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What B Corp really means to us
by
Kath Cotton
December 17, 2024
For us, it’s always been important to achieve it. We have always wanted our business to be a force for good, and since we started in 2017, we have made sure every part of how operate sits well in our conscience. As apart of that, B Corp has given us a way of both measuring what we do and identifying ways we can do more.
In June 2023, we started our B Corp journey in earnest, and after 14 months of reporting, measuring, assessing, adapting, evidencing and interrogating our company in more ways than you could ever imagine, we became B Corp certified in August 2024. You need a minimum of 80 points to certify, and we achieved 105.6.
B Corp is not a quick fix or ‘greenwashing’. It’s not about jumping on bandwagons or being seen to be saying all the right things. It is a huge undertaking and you have to be genuinely motivated to keep pushing yourself through the rigorous, arduous process of the B Impact Assessment.
You have to evidence every standard you claim to meet. That’s where the credibility comes from, you can’t just fake it ‘til you make it. B Corp is often thought of as just an environmental initiative but it’s way more than that. Environment is just one of five Impact Areas, the others being Governance, Workers, Community and Customers.
To top it all off, once you’ve been through the intimate detail of all five Impact Areas you need to meet B Corp’s legal requirement by changing the official objective of your company on Companies House.1 The objective of a typical Limited Company is to maximise profit and shareholder returns, but B Corps make a legal commitment to run their businesses in the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and to protect the company’s mission and values along the way.
Achieving B Corp certification is a big moment, but the work doesn’t stop there. You need to recertify every 3 years, reaching higher standards each time. This continual improvement pushes you to keep finding new ways to improve and do more. By the time we reach our own recertification in 2027, the current points-based system will be long gone, replaced by a standards-based system.2 This will require companies to meet specific standards across nine new Impact Areas, tailored to the size and sector of the company. B Lab say the new standards will “make certification more relevant than ever before, galvanising business action on the most important social and environmental issues”.
Within health communications I hear very little discussion about B Corp, equality or environmental, social and governance principles when it comes to agency selection. Once or twice we’ve been asked what our sustainability credentials are, but it has always felt like a tick box exercise, rather than anything to seriously assess suppliers by, or a factor in agency selection.
We’ve pursued B Corp for ourselves, but I hope that in doing so, the opportunity to raise these discussions with our clients will be part of driving the whole industry to a more purposeful way of operating.
In April this year, the UK hit 2,000 companies certified with B Corp status,3 out of 5,445,998 active companies registered with Companies House.4 That’s 0.036% of UK companies achieving the standard. B Corp certainly isn’t for everyone, but I hope the other 99.96% at least have responsible business on their radar.
1. https://bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/before-you-certify/legal-requirement/
3. https://bcorporation.uk/news-stories-and-events/news/uk-b-corp-community-reaches-2-000/