The optimist in me has always believed that working in marketing can and should have a positive impact on the world around us and go beyond just selling products.
That’s why marketing agencies should be a platform for change, not only because we are in the unique and fortunate position of being able to communicate with both clients and consumers, but we are best placed to have those difficult conversations. Even more so these days, because now it’s in the spirit of a positive customer experience and creates more worthy relationships between the brand and consumer. We can help facilitate positive change inside out and outside in.
At Collective, we’ve decided to harness this optimism and desire to be a platform for change and channel it into embarking on the wonderful, ever so slightly arduous, but ultimately rewarding journey to become a certified B Corp. By joining this burgeoning community, we can create a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. Ultimately, this means that every decision we now make as a business will see us having to consider the impact of our decisions on our employees, clients, suppliers, community and the environment.
Why B Corp in the first place?
It’s not just about environmental sustainability – it’s fundamentally a behavioural change within the organisation, from the board and shareholders down to every member of the team. After you’ve completed your B Impact Assessment, a credible tool to determine your impact on people, planet, community etc (which anyone can do – you just need to score above 80 to pass), the fun really begins. From changing HR policies and legal paperwork to in-house training, reporting on environmental impact and hundreds of other changes that continue to pop up through the process.
Before even considering becoming a B Corp, ask yourself are you ready? It’s not just about adding a logo to your website and writing a manifesto – this new behaviour is something everyone needs to stick to and adopt, because B Corp audits its members, and if you fail you won't retain your membership.
Getting started and (trying) to avoid the stumbling blocks
There’s no point pretending it’s an easy process to embark on. We have been working with our new friends and B Corp specialists at Leap to guide us through the process, but it’s worth emphasising that the real work must come from within and outsourcing only works on a consultancy basis.
Time is the main currency that you’ll need to invest in this process. Time as a management team but also time with your whole company to help everyone understand the journey and effort required.
Also helping your team to understand the why is really important. Why now, why it impacts them and why they should care. The last point is particularly important because if everyone isn’t on the same journey, you won’t get to the final destination.
So far we’ve learned that we already score highly for our people, because we provide a lot of wellbeing, financial and professional support, but in some instances this isn’t formalised into a HR policy. However, we have a lot of work to do on other areas, for example realising that we haven’t reviewed our supplier list for some time and didn’t consider the environmental impact they have or how diverse their organisations are.
Put more simply, we’re tearing up the provisional rule book and starting again. We’re changing energy providers, switching to sustainable website hosting platforms, creating more discussion around community and giving back and even exploring how members of the team can be more aware of their own personal impact, particularly when working from home.
It’s a given that if you believe in people, you must take responsibility for your planet.
A handful of UK agencies have already become a B Corp, so we aren’t the first to the party, but awareness still remains steadfastly low. Not only do we want to use our platform to communicate more sustainable and ethical marketing, but also to help grow the B Corp community.
Chris Shadrick is a strategy partner at Collective