Let’s get loud!

As a recently certified B Corp, we were lucky to be able to meet the broader UK B Corp community at the annual B Lab Festival, Louder Than Words, hosted in Oxford, UK last week. Over two change-fuelled days, and the largest-ever gathering of B Corps in the world, we attended panels, sessions, and workshops dedicated to the pursuit of better business outcomes.

The message from B Lab was clear – for us to have any hope of seeing real social and environmental change, we have to be ruthlessly focused on 3 areas:

• Ambition

  • Change will not come about if we aren’t unashamedly ambitious about where we are trying to get to

    
    

• Impact

  • We need to stay centred on the things that actually matter and make the biggest difference.

    
    

• Collaboration

  • There is nothing to be solved in silos or competition, it is acts of collaboration that will amplify the result.

Of course, there was recognition that those in the room were already converted. Whilst, in our domains, we can be role models of change and encourage our partners, customers, and suppliers to step up. The real job to be done is to lobby for the B Corp standards to become expectations for all businesses. To that end, B Lab has set out a goal that “within 10 years, we want to see every UK business acting as a force for good”.

Brand and retail expert, Mary Portas, offered a thought-provoking suggestion of how to get there. The critical question, she said, is, “How do you help people to do the right thing without sacrificing their desires for nice things?” She rightly pointed out that values-based agendas like sustainability and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are often about taking the moral high ground. But if we focused more on desirability, we would reach the masses, and broaden out from the conscientious few.

Of course, every B Corp needs to keep innovating and rethinking why and how we do what we do to create more sustainable practices. But, there was also deep recognition that it is a ‘system change’ that is required. And, whilst a lot of the action for this sits in cross-border policy frameworks and government, we can and must feel empowered to create the system change within our industries and domains. Anuradha Chugh, ex-CEO of Pukka and non-executive director at B Lab UK, called for B Corps to “work within your industries vertically as coalitions to drive more impactful change.”

The question Anuradha left us with was, “Who can you say yes to today for collaboration over competition when collaboration is the only way to build a more sustainable business model?”

The Unmistakables is built on an ethos of collaboration and partnership. We were left thinking about how much more impact is to be had when we come together. Seeing the innovative and inspiring work that our fellow B Corps are doing has left us truly excited about what is to come through being part of this community.

Ultimately, business has created so many of the climate, social and environmental challenges that exist today and that are disproportionately affecting marginalised populations. And as is so often the case, the problem is also the solution. It is for businesses to step up and recognise that there is another way- a sustainable and ethical way- a way that is less about what we say in our corporate communications. It is more about what action we are truly taking. Businesses don’t have to become B Corps to take action (although we’d love everyone to join us in this community!) The B Lab standards are not simply for businesses who wish to certify, they are visible and accessible to all, as a guide or blueprint, for how to be “a force for good’.

Now, for getting LOUD.