Becoming B Corp
We became B Corp in March 2020, certified by meeting the highest standards of social and environmental impact.
B Corp’s certification is based on rigorous measurement, and constructive challenge to the evidence, we provided. We’re proud to have passed the first hurdle. But we know that this is underpinned by a desire and expectation for continuous improvement.
Now we’ve started, it doesn’t feel so hard, and we’re looking forward to seeing where this journey takes us.
We think our feelings of pride and excitement are down to three things:
1
Being a B Corp resonated with the values we’ve always believed in, about our interconnectedness and the need to think of our impact on our whole community - staff, associates, business partners, and clients, as well as our individual, local communities. And we strongly identified with the overall desire to find a better way to do business that puts people first and leaves the world in better shape.
2
Certifying as a B Corp also challenged us to be aware of our social and environmental impact and then to focus on areas with the biggest opportunity for improvement. While our business model has low impact, with minimal office spaces, our clients are international, and so travel was our biggest environmental impact – something we’d suspected but not confronted. During 2019, we challenged ourselves and our clients, to justify face to face meetings and where they were judged necessary, we fully offset our impact. The next step will be to work with clients, to offset their team’s impact at meetings – we’re looking forward to some constructive conversations.
3
A big part of the B Corp ethos is to share what you know for the benefit of the community, especially for those who might not normally have access to your organisation. Initially, as we’re a consultancy that provides commercial advice, this felt hard, but the COVID 19 pandemic has given us the opportunity to take the first step.
