Celebrating B Corp Month at 3Keel

This March is B Corp month – a whole month dedicated to championing businesses who are doing their bit to drive change, make an impact, and form a community of change-makers.

In July 2020, 3Keel joined the community of over 4000 Certified B Corporations worldwide. Taken from B Corp’s website, certified B Corporations are “businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose”. 3Keel naturally aligns with B Corp’s central values – being inclusive, sustainable and purpose-driven. It’s what we do and it’s why we have loved engaging in the wider B Corp community over the past 8 months.

Becoming a B Corp indicates a long-term commitment to centering social and environmental values at the core of for-profit businesses. In order to become a B Corp, for-profit companies must go through a thorough auditing process, answering 150 questions across a range of subjects. A score of 80/200 must be achieved in order to get the certified status. We scored 108 points in our most recent assessment, and we are already making plans to improve our score for the next audit. And why would we do that? For us, it’s about practicing what we preach by valuing all forms of sustainability – be they social, environmental or economic – and also enjoying what we do.

Many of the clients we work with are B Corps – including innocent, graze, and  PROPER – and we tend to find a natural cultural fit with our client teams on those projects. And as well as who we work for, we seek to source from fellow B Corps as well. For the office, we source everything from the toilet paper in our bathrooms (Who Gives a Crap) to the fruit supplies (Abel & Cole), and new IT service provider Fluid IT provides tailored support for all of our IT needs.

Across our 3Keel team, you will find plenty of B Corp activity. Will Schreiber has become the first Co-Chair of a new B-Local Oxfordshire branch. B-Locals are part of the B-Corp movement to amplify and accelerate the transformation of businesses to being forces for good. Catherine McCosker has also joined the newly convened B Corp UK Regenerative Agriculture working group, which has met twice so far. The group is working to develop an internal definition of regenerative agriculture and is exploring big questions such as how to evidence the uptake and implementation of regenerative agriculture practices in B Corp supply chains – is certification an answer? – and how the B Corp movement wants to guide their members on these issues. Finally, Sian Allen has been representing 3Keel externally within the B-Corp community as well as supporting others at 3Keel to get involved. She has particularly enjoyed engaging with the B-Hive – a fantastic online community where B-Corps around the world can discuss and share ideas on topics ranging from how to reach net-zero to ways of boosting staff wellbeing over lockdown.

Suffice it to say, being a B Corp is an important and meaningful part of 3Keel’s identity. We believe that positive businesses will be a force for good, shaping and influencing how we live our lives and engage with important socio-environmental issues. B Corp embodies these beliefs and we are so happy to be a part of this great community. So here’s to B Corp Month and celebrating change-making businesses in March and beyond!

If you would like to find out more about B Corps, please visit their website here.