Doing things the right way has always been core to our beliefs around running our agency and so taking steps to become a B-Corp felt like a very natural thing for us to do.
We started our B-Corp ‘journey’ in late 2021, but – mainly due to the growth of the team and how that impacts the process – have only recently submitted our application to become a B-Corp.
What is B-Corp?
The B Corp Certification is an accreditation process and certification that companies are meeting a certain standards of ‘verified performance, accountability, and transparency’ across key aspects of running their business – from how they treat their workforce, how they engage with their business and wider community, how the business is set up, as well as how they seek to minimise their impact on the planet.
Why now?
As a relatively young company with clear intentions of behaving properly in how we go about our business, setting out our stall early on doing things the right way was important.
The B-Corp Assessment process has been invaluable in this regard, and has made us think about things that we might not have done: how to monitor and mitigate our environmental impact, how to engage with the team around business financials, how we want to engage with the local community (to name a few).
By holding ourselves accountable to these aspects now, and setting sail in the right direction early, hopefully means we don’t get into any bad habits that might have to be unpicked further down the line.
Other agencies
For some agencies, being a B-Corp is front and centre and something to shout about at all times – others, it’s less of a priority and there’s even cynicism around the accreditation and the process.
We’re somewhere in the middle. We’ll be proudly B-Corp (when it comes) but it’ll only form part of how we hold ourselves accountable to our client partners, our team, our community and the planet.
If nothing else, it’s been a very helpful guide rail to setting off in the right direction ensuring we have the right processes in place to do right by all of our stakeholders.
What’s next?
The B-Corp accreditation truly is ‘a journey’ (to coin a cheesy phrase) and regular re-assessments are required to ensure companies are maintaining their standards.
Once ratified, our B-Corp assessment score should be 85+ but we can already see plenty of opportunity to push this into the 90’s and beyond.
Please see here for our latest Impact Report pending B-Corp approval
