Stand and B Counted
By Barry Johnston, Co-Founder of Purpose Union
“We hear the bees but we don’t see the honey”. That’s the phrase my mother would always use when something was promised but taking a long time to come to fruition - usually the completion of some household chore or school assignment (“I’ll finish it tomorrow, I swear”, was the usual response). The phrase came to mind last month as we received our B Corp accreditation at Purpose Union … eventually.
B Corps are businesses that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. There are over 7,000 B Corps spanning over 90 countries and 160 industries and as the numbers continue to increase, they are creating ripple effects in the way business is being done more broadly.
We had intended to become a BCorp from the outset
Founded in 2019, we had intended to become a B Corp from the outset - into it before it went mainstream, like all the cool kids. But in starting a new business, there’s any number of tasks that need doing and we - I - could never quite get round to filling out the paperwork. So while we continued to seek to operate in ways guided by care for our people, our customers, the community and the environment, you kind of had to just take our word for it.
Not anymore. After knuckling down to our homework and completing our B Corp chores - 97.9 points since you ask, with a score of eighty the minimum requirement - we are now a fully signed up member of the club. We’ve even got one of those coveted wooden plaques - made from rescued material naturally - attesting to our “high standards of environmental and social performance”.
The Better Business Act is a coalition of businesses committed to delivering a cleaner, greener, fairer future for all
One of the prime motivators for finally getting round to certifying was our involvement with the Better Business Act campaign - something we helped to develop with B Lab UK and a coalition of businesses big and small from around the country. Through this we met the likes of Douglas Lamont of Tony’s Chocolonely, Joanna Allen of Graze, Amy Clarke of Tribe Impact Capital and James Perry of COOK - each running successful B Corps while being vocal advocates for wider changes in business culture. If these companies, with their complex supply chains, investors and sectoral regulations could make it through the B Corp process, then surely our little company could?
It also seemed reasonable that if we were running a campaign calling for all businesses to be run in line with the principles of B Corp - as the Better Business Act does - we should demonstrate the willingness to do so ourselves.
The whole process seemed to represent more the kind of good housekeeping any well run business aiming to secure its long term success should undertake
In reality, the process of accreditation meant putting structures and processes around many of the practices we had already adopted as a business - an undertaking ably coordinated by our Head of Office in collaboration with the company founders and regularly engaging with our team. It’s a rigorous process, as it should be. We completed three rounds of follow up questionnaires after our initial assessment and one final interview before receiving our final score. Rather than any sense of a great moral crusade, the whole process seemed to represent more the kind of good housekeeping any well run business aiming to secure its long term success should undertake.
This might surprise you if you’ve been reading some of the commentary in the more wild-eyed pages of UK print media over the past number of weeks comparings B Corps and the Better Business Act to Communist China or warning of its chilling effect on free speech. The backlash is well and truly underway.
We’re especially proud to have gained our little “B” badge at this particular moment in time
That’s why we’re especially proud to have gained our little “B” badge at this particular moment in time, when business leaders will have to retain the courage of their convictions under criticism from vested interest. These increasingly hysterical attacks really only serve to underline the steady progress being achieved by the movement. Amongst consumers and on shop floors, in offices and boardrooms around the world, more and more people intuitively understand that how we run business and in whose interests we run it, needs to change.
And that’s a job for today, not tomorrow.