Another Institute B Partner Becomes B Corp Certified
We are so proud of the success and recognition our incubated companies are receiving lately. Like our friends at The Fan Zoo who have become the 50th company in Canada to be designated a Certified B Corp!
This is big news for Institute B and comes on the heels of Alterrus, another incubation success story being awarded B Corp certification just last month.
Institute B is a stand for a new way of being in business. As such, all partner companies are introduced to our philosophy of unreasonable business and commit to B Corp social impact assessments with goals for continuous improvement on an annual basis.
Why is this so fundamentally important to us?
Basically, B Corporations are to sustainable business, as fair trade is to coffee. B Corps use the power of business to address social and environmental problems. The vision is simple yet ambitious: to create a new sector of the economy comprised of B (for benefit) corporations that meet rigorous and independent standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
B Corps are individually certified by B Lab, an independent non-profit organization, and go through a rigorous, third party certification process to verify that they take long-term employee, community, and environmental interests into consideration when making decisions. In the absence of transparent standards and verification, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a ‘good company’ and just good marketing.
Does this make B Corps uncompetitive? In fact, just the opposite is true. Increasingly, evidence is showing that B Corps – as innovative, forward-thinking companies – are better-managed companies. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, B Corps have been three times less likely to fail than equivalent non-B Corp companies.
And proves what we’ve been advocating all along. What is good for the world is good for business.
Can B Corps really change the world? Or are traditional business practices too entrenched to make a difference? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.