By Darren Nicol, Founder of Nudge Exchange
B Corp began in 2006, when three friends created non-profit organisation B Lab, which is dedicated to fostering business that balances purpose and profit. They created the B Corporation certification for organisations to voluntarily demonstrate their wider value to society. There are now over 3,000 B Corps across 71 countries.
By striving to meet the criteria, set by B Corp, organisations signal that they are willing to go the extra mile to protect the environment and their workers, customers and stakeholders and this pays in more than profit.
Darren Nicol, Founder of Nudge Exchange - an online marketplace for energy sector freelancers - just completed his B Corp start up (pending) accreditation. Today, he shares more on his B Corp journey.
Initially, Darren signed up to Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Conscious Leadership Catalyst and through this journey was able to connect with like-minded peers, which created the ideal proving ground to explore his ideals for Nudge, alongside business leaders from across a variety of industries and sectors.
The insight from the Catalyst underpinned the philosophies Darren wanted to implement within Nudge and he took the decision to formalise these philosophies through the B Corp framework. Darren explains:
“The framework makes us accountable in five key areas - Governance, employees, community, customers, and the environment and we have kicked off our commitments. Some examples are we have already signed up to the SME Climate Change Hub and the Climate Collective and achieved a net-zero status and we have committed to being employee-owned.
These are some of the bigger hitting aspects but there are loads more; so it is not a light touch accreditation but definitely one that supports the creation of what I view as better businesses. Not only that, there is a fantastic supportive community of businesses willing to work exclusively with other B Corps both in the traditional sense and in partnership with recent examples being Brewdog's collab with Tony's Chocolonely or Pukka's with Ella's Kitchen. Research clearly shows that B Corps out perform the traditional businesses so for us it's a no brainer".
Recommend other businesses certify as B Corps (B Lab UK)
Believe being a B Corp is likely to contribute to financial growth (B Lab UK)
Half of UK B Corps find that certification has helped them attract new staff (B Lab UK)
-----
If you’d like to find out more, visit the Certified B Corporation website and if interested in what Nudge are doing you can find that out here - www.nudgeexchange.com
Scotland needs entrepreneurially-minded people to accelerate growth - but how do we find them? Learn how we find, grow and connect Scotland's up and coming intern talent.
This International Women's Day, we're celebrating the women who are inspiring inclusion in entrepreneurship and leadership.
Entrepreneurial Scotland is pleased to invite CEOs, business leaders and decision-makers to our webinar: “Delivering Results: The Power of Saltire Scholar Interns for Your Business”