2. Why B Corp?

"B Corporation certification for companies can be compared to FairTrade for coffee or LEED for buildings," said Joey van den Brink, Certification Manager associated with B Lab Europe / BeNeLux in one of his presentations. He also argued that in the last 20 years we have mainly focused on the quality of products and services with certificates such as the FSC label and ISO.

B Corp takes an integrated, holistic view of “good companies” and assesses the total impact of a company on people, the environment and society. As a result of various (global) social developments, there is a growing need to measure the performance of companies with respect to sustainability. Customers want to know what they are getting and vendors want to make their contributions visible.

This chapter discusses the transition from the money-driven economy to the conscious economy and explains the structure of the B Corp framework.

Global social developments

The corona crisis has contributed to the awareness that transitions are necessary on many fronts. We are increasingly realising that the earth is better off without us, but we cannot do without it. The finiteness of fossil fuels and other raw materials is recognised, and we see that the lack of biodiversity leads to major problems. We cannot solve the issues of our time with the familiar old approaches.

Veltenaar and Zevenbergen (Zevenbergen & Veltenaar, 2020) summarise these developments in seven megashifts. Megashifts that we will briefly explain below - from our vision and freely interpreted based on Veltenaar and Zevenbergen - and provide each with a question. Questions that require an answer from you, the reader. We challenge you to write down the answers to these questions and let them sink in. That is why this book provides you with several spaces to make notes!

Nature We see nature crumbling. Whether it is the unbridled felling of rainforests in the Amazon or the mowing of verges in the Netherlands. In both cases, the impact on biodiversity is unsustainable. In addition, the supply of natural raw materials such as oil and gas and various metals such as lead, zinc and copper are dwindling. This can be attributed to our consumption patterns.

How circular is your work and life?

Consumption In particular in the Western world, daily consumption and the resulting waste we produce has grown to monstrous proportions. For example, according to the World Food program one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally and the production of textiles appears to be more polluting than the chemical industry.

What does your consumption pattern look like?

Money and property Many of these unsustainable trends are linked to the way we perceive money and property, and the way we deal with prosperity and well-being. Instead of prosperity serving our well-being, over time it has become the other way around. It is not a coincidence then that even the Financial Times made the following appeal: “Capitalism. Time for a reset” .

How do you view prosperity and well-being?

Work and labour Finland is committed to a four-day work week, with a six-hour working day. For the record: in 1960, the Central Commission for Civil Service Consultation [Centrale Commissie voor Overleg in Ambtenarenzaken] decided to introduce the five-day working week in the Netherlands and were given Saturdays off. As a result of robotisation and digitalisation, professions are disappearing, and it is time to reconsider how we view work and labour.

In the publication “The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?” (2013), Frey and Osborne list the following top 10 professions that will disappear as a result of robotisation:

1. Tax consultant (99%) 2. Telemarketer (99%) 3. Delivery van driver (98%) 4. Estate agent (97%) 5. Bridge master (97%) 6. Secretary (96%) 7. Gardener (95%) 8. Warehouse employee (95%) 9. Accountant (94%) 10. Butcher (93%)

Which jobs will disappear in your organisation and when?

Technology In addition to the impact of technology on labour described above, we are seeing a range of issues arising from this trend. Whether it is the role of Facebook, dependence on Wi-Fi or carbon capture, technology is having both a positive and negative impact on our lives.

How are you impacted by technology?

Governance Transparency is a familiar concept in this context. Organisations are becoming more transparent by the day without intending to. Consider for instance Follow The Money, the collective of journalists that closely follows and names developments in the financial world. Underlying this is the fact that organisations are increasingly expected to take responsibility for their actions and be transparent about it.

What do you take responsibility for and how do you account for it?

Leadership In essence, as far as we are concerned, the various megashifts come together in the last one, which is leadership. It is about management of organisations assuming responsibility for the impact they have on people and society. In essence, this requires personal leadership and the courage of the individuals involved to make a difference.

What example do you want to set through your actions?

Working towards a conscious economy!

If we look at these developments from an economic perspective, we have arrived - as Kees Klomp, Stefan Wobben and Jesse Kleijer set out in their “Handboek Betekenisvol ondernemen” (Klomp, Wobben, & Jesse, 2016) [Manual on conscious entrepreneurship]- in the conscious economy.

The agrarian economy can be considered the first economy in our history. In this economy, land ownership is the most important condition for economic success. The agrarian economy is succeeded by the industrial economy, in which the invention of the steam engine is the starting point and allows for mass production. Now machines become the most important asset. In recent decades, the industrial revolution has evolved into the so-called knowledge economy, as a result of the introduction of the computer. In the knowledge economy, knowledge has become the most important condition for economic success.

Currently, we have entered the transition to the conscious economy, the fourth economic paradigm. In the conscious economy we realise that the primary purpose of the economy is not to make money. The goal of the conscious economy is to maximise the positive impact of our activities on the entire ecosystem. From this positive contribution, we derive meaning as people and as an organisation. We are increasingly becoming aware that companies do not exist to - as Kees Klomp puts it - serve a niche in the market, but that we have to look for the "niche in society" we want to fill.

Kaj Morel presents 10 principles for conscious entrepreneurship: 1. We focus on the community-centred person (instead of the self-centred person). 2. Community is the highest good (instead of individual freedom). 3. Again, ethics are, as a matter of course, an integral part of our economic thinking and actions. 4. Prosperity for everyone is not created by the invisible hand of the market but by us. 5. Consciousness maximisation is the driving force of our economy (rather than profit maximisation). 6. Economics is about serving interests (rather than fulfilling needs). 7. Economics is about the long term (rather than the short term). 8. Economics is about conscious growth (rather than growth for growth's sake). 9. Only the creation of thick value is good from an economic perspective (rather than thin value). 10. The fair price is the most important (instead of the market price)

How?

When the Betekeniseconomie in Twente foundation back in 2015 came together with fellow entrepreneurs, conscious entrepreneurship was reserved for a limited number of trendsetters. Frontrunners in the form of “start-ups” and entrepreneurs who wanted to do things differently based on the realisation that “it can't go on like this” or “as an entrepreneur, I no longer want to do it this way”. In recent years, more and more entrepreneurs recognise that they want to do things differently and more than ever the question arises "how do I go about it?". This pattern is not new. We know it from the time of the emerging quality assurance. The

trendsetters had already set to work passionately and were visiting Japan to learn from the masters there. Quality assurance was widely launched by tools such as ISO certification and the EFQM standard. These assessment tools were the key to answering the "how?" question in the business model and to measuring and securing results.

Inspired by the book "Changing the Food Game" (Simons, 2015), the following phases in the emergence of conscious entrepreneurship can be distinguished in line with the previous paragraph: 1. Early starters: There are pioneers who start new innovations and pilot projects; 2. First movement: The first followers get moving. Numerous competing certificates are appearing on the market. Consider the CO2 performance ladder and the code for social entrepreneurship; methods that have the same purpose but look at it from different perspectives; 3. Critical mass: The new idea reaches the general public. A number of market leaders agree to adopt the same method of working. B Corp has been positioned by a number of market leaders as an unambiguous method; 4. Institutionalise: There is embedding in laws and regulations.

In the context of conscious entrepreneurship, the open-source B Corp standard helps to answer this “how” question. At its core, it is about creating better business models for a better world.

B Corp in a nutshell

B Corp is a quality label for entrepreneurs who, in addition to generating profits for shareholders, take the impact of their actions on people, the environment and society as the starting point for their actions. To become B Corp certified, companies must actually demonstrate that they are using their business as a force for good. As of August 2022, more than 5,627 companies in 85 countries and 158 industries worldwide have been certified as Benefit Corporations. The open-source B Corp assessment is used as a measurement method by over 30,000 organisations worldwide. For example, Tony Chocolonely, Dopper, Greyston Bakery, Ben & Jerry's, Patagonia, Moyee Coffee, Snappcar, Auping, Nespresso, Body Shop and the Triodos Bank are certified B Corp companies.

The B Corp quality label can be used as a tool (even where certification is not applicable) towards doing business in a more conscious way one step at a time. B Corp offers a practical framework for identifying improvement potential with respect to the following five themes. For each theme, there is a number of basic questions.

1. Mission, vision and governance of the organisation

• Does the organisation have a detailed mission statement that expresses its commitment to social, ecological and community-based entrepreneurship? • Is the organisation transparent with respect to its performance in terms of conscious business? (An annual report and/or impact report is a relevant tool in this respect).

2. Employees

• Does the organisation actively ensure the personal development of its employees? • Does the organisation measure and systematically improve employee satisfaction?

3. Society

• How does the organisation contribute to society? (For example, by doing volunteer work and/or donating to social objectives)?

• In what way does the organisation actively contribute to themes such as diversity and inclusion and (local) socio-economic development?

4. Ecological

• Does the organisation self-evaluate and evaluate its suppliers with respect to social, environmental and community impact? • How does the organisation reduce its energy, materials and water consumption, as well as its CO2 emissions?

5. Customers

• How does the organisation create conscious impact for its customers through its products and services by working from an impact business model? • How does the organisation safeguard the rights of its customers by, for example, providing guarantees and carefully managing (customer) data?

B Corp offers an extensive digital self-assessment (https://app.bimpactassessment.net/login) every organisation can use to determine how it scores in relation to the standard. The digital environment also offers practical tools for gradual improvement. Chapter 3 discusses the basic principles of the B Corp standard. In chapters 4 to 8, the five B Corp themes are discussed in more detail by offering inspiration and interpretation from a theoretical perspective, followed by illustrating how the theme is viewed within the B Corp standard.