Now23.02.23

One step back, two leaps forward

Though the wheels hadn’t yet been set into motion, B Corp arrived on our radar back in 2019. We had begun to hear about this new standard from clients and that growing awareness was played back to us when we asked our studio team to help set a new series of targets for us as a business.

All this began to crystallise in 2020, but unfortunately the world had other plans. Or so we first thought. In actuality, the speedbumps and distractions that 2020 threw at us as a business brought all the values of B Corp to the forefront of our minds. As we were forced to adapt and reflect, the changes to how we work, and what our team needs, soon began to point us back to B Corp.

"...in actuality, the speedbumps and distractions that 2020 threw at us as a business brought all the values of B Corp to the forefront."

At the end of 2021 we submitted our application and in the summer of 2022 we received our certification.

B Corp has been as much an unlearning process as it is a learning one, teaching us to reset and reconsider our policies and contracts. Ultimately it promotes a more progressive way of thinking about a business and how to run it.

"B Corp has been as much an unlearning process as it is a learning one..."

To do that, we needed to survey everything, tweaking tired old models to become a contemporary business that balanced profit and purpose. We had always made time for pro bono work, feeling it important to support causes we believe in, but it was clear that this needed a new level of commitment.

Staying on track and achieving a hefty long-term goal won’t be easy, but we believe that surrounding ourselves with like-minded others will help us on the way. On the whole, awareness of B Corp is still quite low, and only a small percentage of our clients are currently already certified. We hope that by becoming a B Corp, we can contribute and build a future network of businesses that inspire us and share our values, together increasing awareness and creating a sense of building momentum.

Apart from networking, the most significant way that B Corp will affect our clients is our focus on our philosophy of Beautility. As we integrate this way of thinking into everything we do, it will become the default setting for any of our work.

Our aim for this website is to become an open resource and live tracker of the steps taken (Now) and the ambitions that we are continuing to develop (Next) both for our team in the studio, and for anyone who is interested in understanding the practical implications of being a B Corp. All of which is leading up to our recertification in 2025.

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