Should you B Corp?

If you’re in business, chances are you’ve already heard about B Corp certification. If so, you’ve probably wondered whether it’s the right thing for your company. You’ll most likely be asking yourself, ‘How will I benefit?’ and ‘Where do I even begin?’ Excellent questions! Let’s first address how your business could benefit and then we’ll tell you how to begin.

Currently there are almost 130 Kiwi businesses that have B Corp Certification. This includes big businesses like Ethique, Kathmandu, Chia Sisters, Kiwibank, ecostore, Synlait Milk, and Pic’s Peanut Butter but also plenty of small businesses like Twiice, Like-Minded Learning, Sustained Fun, Tax Traders, Soul Studio Hot Yoga, Two Islands, and many more.

Globally, the movement is growing at an exponential rate. As more businesses take the B Corp plunge, even more are weighing up the benefits of becoming B Corp certified. That’s why we’ve put together this short ‘why and how’ of B Corp because when it’s done right, sustainability and B Corp is a massive opportunity. Let’s start with six reasons why…

  1. Brand Loyalty

More shoppers are choosing ethical products and services. Many are prepared to pay more for sustainable brands. Millennials (80%) are almost twice as likely than Baby Boomers (48%) to pay more for sustainable products [Nielsen]. In the US, sales of products marketed as sustainable grew 5.6 times faster than other products from 2013 to 2018 [NYU Stern Center]

  1. Recruitment and retention

The best talent are choosing to work for companies that align with their values. As well, existing staff are engaged and retained for longer. 75% of millennials would take a smaller salary to work for a sustainable company [G&A Institute survey] while according to LinkedIn, demand for ‘green’ jobs has tripled.

  1. Cost savings

Businesses are finding significant cost savings from sustainable efficiencies and innovation. In one year, IBM saved $1.35 million from energy conservation initiatives. Interface Flooring saved $450 million by reducing/recycling its manufacturing waste from 1996 to 2013.

  1. Legislation-proofing

ESG regulation is coming thick and fast. Governments are mandating companies to align with a net-zero agenda through policy and legislation. As well, the growth of climate change-related litigation is becoming a risk which businesses of all types cannot afford to ignore.

  1. Access to capital

Increasingly, financiers, bankers, insurers and investors won’t work with companies that don’t have a sustainability strategy. CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, Larry Fink said: “There is no company whose business model won’t be profoundly affected by the transition to a net-zero economy.” Companies seeking investment with BlackRock must provide a plan for how their business model will be compatible with a net zero economy.

  1. It boosts your bottom-line

That’s right, you make more money. Overall, B Corps are outperforming their non-B Corp peers. This has been empirically studied by a European university that found that based on data from 2012 to 2018, European B Corps had higher turnover as a result of B Corp certification. As well, a US academic study found that businesses that got on the sustainability train enjoyed a nine per cent increase in sales.

That’s just a few of the B Corp benefits. For some NZ industries, including wine and honey, B Corp is quickly becoming the norm so before long businesses that aren’t B Corp in some industries will be standing out for the wrong reasons.

If you’re ready to strap on your B Corp boots, you can do it all yourself by logging onto www.BImpactAssessment.net, registering for a free account and then answering the 200 or so questions that are relevant for your business. Some businesses though, get stuck doing it by themselves. So you also have the option of hiring a B Corp consultant, like us here at Grow Good. We live, breathe, and sleep B Corp. We exist to help businesses get B Corp certified as quickly as possible and with the highest score possible. If you need a hand, give us a call – details below. Or if you just want some more information for now, click here.

Become a B Corp

Are you more convinced that B Corp is right for you? Would you like to join the B Corp companies using business as a force for good? Here at Grow Good, we exist to coach people through the process of becoming B Corp certified.

The B Corp Impact Assessment framework  is free to access and provides dozens of useful insights and opportunities for any business but it can be confusing and overwhelming.

We are consultants who have completed the official training provided by B Lab, the organisation that runs the B Corp certification programme. We live, breathe and sleep B Corp. We are your friendly B Corp buddies. We make it easier. We translate the questions into plain English and give you a host of template policies and example documents so you don’t have to start everything from scratch or reinvent the wheel. We show you how to unlock the big point scoring areas most relevant to your business.

Are you ready to go B Corp? It’s completely your decision but if you are, and if you think it would be helpful to have a guiding hand through the process, we’re here to help. Drop us a line or jump straight in and book a free call here.

Five actionable tips for getting B Corp certified

Okay, in the name of full transparency, we didn’t come up with the title of this blog. We were, um, ‘inspired’ by a Forbes article with a similar name. However! As full time B Corp consultants here at Grow Good, we’ve got a ton of experience and know-how in the area of getting a business B Corp certified so we are going to add to the conversation started by Forbes.

The five top tips outlined in the Forbes article are:

  1. Put sustainability practises in writing
  2. Use data to demonstrate performance
  3. Decide where to make a meaningful difference
  4. Give the team a voice in the decisions
  5. Don’t approach the application as a tick-box exercise

All excellent points! Perhaps though, in the wrong order. I think there’s a better way to navigate your B Corp journey. Jumping straight into writing documents is gonna break anyone’s spirit so this is why at Grow Good, we would recommend the following five steps.

  1. Get all your team engaged and excited: First, you’ve got to get everyone on the team up to speed and excited. It’s in line with the theory of getting everyone in the boat rowing in the same direction. This is why we start a new client off with what we call a ‘kick off session’, this is an hour’s workshop online or in person for your whole team, where we go through the what, why and how of the whole B Corp movement. By the end of it, everyone on your team understands what B Corp is and why you’re doing it. Most of all, they’re excited about being part of a global movement that’s actively driving transformation to a world where planet and people is valued as much as profit. This team buy-in is priceless and will not only make your certification process easier, it will reap benefits such as higher productivity and better staff retention.
  2. Make a meaningful commitment to stakeholder governance: One of the foundation stones of B Corp certification is the commitment a business makes to considering all stakeholders in business decisions. Whatever foundational document governs your business, be in a constitution or your Articles of Association (documents are different in different countries), update these documents to include the B Lab purpose and stakeholder clauses.
  3. Understand your impact: This one is a little bit like the Forbes’ number 3 ‘Decide where to make a meaningful difference’ but I think it’s better broken down into two points. Understanding your impact is often where a basic materiality assessment comes in. Now, the phrase ‘materiality assessment’ can make the average person feel afraid and confused. Don’t be. It’s just a fancy way of saying ‘what impact does your business have on the world, both positive and negative?’ And every business is unique in that. For example, if you’re a chocolate bar manufacturer in France, your impact priorities might be ensuring you’re sourcing your cacao from farmers that are paid properly and are farming in a way that regenerates the natural world, rather than reduces the habitat of native species. You might also consider your packaging materials. As well, the carbon footprint of your manufacturing and transportation. Obviously, if you’re an accountancy firm in Canada, or a web developer in Thailand, your impact is going to be very different from the chocolate maker.
  4. Lock in your priorities: No business is perfect and no business can tackle everything at once. That would be overwhelming. You may want to clean up the oceans, get to net zero, drive social justice, get all staff on a living wage, boost biodiversity, get rid of all plastics in your products, reduce waste to landfill… and 101 other things but you probably can’t do it all at once. So, once you’ve assessed where your business is having its most impact – and where it can have its most positive impact – what is your team most psyched to set goals on first? And your goals might be phased, eg, ‘reduce carbon emissions by 20 per cent in the next 3 years…’
  5. Measure, monitor, mitigate: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Once you’ve set your goals, set up the documentation that will enable you to track your performance over time. B Corp certification is all about evidencing the positive impact you’re having. Robust documentation is key. Critical! A deal breaker! I cannot stress enough about your B Corp certification being dependent on your being able to show exactly how you are increasing your positive impact with data. At Grow Good, we give our clients heaps of help with this, from recommending online tracking platforms (eg, Carbontrail, CarbonClick) to providing access to our library of more than 300 policy templates, tracker examples and much more, all designed to make your certification journey that bit easier.

So, that’s about it. If we were to add a sixth point to this list, it would be ‘Hire a B Corp consultant to help you through the process’. Like us. Obviously. It’s your choice, it’s totally up to you, far be it from me… etc etc but we think becoming a B Corp is something every business should do. Imagine the world we could build if that happened. A world where doing business regenerates the environment and drives social justice.

Become a B Corp

Here at Grow Good, we exist to coach people through the process of becoming B Corp certified.

The B Corp Impact Assessment framework  is free to access and provides dozens of useful insights and opportunities for any business but it can be confusing and overwhelming.

We are consultants who have completed the official training provided by B Lab, the organisation that runs the B Corp certification programme. We live, breathe and sleep B Corp. We are your friendly B Corp buddies. We make it easier. We translate the questions into plain English and give you a host of template policies and example documents so you don’t have to start everything from scratch or reinvent the wheel. We show you how to unlock the big point scoring areas most relevant to your business.

Are you ready to go B Corp? It’s completely your decision but if you are, and if you think it would be helpful to have a guiding hand through the process, we’re here to help. Drop us a line or jump straight in and book a free 30 min discovery call with me.

Why B Corp is a home run

What are the benefits of becoming a B Corp? Crikey, there are just so many! Where do we start? Okay let’s start with these six gooduns.

  1. Recruitment: B Corps attract the best talent and have better staff retention
  2. Competitive edge: Empirical data shows that B Corps are making more money than non-B Corps in their industry. As well, B Corps proved more resilient through the pandemic.
  3. Brand loyalty: More customers want sustainable brands and are voting with their wallets
  4. Access to capital: Investors are now demanding businesses they give money to have transparency on their ESG
  5. Cost savings: By scrutinising their operations, B Corps have found innovative ways to significantly cut costs
  6. Legislation-proof: Have you noticed the raft of new ESG legislation that’s been passed all over the world? Becoming a B Corp means you’re not going to be left behind.

But don’t take our word for it, here are some real world examples of how it pays to become a B Corp business…

Nespresso CEO says its B Corp certification is helping it attract talent

“The main benefit of being a B Corp—and I didn’t expect it—is from the inside,” Nespresso CEO Guillaume Le Cunff says in a recent interview. “We brought 14,000 people across the world along in our journey. You will see it in the signature of people. To attract talent, this is part of the conversation. Any young talent interested in Nespresso, will browse and will see the B Corp label.”

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/nespresso-ceo-says-b-corp-051714242.html

Smallhold CEO says becoming a B Corp allowed them to quantify their positive impact and explain it to the public

“We barely changed anything about Smallhold to become a B Corp,” says Andrew Carter, CEO and Co-Founder of Smallhold, an organic mushroom farming business. “We were doing all of these things already. Paying living wage, energy efficiency, circularity, sustainability, it is in the DNA of what we do, it always has been. The B Corp process has allowed us to quantify it, explain it to the public, and find ways to improve in the years to come.

“Becoming a certified B Corporation is an ongoing journey. We’re continuously working to hold ourselves accountable, which means there’s a constant need of evaluation, adaptation and collaboration— and it’s a path worth pursuing.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christophermarquis/2023/07/12/the-future-of-fungi-smallhold-sets-new-standards-for-farming-with-b-corp-certification/

The Body Shop asked a group of Gen Zers to critique the company – and it improved the business

The Body Shop came up with an innovative way to integrate Gen Zers into the decision-making at the company by creating a youth board of advisors. This falls in line with the B Impact Assessment’s focus on engaging with all the stakeholders in a business.

Realising that while it was encouraging global leaders to embrace young voices, the British multinational beauty retailer was not actually doing this themselves. So The Body Shop addressed this gap by creating a secondary board (or as the brand calls it, a Youth Collective) to advise its leadership team. But on this one, no over 30s are allowed to join.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/body-shop-asked-group-gen-092415743.html

Embracing The B Corp Journey

The process of becoming a B Corp certified business makes the people who run a business, and who work for a business, pause for a moment to step back and take stock. It encourages people to ask themselves questions like, ‘why do we do what we do?’ ‘What kind of impact is our business having in the world – both positive and negative?’ ‘How do we increase the positive impact we’re having?’

It is a ‘rigorous but achievable’ process. This is one of our favourite phrases at Grow Good – ‘rigorous but achievable’. It’s become our mantra. Because the journey to becoming B Corp certified is not meant to be easy. It is meant to spark discussion, debate and reflection. It is meant to stretch you. It’s meant to get you asking questions about what you do; why you do it and how you’re doing it. Mainly though, it’s meant to get you thinking about how you can genuinely drive more positive impact in the world. And it’s meant to turn you into a better, more prosperous business.

Would you like help with that?

Here at Grow Good, we exist to coach people through the process of becoming B Corp certified.

The B Corp Impact Assessment framework  is free to access and provides dozens of useful insights and opportunities for any business but it can be confusing and overwhelming.

We are consultants who have completed the official training provided by B Lab, the organisation that runs the B Corp certification programme. We live, breathe and sleep B Corp. We are your B Corp buddies. We make it easier. We translate the questions into plain English and give you a host of template policies and example documents so you don’t have to start everything from scratch or reinvent the wheel. We show you how to unlock the big point scoring areas most relevant to your business.

Are you ready to go B Corp? It’s completely your decision but if you are, and if you think it would be helpful to have a guiding hand through the process, we’re here to help. Drop us a line or jump straight in and book a free 30 min discovery call with me.

Yours in purpose,

Heilala Vanilla The World’s First Vanilla B

We are super stoked for the team at Heilala Vanilla who just became the world’s first Vanilla company to Certify as a B Corp with a very solid score of 104.7.

👏 👏 👏 👏

It was a real pleasure to work with Rebecca McQueen (Queen B), Jennifer Boggiss and the team to help them on the journey

It was humbling to see what amazing work they do and how they go about doing it.

They are the epitome of what makes for a B Corp.

Heilala now joins a community of 5000+ committed B Corps driving the global movement of business as a force for good.

You can check out a summary of their journey in their post here.

But B Corp is just the start of the journey as Bex says:

“As proud as we are to have reached our goal of Certification, we see this as a starting point on a journey. We have set ourselves some special and impactful goals across our team, our Tongan community and the environment.”

The Truth about the B Corp Journey

Can businesses help solve the biggest societal and environmental challenges we’ve ever faced? Especially considering the huge part business has played in creating these challenges? B Corp says ‘Yes…’ but there are some strings…

A good chunk of my working day is spent talking to businesses that want to know more about B Corp. If you’re thinking about it, let me emphasise that this is no small decision.

B Corp will challenge you to evidence the impact you are making by using business as a force for good. This is not a vanity exercise for marketing purposes, nor just a nice badge of honour that will attract new customers (although it will do that). B Corp will hold up a mirror and ask whether or not you can say, hand on heart, that you will do authentic and measurable things to improve the lives of people and the planet. That you will no longer prioritise profit over planet and people.

Historically, the business sector has accelerated social inequity, fuelled human rights violations, and laid the foundations for climate change. With a global cultural shift underway, are businesses truly evolving from being the drivers of humanity’s biggest problems to drivers of positive and inclusive change?

Are we being idealistic to think the business world can address the pivotal challenges it has played – and continues to play – in creating? From uplifting marginalised communities to reducing the damage of consumer products, to ending the food waste that could alleviate the hunger of almost a billion people.

STRIPPING BARE

The B Corp movement is pulling out all the stops to find out. This is no time to gloss over the reality of the hole we’ve dug ourselves into, nor can we shy away from the difficult and honest conversations. Choosing the B Corp certification road for your business is a big decision. It’s the start of a journey that will hopefully never end as your organisation improves, year on year, in being a force for good that restores the health of our planet and works to drive social equality all over the globe.

By choosing to be a B Corp, you are declaring that you will no longer profit from the suffering of others, be they the Bangladeshi women working in clothing factories, or the cows crammed into the massive factory farms of America.

Being a B Corp business means no longer profiting from exploitation, extraction and emissions. Do not fool yourself into thinking this is an easy thing to do. We’ve created a system that makes it difficult not to pollute and degrade with even our smallest daily activities. From cooking eggs for breakfast on a gas range, to taking the kids to school in our petrol-fuelled car, we have woven fossil fuel combustion into every aspect of our lives.

METAMORPHOSIS

Our entire economic system is built on foundations of exploitation as well as on the lie that endless economic growth is possible and desirable. In nature, if something just grows and grows, it’s called ‘cancer’. In essence, this is traditional capitalism.

Can the business world really undo centuries of programming that worship the bottom line of profit above all else?

By taking the B Corp road, you are saying, ‘Yes, I believe businesses can be run differently. I believe businesses can be modelled on restoration rather than degradation. I believe we can create a socially just society and a healthy planet.’

And it’s okay that we are still working out how we’re going to do this. It’s okay that we don’t have all the answers yet – we’ll find the answers if we keep asking the tough questions. And that is what your B Corp journey is about… it’s about tussling over those difficult questions specific to your organisation; it’s about discussing and debating and learning, evolving and transforming.

The key is to embrace the process of this metamorphosis. Stick with it when the road gets bumpy and celebrate your breakthroughs, big and small.

If you let it, the B Corp journey will be more rewarding, enriching and fulfilling than any satisfaction previously garnered through reporting annual profits to shareholders.

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