Camilla Barnes of Better Business, Better World, explains about B Corp certification and how it can help your business.

Feeling the heat from those new customers on how you can prove what you’re doing on social & environmental responsibility? Struggling with attracting and retaining talent?

The truth is, having an initiative here and there, without a clear strategy or third-party verification, is not always enough nowadays to win that big business or attract great talent. One way to be more convincing is to have a single narrative that describes all your social and environmental work, in a structured way.

B Corp certification creates a single sustainability narrative

B Corp is a third-party certification to prove a business is socially and environmentally responsible. It is also a global movement whose aim is to change the system away from unfair capitalism to fairer capitalism, by encouraging businesses to think about the positive impact they can have on their people and the planet by:

• treating their staff better, in terms of finances, health & wellness, career development, etc.;
• reducing consumption of natural resources;
• supporting their local communities and charities;
• engaging their suppliers on social and environmental issues;
• providing excellent customer service.

The movement started with three men who ran a basketball clothing company in the US - AND1. When they went to sell it, they wanted a way to ensure that the great social and environmental values they’d embedded in the company would remain, even as they moved on.

So in 2006, they founded B Lab in the USA. The certification assesses all areas of the business and shows how you consider people and planet are just as important as profit. It doesn’t just evaluate a product or service; it assesses the overall positive impact of the company that stands behind it.

Stakeholder-focus results in better choices, better outcomes

B Corps think about how their business will benefit all their stakeholders, which results in better choices, better outcomes and systemic impact, rather than only focussing on shareholder profits.

Stakeholders include your workers, your customers, your local community, charities, suppliers as well as the environment.

A thriving community showing how business can be a force for good

The UK is the 2^nd country after USA with the highest number of B Corps in the world - who could be potential clients or suppliers, with social and environmental values aligned to yours. There are over 8000 certified B Corps globally and over 2000 in the UK. Some well-known names include: Patagonia, Finisterre, Tony’s Chocoloney’s, Innocent Smoothies, Ben and Jerry’s, Simply Business, Toms and Fairphone.

Attracting and engaging talent

More and more people want to work for a business that cares nowadays – especially since Covid. People are realising that life is too short to work for a business that doesn’t take care of its employees or think about the negative impacts it has on the community and environment.

In a recent survey, UK B Corp SMEs (compared to non-B Corp UK SMEs) have seen:

• their annual employee headcount grow by 8%, compared to 0% for UK non-BCorps;
• 54% of B Corp SMEs expected employee numbers to grow, compared to 29% of all SMEs;
• B Corp SMEs reported an average staff attrition rate of 10% in the past year, compared to 16-20% for the wider SME population.

A holistic approach to environmental sustainability

If you want to become a B Corp company you first need to complete an impact assessment; the questions interrogate into the depths of every aspect of the business. If you pass the score threshold to become B Corp certified, you know the business takes social and environmental responsibility seriously. The process of becoming certified encourages you to reduce over-consumption of natural resources, so you will inevitably see cost savings where you make environmental efficiencies.

In terms of environmental sustainability, compared with non-B Corps, B Corps are:

• 2.5x times more likely to have policies that require using a low carbon transportation option
• 2.4x more likely to have programmes to reduce their end-of-life waste
• 2x more likely to be Carbon Neutral
• 1.8x more likely to assess the environmental impact of their organisation’s business activities
• 1.7x more likely to implement some form of water conservation in most of their corporate offices or plant facilities

Resources involved

As with any certification process, there are resource requirements attached.

The overall process to become B Corp certified includes:

1. Passing the performance test. The pass score is 80 out of roughly 200. Companies have to renew their certification, i.e. retake the questionnaire, every 3 years. There is a Disclosure Questionnaire, which isn’t marked, but asks about sensitive practices and clients in controversial industries. It can take anywhere between nine to 12 months of improvements to reach the pass score. This phase involves rolling out new policies, processes and practices to truly embed social and environmental responsibility. Businesses who’ve gone on the journey have described it as 'transformational'.
2. Meeting the legal requirement. B Corps make this legal change by updating their Articles of Association which prioritise all stakeholders of the business, not just shareholders.
3. Have your questions verified, which can take up to nine months, although the wait is being reduced all the time. At this point there is a one-off submission fee (ranging between £200-£600 depending on turnover) and one-off verification fee (ranging between £360-£5,400 depending on turnover).
4. Make your status official, by signing the B Corp declaration of interdependence.
5. Pay the annual certification fee (ranging between £1000-£25,000 depending on turnover).

The assessment is built around five pillars

The table shows the full breakdown of topics that the certification asks about, so that you get an idea of the level of detail required.  

They separate the questions between operational, day-to-day type activities and Impact Business Models, which is where your business might solve a specific social or environmental challenge through (normally revenue-generating) products or services.

Making the most of being certified

Once you are certified, there are plenty of things you can to do to walk the B Corp walk.

1. Tell everyone!

2. Connect and collaborate with other B Corps in your sector.

3. Target other B Corps as clients, so they align with your values.

4. Publish an annual impact report to show your social and environmental performance.

5. Continuous improvements and recertify every three years.

Learn more

To learn more about becoming B Corp certified, contact Camilla Barnes of Better Business, Better World. She has been a qualified B Leader (or B Corp consultant) supporting businesses on their B Corp journey since 2017. To date, she has supported 31 businesses on their B Corp journeys, 13 of whom are now B Corp certified. She is co-chair of Gloucestershire B Local, which shares social and environmental best practice amongst businesses in Gloucestershire.

Photo: Camilla Barnes.
Table: The five pillars around which assessment is built.