Raising the Bar for Business Impact: Learn from Best for the World B Corps
B The Change Weekly: September 2, 2022
Delivered on Fridays, B The Change Weekly provides the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B The Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B The Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:
For many companies in the Certified B Corporation community, using business as a force for good isn’t a new concept. Instead, it can serve as a public commitment and a push to do more — creating greater benefit for stakeholders alongside more than 5,000 other businesses around the world.
In gaining B Corp Certification in 2020, Assiniboine Credit Union of Manitoba turned to its nearly 80 years of history as a purpose-driven credit union that values cooperation, accountability, inclusion, transparency, and more. “We’ve been at this for a long time, but the B Impact Assessment helped us ask ‘How are we really doing?’” says Brendan Reimer, Strategic Partner, Values-Based Banking at the B Corp honored this year in three Best for the World categories.
Whether they are incorporating practices and policies designed to create a specific positive outcome for stakeholders or creating products and services that serve often-overlooked markets and communities, B Corps are striving for positive impact and challenging themselves to do better.
Banking on Strong Ties with Customers and Community
With values-based banking principles as a guide, Assiniboine Credit Union builds the financial strength of its members while creating positive impact — practices that helped the Canadian B Corp earn Best for the World 2022 recognition in three categories: community, customers, and governance. Assiniboine Credit Union ensures those values are part of everyday business, says Brendan Reimer, Strategic Partner, Values-Based Banking: “Everybody is expected to work on this — from top to bottom, side to side.”
Learn from the Best for the World: Impact Business Models in Action
What does having an Impact Business Model — a practice or policy designed to create a specific positive outcome for stakeholders — look like in practice for B Corps? It might be based on business structure or entail providing products or services that benefit the community or the environment. B Lab Global provides a look at how four of this year’s Best for the World honorees are putting their Impact Business Models to work for their stakeholders.
3 Black-Owned B Corps That Lead by Example
As the B Corp community looks to build a more inclusive economy, it also is working to welcome more businesses owned by People of Color who are leaders in their industries. On B The Change, Victor Hugo Ramos talks with the Black founders of B Corps Melanin Essentials, GOODEE, and Yala about their business goals and hopes, as well as their vision for creating a more diverse marketplace of goods and services.
Stay in the Know
Here’s your chance to catch up on recent articles:
- Best for the World B Corp Banks on Strong Ties with Customers and Community: Assiniboine Credit Union Sees Values-Based Banking As a Tool for Inclusion, Transparency, and Long-Term Financial Health
- Best for the World — All Around the Globe: How the B Global Network Is Celebrating and Sharing Learnings from the 2022 Best for the World B Corps Across Regions
- Let’s Get Real (Measurement) About Social Impact: Making a Difference While Building a Brand
- B Corp Collaboration Creates Best Sustainable T-Shirts in the World: Combining Design, Message, and Sustainability
- A One-Stop App That Helps Renters Become Homeowners: Gravy App Aims to Expand Access to Home Loans and Help Customers Build Financial Health
- 5 Ways Carbon Reporting Benefits Companies — and the Environment: How Reporting Can Help Businesses Lower Their Climate-Related Financial Risk, Build Innovation, and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
