Naturally Social: 'Our journey to B Corp certification'
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Posted: Thu 18th Apr 2024
At Naturally Social, we’ve always been committed to making a positive impact on the world and so receiving our B Corp certification demonstrates our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.
While we join an amazing growing community of like-minded businesses, there isn’t much talk about how to become B Corp certified. Be warned, It’s not for the faint-hearted! So if you’re ready to find out more, let's jump in!
What is B Corp?
If you’re not 100% sure what the B Corp Movement is, here’s a quick overview:
Organisations that have received their B Corp certification have demonstrated a very high standard of social and environmental performance
The movement is utilising businesses as a ‘force for good’ to positively impact all stakeholders
The UK has around 1,800 B Corps, representing 58 industries
B Corp refers to the certification that organisations receive upon successful application
B Lab is the “non-profit network transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet“
Getting started
Firstly, it's worth noting that there’s no cost to get started with your B Corp certification – that comes later (when you’re ready to submit).
The B Impact Assessment is available to everyone and is the best first step to take, even if you’re just curious and have no intention of moving forward yet. The assessment has around 200 questions so we'd recommend making sure to set aside the time to get it completed as accurately as you can.
What the assessment told us about Naturally Social
When we first completed the B Impact Assessment, our first score was 55.57. To submit your application with B Lab, you need to score 80 points or over. So it was pretty daunting but as we worked through the assessment, it was encouraging to see how aligned the business was with B Lab's vision.
We knew we had several elements in place that would help us increase our score on the assessment, after all, we’ve been focused on being purpose-driven before it became a buzzword!
Initially, our focus was on the areas we could 100% score in. These were areas where we just needed to formalise things before we could update the score. Next, we looked at areas that prompted us to introduce new policies or new ways of working.
Digging deeper
After our initial submission, it was time to break down the assessment. We’d 100% recommend that you do this too!
By breaking it down, we were able to walk through the assessment step by step and allocate time to review each question to highlight the following:
Were the questions applicable to our size of business?
Was this process/policy something that was already in place within the business?
In what areas could we score additional points?
Start with those easy wins
The best way we found to move forward was to implement (or finalise) anything ‘simple’. These could be things you’re already doing or that are straightforward to introduce.
For us, we already had a lot of the policies and employee-focused elements in place. So, formalising points around stakeholder engagement and ways of working, including financial transparency, were relatively easy wins.
Getting those easy wins at the start helps build confidence as you move through the assessment.
Keep your assessment up to date
One of the many lessons we learnt, was to do the following:
Work through by section
Update the assessment in sections
Upload evidence as you go
Remember what we said at the beginning – the assessment has around 200 questions! Working in sections and updating the assessment online, meant we could keep track of where we were and get an accurate and to-date score.
For us, we printed out the full assessment and worked through that document – writing notes and recording any additional points scored (just in case there was an issue with the online assessment, there wasn’t, but sometimes you never know!).
With our assessment being regularly updated, we were able to focus on any areas that were new to Naturally Social. While these weren’t difficult, they did require additional thought and have resulted in us being far more mindful of the suppliers and freelancers we may work with.
This is good to know
You may find that some areas are more difficult to score on than others. For us, being in a serviced office space meant we struggled with points in the 'Environment' section. Some things were out of our hands, but the timing of our assessment worked out well as the local council was moving forward with plans to be more sustainable.
Here's a top tip
As you’re working through the assessment, we’d recommend that you upload the required evidence at the time. This is going to save you a lot of time and makes sense if you are tackling it section by section. This is how we completed our assessment and it worked fantastically!
On that note, when we talk ‘evidence’ we mean actual copies of the policies you have introduced. B Lab aren’t looking for businesses to say they’re doing this or doing that. They want you to show it!
Time to submit
Once we’d finished reviewing our assessment and uploading the evidence it was time to pay the submission fee. Then it's a waiting game.
There’s no set time frame that B Lab will come back to you and as more and more businesses submit applications, the time frame may increase.
Another top tip
Set up your notification emails, the B Lab team will be in touch via the online assessment portal to ask for any additional information or evidence to support your application.
When you get those notifications, act promptly! We made sure to get back to the team within 24 hours.
Verification
After submitting, the next step is the verification process, where another person reviews the application. This person is different to the team who will have been communicating with you via the assessment web page. At this point, they’re making sure you've met the rigorous standards that B Lab has.
It’s worth noting that there are some questions that you might be confused about what evidence to upload. This is where your primary analyst steps in to provide guidance.
Like with the notifications from the B Lab team, after you’ve submitted, we recommend uploading any requested evidence as soon as possible to ensure you can continue to move forward.
What B Corp means for Naturally Social
Our B Corp certification is more than just a badge of honour. It’s recognition of our hard work and commitment to sustainability and social responsibility and that’s something that we take very seriously.
Being certified B Corp means we’re held to a high standard when it comes to our impact on the world and it means that we’re committed to transparency and accountability. Not to mention that we’re always looking for ways to improve our impact.
Most importantly, being a certified B Corp means that we’re part of a community of businesses that are working to make a positive impact on the world. We’re proud to be a part of this movement, and we’re excited to see where it takes us in the future.
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