It’s Official: B+A is a B Corp

Co-Founder Ben Gallagher shares our motivations, reflections and ambitions for the impact we can have on the world.

From the very first conversations Andrew and I had about creating B+A we believed in the possibility and the potential of building an ethical business.  We had a hunch that we could create a profitable business that put the needs of all of the people it encountered first and at the same time, contributed to the welfare and prosperity of the planet. 

And so applying for B Corp was partly about demonstrating to ourselves that we'd stuck to that commitment, and proving that our hypothesis could be realised. 

Of course we aren’t alone in this thinking and we’re proud to join a global community of like-minded leaders and organisations. We have so much respect for all those who've gone through the process:  it takes tons of reflection and honesty about where you're at and we’re really grateful to our team at B+A for all of the work they have put in to make this a reality.

We now know firsthand how hard it is to get a B Corp accreditation. It’s a small but growing community or companies at the vanguard of progressive business practice. So to be part of this network is a privilege, and of course a responsibility too.

It is becoming ever more clear that long-term business success is not just about what you create and offer to your customers but about how you run your company. We are at the early stages of the evolution of business practice to being more ethical and responsible and so it’s really exciting to imagine what kind of world we can create together if more businesses embrace the standards of B-Corp to become contemporary in both their attitudes and practices. 

Our B Corp Score:​​​​​

You can read more about our feedback and scores on the public directory of B Corps. But here are a few things we’re particularly proud of:

1, Achieving a high score overall- you need 80 points to be a B Corp, and we scored 102 - far exceeding the minimum requirement. We’re so proud that we surpassed the minimum needed to qualify - but we’re looking to improve this number when we recertify in three years. We have a team in place to ensure we stay on track, and keep deepening our impact on the planet, on our team and on our extended network.

2, The ways our work has impact on the world: B Corp recognised that B+A have impact in four ways. Firstly, we are committed to the triple bottom line of profit, people and the planet. As well as this overarching pledge, our assessment found that our services supported impactful decision-making, advanced the knowledge of people we work with, and that we serve underserved populations. 

It’s unusual for an organisation to have broad impact like this across several B Corp categories so we are very pleased to see that our Problem Solving methodology is able to achieve both breadth and depth. Our impact business models netted us 28.3 points.

3, Our People Score. While impact business models look at us out in the world, this score is about how we do our best to support our people. We scored really well here - 35.4- with things like our extended + equitable family leave packages, gender balance in leadership and wellbeing allowance helping us achieve our strong score here. But, we know we can do more - and coming out of the pandemic we’re thinking about what our people will need to thrive at B+A, and how we can help them. 

The future:

At B+A our mission is to connect, educate and embolden the problem solvers our world needs now.   We believe the Problem Solving mindset and methodology we have created has the potential to have a massive positive impact on people, communities, countries and indeed the world at large. Central to our approach is the commitment to putting humanity front and centre of everything we do.  Problem Solving is imbued with care, cultural sensitivity, and of course, deep and innate creativity. And that's what's so powerful about the combination of a set of tools and a way of thinking and seeing the world; all brought to life with each person’s individual passion and experience.

I really believe that anybody has the potential to be a Problem Solver. So for me, the long-term impact of B+A is all about establishing this practice at a global scale so that we can play our part in enabling us all to create a better future, for everyone.