Could B Corp Benefit your Business?

05 Mar 2024

As part of B Corp month, we have invited Mehalah Beckett Co-Chair of Scotland B Corp Local & B Corp Consultant to share with us on how the B Corp model can impact your business.

Not sure what B Corp is? You’re not the only one, increasingly banded around in sustainable business circles it’s still not mainstream or well understood, so we asked Chamber Member Mehalah Beckett of Lead Powerful Impact Ltd. to let us into this best-kept secret.

Want more? Book in for our free Benefits of B Corp Webinar on 13 March 2024 for more. 

What is B Corp?

B Corp is three things:

• A movement of leaders using their business as a force for good – I’m biased but I think it’s the best (and most inclusive) business club in the world now with over 8000 members worldwide including consumer giants like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s and Danone.
• A best practice framework – which sets out best practice for five holistic impact areas – measure your current performance on governance, employees, community, environment and customers and see where your business could create more impact in the world.
• A business model – pledge as a company director to consider all stakeholders in your business decisions, not just shareholders!

Why are you passionate about it?

Business is the only sustainable solution to the social, economic and environmental challenges of today. And yet it can so easily, without intentional action, do quite the opposite: accelerate climate change, broaden the gap between rich and poor, and exacerbate mental ill-health. 

Armed with a business degree and a desire to be a high-flying businesswoman, I started my career at a blue chip organisation and lasted exactly a year. The work was not only boring and stressful but completely purposeless. I left the private sector for a 12-year career as a civil servant and diplomat in the UK aid department working on global poverty eradication.

But aid is not a sustainable solution to the complex problems we are facing like poverty, especially not with dwindling government budgets! Business had to be part of the solution, and I was willing to get back to the private sector, to prove the theory that done right, business could be a force for good, by using its profit margin as an indicator or solving complex problems both for consumers, wider community and the planet. 

I found a role in one such company – Intrepid Travel – who had just started on their B Corp journey – and I took my African offices through certification, which is where I fell in love with the framework, philosophy and movement, and have been a proponent ever since. 

How do businesses certify?

Use the open source B Corp Impact Assessment Framework to measure and improve your sustainable business practices, adopt new Articles of Association to widen your stakeholder focus, and commit to working in interdependence with other B Corps to level up all businesses. Now you are ready to submit your application and get verified.     

Is it big in Scotland?

It’s growing fast with 65+ certified and many more working towards it; join us? 

How do I find out more?

Join our free Benefits of B Corp Webinar at 11am on 13 March 2024 and if you’re ready to get started, sign up to B Corp Bootcamp for support through your assessment which kicks off on 11 April. 

Mehalah Beckett is an Executive Leadership & Business Coach and B Corp Consultant at Lead Powerful Impact Ltd. She supports impact-driven leaders and sustainably minded businesses to accelerate their income, influence and impact in the world.

She is co-chair of the Scotland B Corp Community and a passionate ambassador of the movement. B Corp or not, she loves supporting businesses to grow in a way that’s sustainable for the founders, their team, wider stakeholders and the planet.