The following is a guest post from YellowDog, an award-winning design, print, and marketing studio based in Denver, Colorado. A self-described ‘B Curious’ company, YellowDog reflects below on their journey towards certification.
As both a certified Woman-Owned Business and a member of the Environmental Leadership Program, YellowDog is already an example of business existing as a force for good in our world. And we at B Local can’t wait to continue cheering YellowDog on along their journey toward B Corp certification!
What We Have Learned, Hope to Achieve, and Our Experience on the Journey Toward B Corp Certification
by Bailey Patterson
“B Curious” Means Awareness and Aspiration to Become a B Corp Business
You may have heard of the term B Corp and have a varying level of understanding what this means. This could simply be seeing the logo on products you purchase at the grocery store (shoutout to Ben and Jerry’s), recognizing what this status means, or even taking a look at the Initial Impact Assessment. Congratulations, you’re B Curious! This is totally an okay place to be, and actually, this is where YellowDog is right now.
So, what makes the B Corp certification such a big deal? A certified B Corp, or Benefit Corporation, is one that exhibits the highest standard of social good, environmental sustainability, and ethical governance. This is also tied to the Triple Bottom Line – People, Planet, Profit – a key strategy for any sustainable business. To achieve the title of B Corp, your company must meet the standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency both internally and throughout their upstream and downstream supply chains.
Getting Started
After setting up an account on B Impact Assessment (easy enough) you are then faced with an extremely daunting questionnaire. Questionnaire is a bit of an understatement; the full assessment is over 200 questions divided into six key categories: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, Customers, and Disclosures. The questions will change slightly based on some of your initial answers, like questions specifically regarding full time employees (FTE) will be added if you say the majority of your workforce is FTEs. You only need to complete 90% of this assessment, but it doesn’t hurt to answer all the questions to see where you can improve. It’s also important to note that this assessment remains confidential until you reach 80 points and decide to go up for review.
When I started this process for YellowDog, I approached it in the following way:
Filled out the Impact Assessment based on our Business-as-Usual approach.
Identified gaps and opportunities for growth by looking at our lowest and highest-ranking categories and where we stood compared to our industry and companies of our size (each section of questions will show you this! Click “Benchmarks” at the top of the webpage of the Impact Assessment)
Met with Dan and Jenny, owners of the company, to further identify and understand their “Whys” for pursuing B Corp standing
Using all the new information collected and prior knowledge about the business, develop a project plan, keeping in mind point values, projects that could pertain to multiple questions, and projects that align with your “why” and the company’s mission
This was my process and what worked best for me based on the timeframe and other business operations that YD employees have day-to-day. This can certainly be customized to your company, delegated to several departments, etc.
Mindset is Everything
Clearly, becoming a B Corp doesn’t happen overnight! It is so important to take your time when going through the questions because once you achieve an 80-point score, your company will be audited for accuracy. While this process is extensive, this brings full legitimacy to the certification and the companies who have B Corp status. Another thing to keep in mind is that even while on the journey, your company is improving their Triple Bottom Line measures, and will be completing a lot of projects that can be shared to inspire others! The progress that your business will make every step of the way will add to its exceptionality.
It can’t be overlooked that the reductions of resources that inevitably come from making BAU changes while completing this application is extremely cost-effective. Also, pursuing and obtaining a B Corp status is showing as a great method for candidate interest and employee retention. Employees are wanting to work at a company with strong values, and even pursuing B Corp status shows just that.
Lastly, it is shown clearly through the questions of the Impact Assessment that the overall goal is to track your company’s metrics in the six categories. Being aware is more important than being perfect. If you uncover something less-than-ideal about one of your suppliers, that is okay. The goal is that now that you know this, you can keep an eye out for new competitive suppliers entering the market that still work well for your business. Sustainable Business is all about progress, not perfection.
What’s Next for YellowDog?
After a thorough review of our current Impact Assessment and the gaps we can reduce, we prioritized the recommendations I made for our roadmap to B Certified. I went through the list of action-items that made sense for the business and our current focus, categorizing these into projects. For example, several of our “missing points” can be achieved through a single supplier survey. By consolidating the questions into projects whenever possible, you not only increase your efficiency in progressing to an 80-point score, but also can conceptualize how these questions work together to increase your company’s transparency and accountability.
Some solutions will take a lot of time, a lot of capital resources, or both. And that’s why it’s important to go in with a strategy and patience. We are so excited to begin on this journey, especially because, with the completion of each project, we will not only be closer to B Corp status, but more intertwined with YellowDog’s mission and values.
TL; DR? Bailey’s Top 5 Tips
Understand your “Why”. Why does your company want to pursue B Corp status?
Be patient. The assessment is long, and making changes to obtain a qualifying score can take time depending on your baseline.
Compare yourself to others. Click “Benchmarks” at the top of the webpage of the Impact Assessment, which shows you how you compare to your industry and businesses of similar size.
Stay true to your mission. Go after points by completing projects that strengthen your company’s core values. This will be much more productive.
Be accurate. Upon submission you will have to go through an audit, so it is important that everything you put in the application is true to the best of your knowledge.
Bonus Tip!
Remember progress, not perfection. You will still earn points just by tracking metrics that are material to your company. Even if what you find isn’t deemed “good,” measuring is the only way to reduce.
