Our Deliberate journey to become a B Corp

Becoming a B Corp is something that we have been discussing for a while now, essentially having the B show what Deliberate stands for; that we look after our people and our planet.

In order to become B-Corp certified we, as a business, have, to meet a very high set of standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency which is measured by completing the B Impact Assessment and achieving a minimum score of 80 across the 5 impact areas of Governance, Workers, Community, Environment & Customers. On our first pass through we didn’t hit the minimum score but we were surprised by how well we did. The assessment framework provides a great roadmap for what we need to look at and a clear view of where we could go above and beyond in a way that feels authentic to us as a company. One of the biggest areas we could see that we needed to look at was to formalise how we view and treat our employees which led us to finalising and improving our employee handbook. Using the B Impact Assessment for inspiration we took the opportunity to create something that we feel goes above and beyond in terms of compassion, fairness and benefits. This was a huge task and we worked with an external HR company to help us with the ins and outs. This has been great because we have since introduced several new policies as well as volunteering and wellness days and these all go hand in hand with our core values.

The B Impact Assessment has also prompted us to really think about our social and environmental goals. As a business we all agreed that we wanted to improve our planet and looked at the best ways in which we can have an impact, that not only worked for us, but that sat well with our core mission and values. We knew that we wanted to become carbon neutral so we started researching how we can do this and who we can work with to achieve this. We subscribed to Ecologi in January 2023, as we loved their story, we felt that our values were aligned and we love what they are doing! So far we have funded 380 trees in Africa and have avoided 27 tonnes of CO2e - not bad for the same price as a couple of London coffees per month!

As we all work from home (London, Manchester, Brighton etc) we have introduced our own ways of monitoring our energy usage and being as responsible as we can with regards to recycling paper, cardboard and compost.

Why B Corp

We believe that a company should exist to serve its employees, community and society as a whole. B Corp certification has helped by providing a framework for helping us to think about how we can build a company that benefits everyone whilst keeping in mind the broader picture of our world as a whole. Becoming a B Corp also helps us to demonstrate to our employees, clients and partners both current and prospective that we are committed to running an ethical, sustainable business as well as joining the other 1,100 (and counting) UK businesses who align with the B Corp and B Lab community on global issues.

The B symbol is rapidly becoming more widespread and recognised as people now specifically look for companies who are part of the B Corp movement.  We hope that by completing the certification we’ll not only demonstrate that we’re a great place to work but also a great company to work with.

It also means that  we will join a network of inspiring businesses who share the same values as us. We are looking forward to being involved in active portals and supporting like-minded communities where we can connect with other people on the same journey. We can’t wait to be a part of the B Corp movement because we all know that there is no planet B!

Where we currently are on our B Corp journey

We are 90% through the assessment process and we are almost ready to go! We are about to go through the legal process and make the official change on our articles of association and then we can press the big Submit button!  Be sure to follow along with us as we continue on our B Corp journey - because this is only the start for us!