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THE BENEFITS OF BENEFIT CORPORATIONS WRITTEN BY CARRIE DOW
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oday’s companies are doing business a new way, where economics meets social awareness. Many companies are becoming more consumer friendly, environmentally conscious, and socially attuned to the world around them, and it shows in their business practices. These practices include recycling and sustainability, fair wages and hiring practices, and putting profits into community instead of shareholder pockets. What business owners, including distillers, may not know is there is an organization that will help them establish these practices in their corporate culture to aid them in attracting customers and investments. The program is called B CORPORATION, or Benefit Corporation, and it is run by the non-profit organization B LAB. B Corporation, or B Corp, is a certification program that companies can use to show their commitment to helping the world while growing their business. B Lab compares this label to a food getting certified as organic or production resources as fair trade. As a WWW.ARTISANSPIRITMAG.COM
consumer, this seal tells you how the company does business. To learn more about this program, we’ll look at three distilleries, two already certified and another going through the process. Formed in 2006, B Lab is the largest certifier of Benefit Corporations in the world and is trusted by institutions such as the Sierra Club and Entrepreneur Magazine. The organization took over a year to fully develop the best practices, ratings systems, and standards by which companies are measured before being certified. Why certify? Callie Rojewski, Marketing and Communications Associate at B Lab, says “Consumers, especially millennial consumers, want to know they are buying from a good company. B Corp certification provides this credibility for them.” Not only can it attract customers, but certification can help distilleries attract investors who want to know how their money is being used, and attract better employees, people looking for more than just a paycheck.
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