The practice of going through every aspect of your business, including climate, community and employees, makes you pay attention to the things that matter.
Gus Murray - Managing Director, Revolt
Boost your B Corp Environment score and reduce travel emissions with Goodwings. Learn how to improve your sustainability goals and achieve B Corp certification.
If you're coming up for B Corp recertification, or going through the certification process for the the first time, you may be looking for ways to improve your score. In this article we help you understand what's involved in the process, and provide you with some simple tips and tricks to help you go from good to great when it comes to your Environment score.
What does it mean to be a B Corp?
The B in B Corp stands for "Benefit for all", and having B Corp certification means you're a business that believes that social and environmental responsibilities should and can coincide with profit making. It is a voluntary scheme, so not all businesses have to be part of it, but it does serve as a strong indicator of the type of brand you are, or are aspiring to be. B Corps have to go through a process called a B Impact Assessment which makes sure they're committing to high standards of performance and transparency, while also striving to make a positive impact on the planet.
What are some examples of B Corp companies?
The B Corp movement was founded in 2006, and now boasts a whopping 7,000+ companies who've committed to turning business into a force for good. Some of the more famous names include Patagonia, Nespresso, Veja and Ben and Jerry's.
What's involved in the B Corp Impact Assessment?
The BIA or B Corp Impact Assessment looks at five key areas of a business’ operations, including Governance, Community, Environment, Customers and Workers. For each of these areas, businesses are given a score that reflects their performance. Since no two businesses are exactly the same, the scoring system is customized to reflect the business and its particular focus, size and geography. For example a small company in Estonia won’t get the same line of questioning as a large multinational in the US.
What is a "good" B Corp Impact score?
To certify as a B Corp, you need to get at least 80 out of a possible 250+ points. And while 80 may seem like a small number in relation to the top tier of 250, it’s still incredibly difficult to achieve, and many businesses don’t get there on their first attempt, with the average score sitting at under 55 points. The renewal process is also so stringent that some businesses can actually lose points over time, which you can see on their B Corp Assessment page. If we take Ben and Jerry's as an example, in 2017 they scored 110, but in their latest assessment, they scored 96. This shows that businesses need to focus on continuously improving and securing marginal gains to keep or improve their score. The assessment, after all, has been intentionally designed to be both aspirational and rigorous, making sure that businesses are put through their paces in the process.
How can you boost your B Impact Environment score?
When it comes to your Environment score, there are around 20-45 points available. Environment looks at the areas of climate, water, land and biodiversity, and factors not only your direct impact but that of your supply chain and distributors too. While reducing your supply chain reductions can vary significantly across business and industry types, there are still a few quick wins that can help you boost your score right away:
Improve your energy efficiency
Simple switches in your workspace, such as switching to LED lighting, installing smart thermostats, or switching to an energy supplier that invests in solar or wind power can make a significant impact. If you own your own facilities, make sure you're following industry standards like the LEED certification which informs how a building should be built, maintained and run to achieve optimal sustainability standards.
Reduce waste and recycle more
Reduce waste in your office by finding areas where you use excess packaging, or single use items like disposable plastic cups or individual stirrers. And if you're not recycling yet, it's time to kick start a simple scheme that your employees can easily get on board with.
Choose sustainable suppliers
Choose suppliers that, like you, are taking a more sustainable approach to their business operations. Using other B Corps is the obvious choice, but otherwise selecting businesses that have set emissions reduction targets, or have been awarded industry specific sustainable certifications.
Reduce your business travel footprint
Business travel is one of the worst offenders when it comes to both emissions and costs. Putting in place a single travel management system like Goodwings helps employees see how much they're emitting and gives businesses an easy way to track and reduce those emissions in real time.
Give employees low-emission transport options
Switch your fleet of company cars to EVs (electric vehicles), encourage the use of public transportation, a ride-to-work cycle scheme. In addition, you can help regulate travel emissions by implementing a Travel Policy that prioritizes sustainability.
Keep track of all your data
By monitoring the environmental impact across your operations, you'll be more prepared to start the B Corp Impact Assessment process, and there won't be any nasty surprises along the way. Make sure that you're getting the full picture of your emissions, and be sure to use carbon emissions accounting and reporting tools to help you collate all that data.
Use your "Improvement Report"
When you've been through the B Corp Assessment process, you get an “Improvement Report” after your assessment, which is essentially a roadmap with tangible recommendations of how you can improve your impact score across the five areas. This will help you assess your current operations and benchmark yourself against your peers, for an improved score.
We've been a B Corp since 2019. Even though it was a tough process to go through, it's one of the best things we've done as a company
Christian Møller-Holst, CEO and Founder of Goodwings
How can Goodwings help with your B Corp Environment score?
We show you how you can reduce your emissions
Only by understanding how much you travel can you start to reduce your emissions. With Goodwings' approach, businesses can identify emissions hotspots and take immediate action by choosing lower emissions transport types, putting in a policy that limits travel altogether, or bundling trips to the same destination.
We help you accurately track your travel emissions data
Inaccurate or incomplete travel data can lead to emissions data falling through the cracks with achieving the maximum points within your Environment score. At Goodwings, we calculate all the data from your company's travel and organize it in a central dashboard for you to download at any time.
We give you all the documentation you need
Reducing your emissions is great, but if it can't be backed up by the right documentation, it doesn't pass the B Corp test. We supply you with a full emissions data set broken down by transport type, date, department and emissions amount so you can show the progress your'e making towards reducing your overall emissions.
Conclusion:
The important thing to remember with your B Corp Impact Assessment is that you’re not alone - there are numerous tools and resources that can help you through the process, and if you’re struggling to find time to devote to this yourself, there are trained consultants who can guide you through the assessment criteria.
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