Society has applied to become a B Corporation

Society has formally submitted its application to become a B Corporation or ‘B Corp’.

B Corporations are companies that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. The designation was created by a global non-profit called B Lab, which began in the US but now has branches around the world. B Lab administers the certification process for companies to become, and to stay, B Corps.

There are currently over 2,600 certified B Corporations across 150 industries in 60 countries, including brands such Cook, Café Direct, JoJo Maman Bébé, Ben and Jerry’s, Patagonia and Warby Parker. The food company Danone has also publicly announced its intention to get all of its subsidiary companies certified as B Corps. Although not a formal legal designation, B Corp status is essentially a mechanism to allow companies to demonstrate their good behaviour in an objective way, and to fix a ‘triple bottom line’ approach into their business model without the introduction of an asset lock.

To be granted certification, a company must receive a minimum score of 80 out of 200 in an online assessment of their social and environmental performance, integrate B Lab’s formal commitments to stakeholders into their governing documents, pay an annual fee, and be prepared to re-certify every three years.

Society’s Board of Directors has recently passed a Special Resolution to add a new preamble on ‘Responsibility’ to the company’s Articles of Association. This new text formally enshrines Society’s commitment to consider the impact of our decisions not just on our bottom line, but also on our workers, on our customers, on our suppliers, on our community, and on the environment. The language was drafted on behalf of B Lab by a panel of experts from the UK’s leading law firms.

The application process is expected to take several months, but we hope to announce our official entry to the B Corp community early in 2019.

To learn more about the B Corporations please visit www.bcorporation.uk