In 2016, just a year into my current role, the company joined the cohort of founding B Corps in the UK, says Laura Grenier, director of Operations at WHEB Asset Management.
Roll the clock forward to 2024 and there are now more than 1,500 B Corps in the UK, and over 6,000 worldwide in more than 80 countries spanning 150 industries. We are now in the company of many well-known brands and there is even a B Corp ‘aisle’ in Waitrose where you can add positive impact to your weekly shop.
Primarily, a B Corp has to legally commit (by changing its constitutional documents), to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just its shareholders. Just as important as the legal framework, is the assessment.
This is an intensive process that ensures that key stakeholders are taken into account in decision-making and that processes and performance are verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
Process
In order to become a B Corp, companies are required to consider the impact of its activities over ‘five pillars’ – Governance, Workers, Customers, Environment and Community.
The initial certification process – particularly for smaller or early-stage firms – may provide challenges in terms of evidencing how the requirements are being met and making sure all the positive activities are clearly documented in policies and process documents. However, this is a positive – providing a framework for post-certification continuous improvement as we’ll see below.
During our own certification process, we realised that this approach to doing business was very much aligned with our own mission “to advance sustainability and create prosperity through positive impact investments”.
The process of certification itself is also hugely beneficial, allowing firms to hold a mirror up to their activities and consider how well they serve the interests of these stakeholders. As firms complete the initial assessment, they can quickly realise where the gaps are or where they do not score so well. Many ask themselves whether it’s an opportunity to do things better? The answer is very often: ‘Yes’.
Obtaining the certification is not the end of the journey but the beginning. The certification requirements provide a very useful framework for continuous advancement, that not only improves the next B Lab assessment score, but also benefits the business and its stakeholders too. Engaging support from across the business, at all levels of seniority, is key to the support for – and ultimately success of – the journey to certification.
Business growth
For firms in the financial services industry, the B Corp certification is increasingly renowned and serves as a validation of the ethos of a business. The financial services industry, in particular, suffers from negative perceptions at times, and the B Corp certification is a useful differentiator. In essence, it provides a means of demonstrating that a firm has been certified by B Lab for its social impact, to benefit all people, communities and the planet.
Being part of the B Corp community has many other benefits. It affords valuable opportunities to knowledge share and network with like-minded businesses and their teams with a common aligned goal to address society’s most critical challenges, from different sectors, businesses and countries.
B Corp status is also a big plus for clients. Investors are increasingly seeking to make a positive impact with their money, not just a financial return. The B Corp certification provides assurance to actual or potential clients that the firms providing financial services are doing so with the interests of the wider community, workers, customers and the environment at the heart of what they do.
Reaction to B Corps
The B Corp community, which encompasses many sectors and market segments, is increasingly well known and the high standards needed to obtain the certification are more widely acknowledged. In my experience, someone who cares about people and the planet would care whether a company is a B Corp or not.
On a personal level, I believe that the B Corp certification is wide ranging and provides assurance to our stakeholders, be that customers, workers, or the wider community, that our business model is structured in a way to ensure that it has a positive impact for them and the planet.
The certification process is suitably stringent to ensure that only companies with a real and quantifiable positive impact on its stakeholders succeed in obtaining the certification. The financial services industry should support the proposed changes to the standards and recognise that the new foundation and certification requirements will strengthen the challenge associated with the process and provide a deeper level of assurance over the quality of the certification.
The new certification framework will require firms to meet these foundation requirements before they can be considered eligible to pursue B Corp Certification. The performance requirements themselves will be extended to nine Impact Topics, and B Corps will need to meet minimum standards encompassing a cross section of widely recognised actions of impact management.
By Laura Grenier, director of operations at WHEB Asset Management.
