How we’re making good on our B Corp commitments
05 January 2023
We’ve been recognised as a Best For The World™ B Corp, thanks to our commitment to people and the ways we choose to work together.
Our worker impact is achieving a top five per cent score of our grouping worldwide. This centres on what we do to nurture a happy, healthy team.
We believe that empowered people are happier people. As part of striving toward a self-organised model, the team have ownership of their work and are encouraged to participate in decision-making and shaping the future of our business. Contribution equals commitment. That’s the key, we think.
Other things we nurture include:
- Wellbeing function focusing on what makes us happy and fulfilled
- Decent working conditions, flexible ways of working and adaptable leave requests
- Self-development framework that draws on support from the whole team
- Coaching programme nurturing leadership and all-round healthier communication
- Having the freedom to do paid work on projects of our interest in our local communities
As a founding UK B Corp, we were one of the first creative agencies to work exclusively with organisations built around a social or environmental purpose. This is a mission that makes us feel incredibly proud.
What we measure
Our ‘bring our whole selves to work’ philosophy and regular deep listening conversations quickly reveal any wellbeing issues emerging among the team. We can also gauge contentment within the group through our regular check-ins and our self-development programme. We’re not afraid to “put our mooseheads on the table”, as our friends at Tuff Leadership like to say about surfacing underlying tensions.
What else makes us a B Corp?
As a founding UK B Corp, we were one of the first creative agencies to work exclusively with organisations built around a social or environmental purpose. This is a mission that makes us feel incredibly proud.
For more than 20 years we’ve supported those who want to build an equal, more trusting, human society that takes better care of its home. World-changing social enterprises, sustainable businesses and charities among them.
Enacting our B Corp commitments, therefore, is central to all we do.
But it also includes:
- Investing pro-bono time into our client-partner projects
- Volunteering for social and environmental causes
- Working with low-impact partners and supplies who align with our values
- Supporting our communities and green spaces
- Individual efforts at home to reduce our impact on the environment
- Choosing a co-working space that values kindness, respect and sharing best-practice — as a not-for-profit cooperative
- And as mentioned, our commitment to team development, wellbeing and happiness
Why we’re a B Corp by nature, not just choice
Our ambition is to effect radical human change through amplifying and accelerating the work of others. This kind of change is about people not systems, and how we grow our collective consciousness to solve our greatest challenges. This drives our shared creative purpose, our reason for being.
In simple terms, we find what matters and make it matter more.
This is about more than defining purpose and telling stories that matter. We support true pioneers in the charity, nonprofit and purposeful enterprise sectors in facilitating as well as communicating the positive change they’re working toward, whether ripples of possibility or monumental changes in tide.
Using the tools of identity, culture and communications, we co-create deeper connections that move people to be part of that change. To build community around that change. It’s about reconnecting people with the world so they can change it for the better.
Our purpose is all about positive outcomes
The efficacy of our work arises from a deeply enquiring, evidence-based approach. We engage with people, carry out research, test our ideas and evaluate our impact. We always ask ‘what’s underneath?’. We don’t always get an answer. Evaluating our work can be notoriously difficult, especially when relying on multiple stakeholders. But if you don’t ask…
The evaluation bit is built into how we work with our client-partners and involves periodic impact reviews. We always try to capture and share individual stories, bigger picture impacts and ongoing learning through our case studies.
As a team, values are our most important gauge. Integrity, honesty, doing what’s right, we believe, should be default. But we also have our own chosen principles to support our purpose and ambition. We strive to be collective, curious and courageous in all we do. These are more than values; they’re the commitments we make every day. Principles that inform our decision-making, our team culture, and the approach we take to our work. They’re a compass for our actions and behaviours.
What’s involved in B Corp certification?
Certifying as a B Corp goes beyond product or service. It provides us with a comprehensive framework against which to consider the impact of our decisions on our colleagues, client partners, collaborators and suppliers, our community and the environment. And it’s an approach that measures our entire social and environmental performance.
Certification doesn’t just prove where our company excels now — it commits us to consider stakeholder impact in the long-term by building it into our legal structure. That’s why we’ve enshrined our social and environmental commitments within our company purpose and legal objective.
What’s next?
This year we’ll continue collaborating with the global B Corp community to build on our positive social and environmental impact. Watch this space for more on what we learn.
