That’s a wrap on our first B Corp Month!
Trends
Brand Collaborations
March is B Corp Awareness Month.
For anyone new to the B Corp movement, here’s a quick recap:
B Corporation businesses are committed to acting as a force for good – declaring people, planet and profit as equally important. In order to become a B Corp, companies are rigorously audited and scored across five categories: governance, workers, customers, community and the environment.
Having founded Ignition (the first agency in Istoria Group) with the ambition and commitment to reduce excessive waste within the exhibition and events industry, our vision has always been to be a different kind of company – one that balances people and planet with profit, whilst delivering great creative work for our clients. It is still our driving force today. However, as Istoria Group grew, we wanted to ensure we could be an agent for change across all areas – not just environmental sustainability – and it’s this that brought us to explore the B Corp movement.
While no accreditation is perfect and, like everyone else, you are never really doing enough, B Corp creates a very worthwhile framework for businesses to start measuring and monitoring every part of daily operations. As B Corps are required to recertify every three years, and report on progress annually, it’s also a long-term commitment to improvement.
We certified as a B Corp in August 2022, and we’re now preparing to report against our impact assessment at the end of 2023 to show incremental changes made over the past year. We’ve used the B Corp scoring framework to decide how to shape and prioritise our sustainability strategy, enabling us to integrate a number of new initiatives.
We’ve worked with a fellow B Corp, B People, for example, to launch a new people strategy to help retain and attract the best talent and grow in the right way with the right people and the right clients.
Our vision for 2030 is to become completely carbon neutral. We’re proud to be carbon neutral for scopes 1 and 2 of the GHG already and our targets have been approved by the SBTi.
For B Corp month, parent company Istoria Group and its agencies - Ignition, Phoenix Wharf and Tiny Spark - have taken part in a number of initiatives:
Istoria Group B Corp Month Initiatives:
Instagram live
Our Chairwoman and Founder, Claire Menzies, kicked off with an Instagram Live story and explained how we #GoBeyond Expectations. Claire Menzies was also invited to write about what becoming a B Corp means to us in the new Design Insider / Commercial Interiors UK 2023 Directory, published this month. Here is the article, which you can also read in full here.
Incubator Hub Competition
As a women-owned Group, we are always pro-active with new ideas on International Women’s Day. This year, as part of #BCorpMonth, we launched a competition to try and find a regional, women-owned Micro Business to support as part of our Incubator Hub programme, whereby Istoria Group houses and helps guide fledgling businesses during their initial period of development.
We teamed up with two local organisations - Babbasa and Black South West Network - to help spread the word and make sure the offer reaches as diverse and inclusive an audience as possible, with representatives from all three organisations, as well as Cecilia Thirlway, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bristol, judging the applications.
The winning business will receive rent-free office space for up to four people at Istoria Group’s Bristol Paintworks HQ for a 6-month period. Istoria Group is additionally offering mentorship on entrepreneurship, marketing, PR and finance, along with a free brand refresh and a new website design and build.
Coutts
To celebrate International Women's Day and B Corp Month, fellow #BCorp Coutts dedicated the window at its 440 Strand office to women-led B Corps. These are women redefining what's possible by demonstrating the inherent value of gender diversity in business leadership and making it their mission to create an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy for all. Istoria Group is proud to feature alongside so many other great women-led businesses.
Purposefest
Also at a regional level, Istoria Group attended Purposefest at City Hall in Bristol. Aimed at B Corps and those who want to become B Corps in the South West, the event was arranged to provoke some debate about the difference we can all make.
We were particularly impressed by the concept of Doughnut Economics and an inspirational talk by Erinch Sahan. He shared a vision of what it means for humanity to thrive in the 21st century - and explored the mindset and ways of thinking needed to get us there. There was a real sense of community spirit as everyone who attended are working to shape our future for the better.
We were also inspired by what other B Corps have been up to for #BCorpMonth.
Wholefoods in Kensington’s window display features products by B Corps and highlights their sustainable business practices. #WholeFoods #JUBEL #MOMOKombucha #CandyKittens #StrongRoots #NojoLondon #VitaCoco #PROPER #BoroughBroth #Belazu #Tracklements #Tenzing
B Tidy Beach clean-up in Brighton - 105 volunteers, both from B Corps and the local community, spent a morning cleaning up Brighton’s beaches and city centre. Pala Eyewear, Pura Aventura, The Body Shop, Tilt, Bird and Blend, Finisterre, Propellernet, EQ Investors, GOAT Digital, Selective Asia, Driftime and Leap teamed up to be a force for good. This community-building experience was such a success that conversations have begun with the local council to identify more volunteering opportunities in the local area.
Hive Cleaning’s Reforestation Project - Hive Cleaning marked B Corp Month by kicking off for their long-term reforestation of Rosedown meadow in Devon. This reforestation and rewilding program will take place over the next 15 years and be supported by a local woodland management company. Planting only broadleaf tree species that are native to the area, Hive Cleaning hopes to restore habitat, remove Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere, and enhance biodiversity in the meadow land, which they have renamed Hive Wood.
NEOM Organics celebrated their first B Corp Month – and announced their certification – with a host of activities, collaborations, and events. They started March off with a ‘B Breakfast’ in partnership with fellow B Corps Innocent Drinks and Tony’s Chocolonely. Here, they walked their team through their journey to becoming a B Corp and explained how they can get involved this B Corp Month through a volunteering day, inspiring speakers for International Women’s Day, and even a pledge wall that prompts staff and visitors to share the ways they Go Beyond for people and planet.
Ecobooth - Fellow B Corp and sustainable events company Ecobooth hosted a discussion on the B-Corp journey with three certified experience agencies Heaps + Stacks, Motive Productions and Legacy Events. They discussed their motivations, the certification process and their key takeaways.
Conclusion
Globally there are more than 6,000 B Corps. If ‘for purpose’ businesses can become the norm, we can reduce our impact on our planet and everyone depending on it.
We are proud to be one of the most sustainable businesses of our kind. It demonstrates what’s possible when businesses think beyond profit and prove beyond doubt that there’s a better way to do business.
Istoria Group is immensely proud to be part of the B Corp community. We believe that if we can do it, so can everyone else!