My Serendipitous Introduction to B Corp
In May 2016 an author friend (thanks Drew) asked me if I was familiar with B Corporations after I shared a project I had conceived to change the world.
The idea centres around a new rating system and standard for businesses. One that is more about people and positive impact than making shareholders wealthy. If you’re guessing it’s BrandLight, you are right.
Here I was, creating my own model from scratch, feeling alone in the quest and making slow headway. Then I got the serendipitous introduction to B Lab. They are the non profit who created and assesses B Corps.
My Kind of People!
What I found in B Labs was a group of people who think about business in a similar way to me. After meeting some awesome B Corp business folks, I felt I had found my community.
The standards resonated ferociously for The Sponge. It was a no brainer to make the commitment. So we completed the B Impact Assessment and officially became certified in January 2017!
Being a Certified B Corp means we meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance.
It’s much more than that though! I thought as a relatively small branding agency it would be plain sailing to tick all the boxes and get certified. But there were significant internal changes to be made and processes to be improved for us to qualify.
The process united our team around our somewhat unspoken purpose to do more good in this world.
Due to spending the time on it, it built the momentum we needed to expand on it and evolve our purpose, vision and values too. You know how much I like purpose, but it is rare that we stop to work on our own business. More on that in a future piece.
What It Means For The Sponge
Being a B Corp now guides decisions about our projects, and who we choose to do business with.
Specifically, we choose to work with clients and projects that are socially responsible, ethical, and environmentally sustainable. And those that have a positive impact too!
The Sponge still specialise in purposeful brand stories, branding, and marketing for businesses. We soak it all in, and squeeze out the goodness.
We now consciously look for ways to reduce our wake. Whether that be by cutting electricity consumption, to commissioning smaller commercial print runs. The future (a goal at the time of writing) includes Tesla company cars and solar infrastructure to keep them charged. 🙂
A Bright B Corp Inspired Future
Being a B Corp lights up our team, small as it is. It is our clear commitment to better the world, and today this is so important for us. Our team have committed to the business more than ever before.
As a newbie in the B Corp community, we are excited to see what our future holds. Having had meaningful conversations with amazing B Corps already, the prospect of over 2000 is very exciting!
There are sure to be many more priceless conversations and we look forward to inspiring others and growing with B Corp.
Are you a B Corp, or thinking of becoming one?
