UPDATE: We are now a certified B Corp! Read the announcement here.
Wait, did Practical Insight get its B Corp certification? Did I miss the announcement? No, not yet. But we’re getting close!
While Practical Insight only became eligible for B Corp certification in March 2024, our founder, Adrianne Gordon, has been immersed in the B Corp community since 2017. In that time, she’s seen and heard from a lot of B Corps about how they have gotten (or not gotten) return on their investment of time, energy, and money from their certification. She’s sharing her top three tips to make the most of your B Corp certification: involve your team, share your story, and get involved with the community.
Involve Your Team
As a fractional COO, facilitator, consultant, and through my work with B Corp groups (more on that below), I’ve worked with B Corps of different sizes and in various industries. I have seen a common thread at B Corps who have benefited the most from the certification: They got their team involved in the process – early and often.
Activating employees to help with the B Impact Assessment is step one. Not only will this help them understand and appreciate, the process, but they can then help guide improvements and champion them to the rest of the team. Ask the broader team for ideas – what metrics can we track to help us measure progress toward our goals? Is this new policy clear? How can we improve a new process in a way that works for everyone?
From new policies to waste reduction initiatives to employee surveys, involving employees gets the rest of the team excited about the certification and, most importantly, secures buy-in to changes as they are implemented. Be thoughtful about making involvement clear and accessible. Put out a call for volunteers for a range of initiatives, from JEDI training to waste reduction, and vary the level of your ask. Team members have specific topics they are passionate about, individual capacity constraints to take on additional tasks, and their own comfort level with leadership roles.
Educate Your Team
In addition to involving members of the team, deploy multiple strategies to keep everyone at your company informed about what specific projects are underway, why you’re working on them and why B Corp certification is important. Take advantage of your regular team meetings to share what the process entails and provide status updates, but don’t be afraid to share your own personal reasons to pursue certification.
- Why are the owners and leaders of the company making the commitment to certify as a B Corp?
- What is driving all the effort being put into it? Consistently show the connection between the work being done around certification to your larger goals for the company.
- What will these new policies and practices do? How do they tie to your company’s values, the work you do, and the future you want to create?
Lastly, celebrate your certification. Throw an office party, send out a gift, do something special that signals the importance of this milestone. Remind everyone why you decided to certify and extend another invitation for your team to get involved.
Share Your Story: SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!
Often companies will make an announcement internally and externally when they certify. Keep in mind that potential customers and employees may not know what it means to be a B Corp, so make sure to tell them why you embarked on the arduous journey of certification, and what it means to your company to make the commitment to maintain it.
Sharing your story, though, is not a one-time event. It takes time and repetition to educate your team, your customers, and your community about what it means to be a B Corp. Whether it’s your local philanthropic efforts or your incredible environmental impact, your efforts to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place are worthy of celebration.
As your company’s B Corp story evolves, share it internally and externally to drive home all the ways your business is working to create a more just and sustainable economy. Being a certified B Corp means those efforts are both documented and verified and that is always worth mentioning to help your company stand out from the green or mission-washing crowd.
Unleashing the power of your B Corp certification means ensuring current and even future stakeholders are educated about it means to be a B Corp and why you did it. Add information to both new hire and new client onboarding materials. Take the time to provide your team with content and resources to help them confidently communicate about your B Corp status and the impact the certification is having in sales calls, hiring interviews, and at networking events. Nothing is more authentic than empowered and excited employees explaining what it means to be a certified B Corp.
Connect with the Community
Again and again, I’ve seen that B Corp certification has incredible value in providing a map for companies to live their values, engage their employees, attract amazing talent, and set themselves apart in the marketplace. The ultimate value of the certification, though, is in the community itself. The B Corp community is supportive, generous, passionate, innovative, and caring. And over the past six years, I have seen the community’s growth accelerate, while also becoming more organized and accessible (shout out to the tremendous efforts and investments from B Lab US & Canada on this front!).
So how can you and your team get connected to others in the B Corp community? I get asked this A LOT and have seen two particular strategies yield the best results.
Start Locally
Your B Local is a great place to start. Whether you’re a B Corp, working on your certification, or just passionate about leveraging business for a better future, this is a great place to make connections. You’ll get to know like-minded business owners and their employees enthusiastic about reimagining the way we do business.
And if you don’t have one, fill the gap and start one. Seek out other B Corps in your area via the online directory and other like-minded business leaders. B Local Asheville was started by just three companies and a local non-profit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs. Most B Locals were started in similar ways. Those of us who have been crazy enough to start a group (or two, some of us are crazier than others) are happy to help and B Lab US & Canada also provides support to emerging groups.
Engage Widely
Do what you can to get everyone involved in the B Corp community. Invite your team to find a B Network related to their role, identity, or interests.
Get your HR team involved with the B Culture & Talent Network and attend their monthly meetings to leverage the knowledge and experience of others who do similar work at mission-driven companies. Do the same for your marketing and sales teams with the B Marketers Network and either the B2B B Corps or B2C Networks.
There are also some incredible community resource groups, perfect for companies that aren’t large enough to form their own. Let your team know about groups like the BIPOC Network, We The Change, and B Proud, and empower them to find their niche within the greater B Corp community.
Once they have found a group to engage with, encourage your team members to actively engage in the community – build relationships, offer resources, and ask questions. Share what your company is doing around the environment, sustainability, governance, community engagement, etc. Cross post job openings on the B Hive and in the chat during network meetings. When your company is seen as a resource to the community in this way, it’s a small step to be seen as a resource for your product or service.
Involve, Share, and Connect
Engaging your team in your B Corp journey, continuously sharing what it means to be a B Corp, and connecting with like-minded companies isn’t rocket science. It’s a simple yet powerful formula to get the most out of your B Corp certification.