The Business Movement Everyone's Talking About

This week marks the end of B Corp month - a month-long global campaign where the B Corp community celebrates what it means to be a B Corp. B Corps are leaders of a global movement of people using business as a force for good, meeting verified higher levels of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. This week’s 52INSIGHTS reflects on last week’s gathering of the Irish B Corp community in Dublin where THINKHOUSE and other B Corps came together to inspire other Irish companies to take action and improve their own impact. 

The Latest B Corp Figures

Today, there are nearly 8,500 Certified B Corps spanning across 96 countries and 162 industries, and employing over 770,000 employees. In Ireland, there are now 38 B Corps, all pro-profit with the shared goal of finding the sweet spot of balancing People (Social), Planet (Environmental) and Profit (Finance). B Corps typically outperform market growth by 22%, and are key to attracting and retaining staff; it makes business sense to be a B Corp.

A Shortcode for Sustainable Business

Global recognition, attracting investment, and futureproofing your business are other key reasons emphasised by B Lab Ireland, hosts of the event, for ‘the why’ of becoming B Corp. Another good one is to ‘simplify sustainability’ - the B mark acts as a shortcode for a business that cares about people and planet - an identifier that opens you up to both consumers looking to spend their money wisely and businesses looking to partner with or procure the services of other businesses for good. 

How Are Irish B Corps Leading the Way?

In the spirit of this year’s B Corp month theme ‘This Way Forward’ here’s some inspirational takeaways from our Ireland B Corp…. 

💫More employees and businesses themselves are realising that business purely for the sake of profit isn’t something people in general find fulfilling. Younger workers in particular are looking for workplaces with deeper values and a commitment to making a positive impact on people/planet. Leading businesses in turn listen and act on their needs, offering monetary reward beyond the basics, upskilling opportunities and greater flexibility. Providing local employment is key for Tourism B Corps in particular such as The Armada Hotel, Ballyhass Adventure Group and Earth’s Edge. Shout out to the Armada Hotel’s #LifeByTheSea ethos which involves working to provide employment all year round, in addition to community endeavours such as sand dune restoration and seaweed harvesting.

💫Donagh Quigley, founder of The Handmade Soap Company, highlighted “B Corp cuts through the noise. The logo was justifying the principles we already adhered to.” Indeed many of the B Corps, spoke of ‘behaving like a B Corp’ before going through the rigorous process to achieve assessment - this core “business as a force for good” belief system emulating from the top down is key to any company becoming and maintaining B Corp accreditation. Kudos to Donagh’s plan to plant 3,000 native Irish trees and two acres of wildflower meadow in the Boyne Valley THIS WEEKEND  - if you think you can help, read more here.

💫We need interventions and processes in place to centre stakeholders in decision making. Paddy Carmody, marketing manager for innocent drinks reminded us of the need for interventions and processes to centre stakeholders in decision making, speaking how innocent sets out two extra empty chairs in meetings to represent 'people' and 'planet', encouraging everyone to make a habit of thinking beyond those physically present in a room. 

💫 From SMEs to large corporations, a key characteristic of B Corps is that they are always looking for ways to innovate and improve, to do things better. Whether that’s Baileys trialling a new aluminium bottle in Germany (as a less carbon intensive alternative to glass), or Climeaction extending its portfolio by introducing new consultancy services. 

💫 Beyond products and services, the people who work in B Corps are key to amplifying the movement. Shout out to all the fellow B Corps who invest in educating their teams and instilling a sense of pride so that they act as brand ambassadors for the movement, directly engaging with customers, communities and consumers. 

This is particularly important, considering current awareness levels of B Corp. In 2023, B Lab Europe conducted a comprehensive online survey involving over 11,000 respondents across eleven European countries (including Ireland) to investigate consumers’ awareness of B Corp Certification and their attitude toward sustainability labels. The findings highlight that one in seven people in Europe have heard of the B Corp movement. Gen z and millennials have the highest awareness, with over 25% having heard of B Corp.  The research also unlocked the power of the B mark in purchasing decisions - 69% of people who are aware of B Corp said B Corp Certification positively affected their purchasing decisions, either actively looking for them or using it to decide between products/services. Read more here.

💫 To sum up, as Jane McDaid, THINKHOUSE’s founder and head of creative innovation highlighted in the final panel of the day - “We don’t want to be the only one in our industry we want to be part of an industry with lots of B Corp businesses”. 

And the extra good news for Irish businesses? GreenStart Grants of up to €5,000 are available from Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Local Enterprise Offices to procure the services of an experienced external consultant (a B Leader) to help you on your journey. So there’s little in the way of  reaching our target of 100 Irish B Corps. 

💫Curious about learning more? Check out our ‘A to Z of Becoming a B Corp’ article.