Are requirements for obtaining official B Corp status too light? Should multinationals like Evian and Nespresso be allowed to apply?

This summer, an article in Het Financieele Dagblad caused quite some commotion in the B Corp movement - a community of more than 5,500 sustainable and social enterprises.

Leen Zevenbergen is one of the founders of B Lab Europe, the organization behind the B Corp movement in Europe and responsible for the certification process. With a background of many years as a sustainability activist and entrepreneur, Leen places today's discussion into perspective like no other. This article has been translated from Dutch. You can read the non-translated version on the website of our friends from Been Consulting, also a certified B Corp.

by Leen Zevenbergen

The ups and downs of the sustainability movement

It's an uphill battle. With on one side the status quo of neoliberalism with the vested interests of industry and on the other side the fragmented sustainability movements and small sustainable companies. Companies in the arms industry, fossil fuels, cigarettes, and many other polluters are well funded and organized. Tens of thousands of well-meaning sustainable organizations, often foundations, are not well-funded and organized. If they want to change the current economic system, it doesn't help to argue among themselves. Why does this happen anyway, time after time after time?

From tree-huggers

Let's go back to the 1970s. Back then, a group of people formed a club to educate the world about the importance of treating nature well. The well-known Club of Rome. These "tree-huggers" were not really taken seriously by the business community. And vice versa, neither were they. Corporations were bad, making a profit was bad and they were good. Although this movement received a lot of attention, it remained small and little changed.

To entrepreneurs

This changed in the 1980s. A group of entrepreneurs also wanted their businesses to be good for the world. People like Ben Cohen (Ben&Jerry's), Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia), and Annita Roddick (Bodyshop) didn't just want to make money, they wanted to improve the world. This movement was called the Social Venture Network. It allowed companies to also play a role in sustainability and no longer be excluded from the sustainability movement. These companies and their leaders were called "change makers" of a new economy. Even so, these entrepreneurs had little in common with multinationals. And neither did the other way around.

From shareholders to stakeholders

Something interesting happened in the nineteen-nineties. There was growing resistance in society to the one-sided focus on shareholders at the expense of the environment, employees and society. From shareholders to stakeholders', was the message. And so the B Corp movement was born, with the help of the entrepreneurs from the Social Venture Network. With the help of these socially engaged entrepreneurs, a holistic measurement system was developed to show how these companies serve all stakeholders. This is the Benefit Impact Assessment, which is also used to test a company's eligibility for B Corp certification.

Interdependent

This group of entrepreneurs also realized that they can only change the economic system together. 'Radical Interdependence' they called it. That is why each B Corp also signs the so-called 'Declaration of Interdependence'. A document in which they acknowledge their interdependence and make a promise to help each other.

Yet there are still companies with inspired and intrinsically motivated entrepreneurs who have little faith in multinationals. Who prefer to keep large companies out of the B Corp movement. Who have forgotten their promise to help each other in sustainable and social entrepreneurship. Who think: 'I am better than you' and 'you don't belong here'. This exclusion happens again and again, as can also be read in the article. This only weakens the already fragmented sustainability movement.

Changing the system

On the contrary, we must help each other to achieve systemic change. In the current economic system, fully sustainable business is virtually impossible. Every sustainable business is in a different phase and every sustainable business needs the help of the leaders of other businesses. Because only if you work together can you change the system. Only together can you fight vested interests of multinationals and governments. Only together can we change the status quo.

Dear sustainability movement, accept that not all companies are perfect when they start their journey towards sustainability. Accept them, invite them, help them change, be an example in that 'radical interdependence'. Because only with each other's help can we change the system. Together.