We’re a B Corp. Which means we’ve been certified as meeting high standards of environmental, social, ethical and governance practices. We spent a long time becoming a B Corp, using the (long, detailed) assessment framework as a lens through which to look at every aspect of the way we do business. We changed our Articles of Association, became a Real Living Wage employer, assessed our carbon emissions, created our first Net Zero plan, amended our handbook, created new policies, assessed our supplier base, changed energy providers, changed our lighting… you get the gist: we took it seriously. And so our B Corp certification made a huge difference to the way we run our business.
It’s had wider benefits than just how the business is run as well, but to how colleagues, clients and recruits see us. “That’s not very B Corp” can be heard from colleagues on a daily basis to pull up behaviours that could be improved (thanks Alex and Erik especially for this one!). When pitching for new work, it gives us a shorthand to clients and procurement teams especially for being eco-friendly and having social value baked into what we do. When recruiting, it is one of the top reasons we are given for why candidates are interested in joining us. (One gorgeous chap recently told me when I asked him why he applied for us over other agencies he’d said, “I knew I wanted to work for a B Corp so that narrowed it down”.)
But all of that said, not everyone uses B Corp in quite the same way that we do, and it’s far from perfect. The organisation behind B Corp, B Lab, has come under fire over the last few years for letting anyone in who can afford it. Because there are certainly ways of gaming the system and gaining B Corp status even if your practices are less than squeaky clean underneath the bonnet. While we as directors worked hard across all areas of the certification, aiming to improve everywhere we could and changing the way we work to become a genuinely better business, we know that others take a different approach. If you write the right policies, tick the right boxes in the areas that give you the most points, you can find your way to a B Corp certification even if there are things about your business practices that don’t fit into the overall spirit of a B Corp organisation.
An example in the agency world is Havas, who were called out on their certification and eventually had it revoked by B Lab. While I’m sure they do many great things worthy of note, they were also the global agency of Shell, global pollutants, which didn’t sit well with B Corps or critics for obvious reasons.
Brewdog came under scrutiny too, and their B Corp status was revoked once their infamously toxic work culture was revealed on a BBC exposé. And every time I pick up a plastic bottle of water and find the B Corp logo on the back, I ask myself how good can you really be if your business is based on plastic? 23 other B Corps felt the same when Nespresso entered the B Corp party, despite their dubious human rights record, and wrote to B Lab to state that the B Corp reputation was at risk.
And I agree. While clearly you don’t have to be perfect to be a B Corp, when businesses that are directly supporting the polluting of our oceans, refilling of landfill, or stand by toxic workplaces, are filling out its ranks, we have to ask: are we dancing at the right party?
At ThreeTenSeven we are due to re-certify in July this year, having been a B Corp for three years now. It was right then that we consider carefully if re-certifying is the right decision for us. As directors, myself Chris and Paul have all followed with interest as other B Corps have joined the fold while others left, and stayed abreast of claims that the B Corp wave is crashing...We’ve spent long time in conversation asking ourselves whether it’s right for our brand to stay aligned with B Corp, whether we feel confident in its trajectory, and comfortable that our team, clients and peers will continue to believe in it enough, too.
It's not just about our reputation, although that is a huge deciding factor, but also practicality: B Corp certification itself is a huge undertaking, so we have to be sure it’s worth it. In re-certifying, we can expect hours upon hours of work to review again all of our practices and policies, collect new data, and provide evidence across over 90 areas. And we don’t have a team to take care of this for us, nor the resources or inclination to outsource the work.
The answers are unclear, as they always are, but for us, having the conversation is a useful tool in itself and an example of the way we do things.
On careful consideration, we've decided to re-certify and to remain one of the core B Corp crew, riding the wave with it – and hopefully landing it too. We are still committed to what B Corp stands for, and to running our business in the right way. While we don’t need to be a B Corp to do that, we know from experience just how useful it’s been for us to have the B Corp framework by our side. The process of re-certifying will give us chance to look at our business again with fresh eyes and ask ourselves: how can we be better still? It shows our commitment to that to our team, our clients, our friends, and yes, will continue to be a useful shorthand in new business. We’re also reassured by the measures that B Lab are putting in place to make certification more rigorous, and trust that we’ll be in good company moving forward thanks to that.
To anyone considering B Corp (or thinking of leaving it behind), we’d love to hear from you. What’s right for us might not be right for you. But to all of those running a business or managing a brand, I would encourage you to seek some form of external framework for Good Business, so environment, social value and other key values don’t get pushed down the list as so often happens. Find a way of shining a light on them and a structure for holding yourselves to account over the long term. For us, that’s been the real success of our B Corp certification and something we’ll never leave behind.
