This B Corp Month, we celebrated the power of B Corp to drive meaningful action. Seismic’s Cofounder and Chief Impact Officer, Amy Bourbeau, and Senior Sustainability Consultant, Olivia Jennings, were joined by guest speakers, Mark Brown, Head of Impact and Sustainability at Motability Operations Ltd., and Clay Brown, Co-Lead Executive and Head of Standards, Certification and Product Delivery at B Lab. Together, they shared how to leverage the B Corp community and extend your impact beyond certification.
5 key takeaways from the session
- Decoding B Corp: Unveiling the secrets behind certification and the movement’s growth.
- Beyond Certification: How to harness the B Corp framework to ignite meaningful change within your business.
- Community Catalyst: Ways you can tap into the B Corp community to amplify your impact.
- B Corp Blueprint: Real-world success stories from leading B Corps on using business as a force for good.
- Igniting Action: Inspiration, practical advice, and the spark you need to accelerate your journey.
Audience Q&A
Clay Brown, B Lab Global’s Co-Lead Executive and Head of Standards, Certification and Product Delivery, provided valuable answers to some of the top questions from our audience. Here are a few highlights:
1. There’s obviously been negative dialogue about the movement with Dr Bronner’s & Scrumbles very publicly de-certifying, what’s B Lab’s PR/Social strategy to constructively engage with this dialogue?
While it’s always disappointing when B Corps choose to leave the community, we recognize that this will happen from time to time for a variety of reasons. We’re always open to and regularly engaging in conversations with B Corps to understand their concerns and challenges, and we remain committed to learning from those discussions. That said, it’s important to highlight that attrition within the B Corp community remains very low globally, and our growth and expansion continue to far outpace any departures. The strength and momentum of the movement remain clear, with thousands of businesses actively engaged and committed to driving positive change.
We also understand that when a company decides to decertify in a way that publicly questions the movement or other B Corps’ commitment to sustainability, it can be frustrating — particularly for those who continue to uphold these values. While it may be tempting for B Lab to respond directly to public criticism, our approach is to focus on amplifying the positive impact of the B Corp community rather than engaging in disputes. Where we feel that our work or the work of B Corps is being misrepresented we will engage to clarify our position, but we do need to be selective about where and how we engage.
In the cases you mentioned, our strategy has been to respectfully acknowledge their decision, thank them for their past contributions, and continue to focus on supporting and celebrating the many businesses that are actively driving change as part of the B Corp community. Ultimately, our priority remains on advancing our mission and highlighting the powerful stories of impact that define this movement.
2. One of the biggest climate issues that business is responsible for and can drive transformative solutions for is over production and over consumption, particularly in apparel and consumer goods. We’re at peak stuff and waste. What opportunity is there to address this via the new circularity principle?
Thanks for the great question, and I couldn’t agree more. Overproduction and overconsumption are significant drivers of the climate crisis, particularly in sectors like apparel and consumer goods.
The Environmental Stewardship and Circularity impact topic in our new standards is designed to challenge businesses to confront these issues head-on. One of the key aspects is that companies will be prompted to assess their full environmental impact (from sourcing to production to consumption), as well as including circularity principles into their product development activities. Options built into the standard related to product development include: designing products for long-term use, ensuring products are able to recirculate after use and that they can recirculate at their end of life. Clearly not all of these are appropriate for all businesses immediately, but by asking businesses to understand, assess and take actions we are hoping to drive B Corps towards addressing issues of overconsumption in the business. The impact topic is also holistic in nature, and by focusing on end to end environmental impact we are aiming to drive more responsible production and consumption practices.
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