Left (B)ehind: Why are we no longer B Corp certified?

Something has been brewing over the past six months, and it isn’t a pint from one of the 46 B Corp-certified breweries around the world…

In February, B Corp Australia will be hosting ‘Assembly 2024’ - a 3 day event at a luxury golf course (with no sustainability credentials) in Cape Schanack, Victoria. Pitched as “An unforgettable gathering for B Corps, designed for connection and catalysing change”, the Assembly is self-help for businesses, complete with coastal walks, gin tasting, yoga, and snazzy-titled sessions like “Is ‘woke capitalism’ a threat to modern democracy?”. Included in the $2365 ticket price is B Lab’s promise to run “a consciously designed, low footprint event”. At the check out, there’s an option for extra-benevolent businesses to give B Corp a kick back.

So will Green Island Creative be going?

Since B Corp announced their increased certification fees last year our small, regional business has been struggling to see value in the program.

In April 2023, the minimum annual certification fee for new B Corps jumped up from $1000 to $2500, plus a one-off $1500 verification fee, and a $250 submission fee (exc. GST). This applies to all B Corps making less than $2 million a year (i.e. whether you make $50,000 or $2 million revenue, you will pay the same fee). For existing B Corps like us, the increased fees will be phased over 15 months.

Now, according to B Lab, they run at a loss on a small businesses like ours. Never mind that new B Corps are churned through the machine every week. The true cost of verification, they tell us, is not fully paid until year 4 of certification. After this point, fees help to cover costs of verification, and the ongoing costs of updating their standards, tools, events, etc… Still last year, 23 new marketing/creative agencies like ours joined the B Corp ranks in Australia. Three more have already been certified this January (making a total of 56).

After working closely with other global accreditation bodies (like the Marine Stewardship Council), we completely respect the staff labour and dedication needed to create and maintain a rigorous standard. In theory, the standard will guide and motivate a business to reduce their footprint, be more transparent, and treat their workers fairly. When they are successful in meeting the standard, that business gets to wear a badge which demonstrates they are putting in the work. Customers who share their good values will, in theory, be impressed by their credentials and preference (even pay a premium for) their conscientious product or service. However, this model depends on the customer knowing what the certification label means.

The brass tacks of it is that outside the corporate inner-city environment, recognition of the B-Corp is low. In our regional community, we have never gained a client through the B Corp logo. In fact, we have had (multiple times) to explain that being B Corp has nothing to do with our bee hive in the garden. 

Still, winning business through certification was never our main concern. We were committed to the movement, and hoped to build brand recognition for B Corp on the south-east Australian coast.

The B Lab team say that the real value of B Corp, and reason that most companies certify, is to go through the process of verification and be a part of the B Corp network.

So, why are we opting out?

We cannot deny that the we found the B Impact Assessment tool useful. When we completed our assessment, Green Island Creative had a projected score of 107. We were using a B Corp certified bank, superfund, energy supplier and telco. We were donating pro-bono hours and a percentage of our annual revenue to charity. We were running community yoga classes, building a community garden, offering secure contracts and good rates to our workers… all round pretty good, we thought. After a patchy call with a flustered (albeit very supportive) woman in the Philippines whose internet kept cutting out, our businesses self-assessment was deemed acceptable and passed on to the B Lab team. A couple of weeks later, we were in. Our assessment had been passed, and we were ready to hand over our first $1000 certification fee as a fully-fledged B Corp.

So if the true value of B Corp is (not their brand, but) the paid verification process and B Corp network, then we were disappointed.

During our vertification process, we inexplicably dropped 20 points off our score, with a new score of 86.7. We never received any feedback to explain this loss, nor any consultation with our B Lab assessor. In fact, unless you fork out $330 (early bird pricing) for a 2 hour ‘Become a B Corp workshop’ or hire a B Corp certified consultant to help you, B Lab do not have the capacity to offer individual support. Moreover, as a regional business we’ve had almost no opportunities to engage with the 650 businesses that make up the B Corp community in Australia and Aotearoa. There was no social post to recognise our certification, no introductions to local peers or potential clients, and no features on the B Corp website to highlight our work. The exception was this blog article written during B Corp Month, which we applied to be included in. 

This not to say that B Corp don’t care about their clients. They run regular B Local ‘coffee catch ups’ in Sydney, and a campaign for B Corp Month every March. They simply don’t have the capacity to care about small fry like us. If you’re looking to learn, get inspired, or network, most B Corps activities are pay-to-play, city-based events.

Finally, we’ve only had one client ever comment on our B Corp status. They liked our shiny badge because they were undergoing a B Impact Assessment of their own. In the early days of working with this client, we discovered that they were a subsidiary of larger company involved with live animal export. As a business that prides ourselves on our environmental ethics, this was something we couldn’t stomach. After explaining our position to the client, who graciously understood, we parted ways. Last year, this same client became a card-carrying B Corp. They had commenced verification in October 2022, and three months later they were certified… an impressive turnaround for a business with nine different brands to their name. To our knowledge, this business is still making money for a live animal export company, in a league with other eyebrow-raising B Corps like Innocent Drinks (owned by Coca Cola) and Nespresso.

Despite our critique, we still see value in what B Corp do. Brands that we truly admire, like Who Gives a Crap and Patagonia are leading the B Corp train. The re-certification process keeps companies in check every three years, and in rare cases a business will be suspended.

Simply put, B Corp today is focused on the big end of town; inspiring multinational corporations to implement environmental, labour, governance, and sourcing policy changes. For small folk like us - a lot of heart, but not flush with funds - the motivation to be ‘B’ is no longer there. So we’ve decided that there are better ways to show our impact and ethos to our community.

Although we are no longer certified, Green Island Creative will continue to stay transparent and communicate our impacts and achievements, as we always have.

Thanks for sticking with us,

Jimmy and Lexie

Side note
At this stage we will be holding on to our Social Traders certification. Admittedly, its a less rigorous scheme than B Corp, and aimed at connecting social enterprises with government and businesses clients. What we can say is that Social Traders are putting in the effort to involve, promote and subsidise small scale, regional businesses like ours.