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Preface by Stephen Heathcote
Preface by Stephen Heathcote
As temperatures rise the urgency to address climate change increases. Governments around the world have committed to cut greenhouse emissions and will be intensifying their efforts. To achieve net zero goals, businesses of all sizes need to reduce their emissions and will come under increasing pressure to do so. Accounting firms are businesses trusted advisers and must be ready to support their clients. PrimeGlobal believes there is a huge opportunity for our member firms globally to embrace sustainability, so they are not only doing the right thing, attracting and keeping employees who want to make a positive impact, but are also significantly growing their firms.
The goal of this book is to inspire our members firms to embrace sustainability within their firms and to give them confidence, learning and the capability to proactively provide the sustainability services their clients, and the world, need.
The B Corp standard provides an excellent framework to both embed sustainability practices within firms and help to support clients. The B Corp movement is based on the belief that business can make a positive contribution to people, the environment and society without losing sight of the profit motive. Certified B Corporations are companies verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance.
We are very proud that our Netherland based member firm Eshuis Accountants en Adviseurs is B Corp certified. Mark de Lat, an organisation consultant and partner at Eshuis, co-wrote the original version of this workbook (Better business models, a better world!) with Aldo Van Duivenboden (Education leader, Conscious Business Lab, Saxion International Business School). The book was ground-breaking as the first Dutch B Corp workbook for schools and companies. We are very grateful that Mark and Aldo gave us permission to translate their book into English and add international case studies provided by our PrimeGlobal firms who are leading the way in championing sustainability.
B Corp has expanded around the world with an increasing number of local initiatives – “B locals”. These offer the opportunity for businesses to work with other parties in their local neighbourhood to adopt B Corp principles. We are grateful to the local initiative in the Netherlands BCorpTwente for supporting the development of this original workbook.
As Mark de Lat says, “this book is never finished”. We have included case studies from some of our member firms who are passionate about sustainability – even if they are using alternative approaches and frameworks to B Corp. We see this as a first release, we aim to add many more case studies and examples as our firms, and their clients, increasingly embrace sustainability.
PrimeGlobal’s goal is to be the home for accounting firms who are committed to support sustainable businesses. By sharing practices and providing support we will ensure our member firms are ready to step up when they are needed most. If you are an accounting firm that is ready to embrace our sustainability goals, please contact us so together we can create an unstoppable momentum to build better business models and a better world.
