good for futureproofing as you have to get ahead of trends coming our way – like Net Zero,’ says James. It also enables businesses to share their ethical ethos with customers, suppliers and collaborators.
‘It is a really simple way to say I am conscious of the way I do things and I want to work with people who share those values,’ says Nancy.
For Audrey Migot-Adholla, founder of Yala Jewellery, one of the benefits of B Corp certification has been access to a community of like-minded companies to collaborate and share ideas with.
‘The process was quite daunting but the B Lab team are brilliant,’ she says. ‘Nothing in the questionnaire is designed to catch you out and you can ask for help at any stage of the process.
‘It’s within B Lab’s interest to help companies achieve certification, so there’s plenty of support available.
‘It has given me a solid road map of areas to improve in my business and shows that profit and purpose do not have to be mutually exclusive.’
hOW dO I aChIEvE CErtIfICatIOn?
The first stage is to carry out a free impact assessment via the B Corp website to benchmark your company’s current performance.
This measures factors such as diversity on company boards, staff wage, energy consumption, employee benefits and opportunities for underserved populations.
‘At Cook we employ people returning from prison and recovering addicts as our way of serving the community,’ explains James.
A change programme can then be put in place with support from the B Corp community and advisors.
‘You submit your application to B
Lab and then have 45 days to prepare. B Lab then do a call with you and ask you to evidence 10 to 15 things from the impact assessment,’ says Nancy.
A business must have at least 80 points to achieve certification and this is reviewed every three years.
If a business is a start-up is can apply for pending B Corp status which can be upgraded to full certification
once a year of performance has been measured, so long as it meets all the criteria.
The benefit of this is that it enables a company to build in the processes from the ground up rather than make considerable changes after years in operation.
The free impact assessment has filtering questions which reflect the size and type of business, and the annual certification fee ranges from £500 to £50,000 depending on company revenue.
And even if a business does not apply for certification they can still use the assessment tool for free to evaluate their impact.