Preventing Stakeholders From Ruining Your Sustainability Efforts
7 min
Level
In this article, we’ll review why stakeholders are important, how they could impact your company’s sustainability efforts, and how to prevent them from doing so.
The voice of impact
ESG / CSR
Industries
Ecology
Greenly solutions
GB
GB
How Greenly Helps your Company Get a B Corp label
Level
Obtaining a B Corp label is essential to establishing a committed corporate position. Nevertheless, the certification process can be particularly long and complex.
Fortunately, there is a way to make it easier for businesses.
Did you know that Greenly does more than guide your company to achieve your carbon assessment? Beyond quantifying your CO2 emissions and guiding you in your ecological transition, our teams can help you to get your B Corp certification.
Why should you strive for this certification? How can you obtain maximum points through our services?
Here are the answers.
What is the B Corp label?
Presentation and Benefits
Obtaining a B Corp label (‘B Corp’ stands for ‘Benefit Corporation’) is a way to prove your company’s compliance with multiple standards and commitment to environmental protection.
This international, demanding and prestigious CSR certification is awarded by the NGO B Lab.
Created in the United States in 2006, B Corp encourages companies to take social, societal and environmental issues into account in order to develop an inclusive, regenerative and equitable economy.
👉 This label shows the environmental and social performance of companies as a whole - not just their service or product.
Being certified B Corp offers multiple benefits as the company:
- demonstrates the implementation of a relevant CSR approach (CSR stands for "Corporate Social Responsibility");
- improves its brand and employer brand. As a guarantee of transparency and ethics, the B Corp label strengthens the trust of stakeholders and internal teams;
- stands out from its competitors by joining an international community of climate-conscious companies;
- is ahead of the social and environmental regulations that are developing in many countries.
Eligible companies
For-profit companies that have been in business for at least 12 months are eligible for certification. Thus, start-ups, subsidiaries, franchises and companies using their activity for the benefit of the general interest are concerned. 🏢
In the case where a company has been in the creation phase or in operation for less than one year, it can take advantage of this pending status, known as "Pending B Corp", to justify their commitment.
👉 At present, the label is present in more than 75 countries and concerns more than 145 French companies - including Greenly since August 2022 - certified B Corp. Worldwide, more than 4,000 companies are today certified.
How to get your B Corp label?
Respect the five pillars of certification
Getting your B Corp label is no small feat. The certification process is particularly long and demanding, and is based on five themes:
- the governance of the organization (three sectors are assessed: mission and involvement, ethics and transparency, and governance indicators);
- Collaborators (four areas are assessed: financial security, health, career development, and engagement and satisfaction);
- the community, specifically the social and economic contribution of the company in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion and civic engagement, but also the management of its supply chain;
- the environment, more specifically the impact of the company on the planet (environmental impact management, on air, climate, water, land and life in general);
- customers, in particular the value generated by the company for its direct customers (ethical marketing, quality of products and services, consideration of customer satisfaction, etc.).
Complete the five steps to get your B Corp label
Once all the information has been collected, the following five labeling steps must be followed:
- self-assessment by completing the free Business Impact Assessment (BIA). Composed of 200 questions, this assessment measures the impact of the company according to the five pillars presented above. Before proceeding to the next step, the company must complete a disclosure questionnaire;
- apply for certification in case the company gets a score higher than 80 points. It must first certify its eligibility for the B Corp label by complying with a verification audit - which may require the addition of supporting documents;
- obtain its B Corp label by becoming a “B Certified” company and by integrating the community. To do so, the company must sign a declaration of interdependence and publish its score, as well as its impact report, on the B Corp directory;
- amend its statutes to meet legal requirements. The company must add social, environmental and societal impact to its reason for being.
Repeat this process every three years in order to be part of a process dedicated to continuous improvement, and ultimately maintain the certification.
👉 Please note: the length and price of the labeling process depends on the size and complexity of the company, and can vary between €50 and €25,000.
How do you get your B Corp label from Greenly?
The services offered by Greenly earn many of the points you need in order to obtain the B Corp label.
Discover the six main levers we operate on.
We track GHG emissions annually
Using Greenly’s expertise to obtain the B Corp label allows you to ensure regular monitoring of your GHG emissions, thanks to your carbon footprint.
Beyond participating in the collective effort to limit global warming, achieving a carbon balance is also an obligation for:
- companies with more than 500 employees;
- communities of more than 50,000 people;
- the services of the State;
- public establishments with more than 250 persons.
Each company carrying out its carbon assessment with our structure benefits from the support of a Greenly expert dedicated to the implementation and monitoring of its performance indicators.
These indicators are established on the basis of the profile and activity of the company concerned and measure the effectiveness of the actions implemented over a year.
👉 The implementation of such monitoring thus ensures a framework conducive to the company’s environmental progress - a point strongly valued by the B Corp certification.
We help you develop and implement an action plan
In addition to supporting you in making a customised carbon assessment, Greenly experts also accompany you in developing an action plan adapted to the context and sector of your company.
The objective? To significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from your activity.
To reduce the impact of your emission stations and thus improve your environmental performance, it is necessary to adopt as soon as possible what are called "eco-gestures", but also larger measures that are implemented over the long term.
Eco-gestures can concern:
- the reduction of commuting by your employees, by promoting car-sharing or by opting for green alternatives (cycling, walking, etc.);
- the choice of a green energy supplier;
- improving energy efficiency by renovating energy-intensive buildings;
- reducing paper consumption;
- the recovery of its waste by recycling it;
- the choice of second hand or reconditioned equipment.
We decarbonise your supply chain
In order to initiate the ecological transition of your company, it is necessary to initiate changes within your structure, but also to involve your suppliers in this process.
Thus, the decarbonisation of your supply chain is a point particularly valued by the B Corp certification.
👉 And for good reason: the supply chain - included in the scope 3 - can be responsible for up to 90% of a company’s carbon footprint.
In order to limit the impact of the supply chain, Greenly proposes to engage your suppliers by:
- raising their awareness of ecological issues;
- Retrieving the data needed to perform your product life cycle analysis (LCA)
- conducting audits of your suppliers;
- accompanying in the reduction of the carbon impact of your suppliers on the entire value chain.
We’re improving your energy management
A key topic in obtaining B Corp certification, our experts pay particular attention to direct and indirect energy emissions - which correspond to scopes 1 and 2.
This includes, for example, the consumption of gas for heating a building or the consumption of electricity necessary for the operation of production machinery.
Beyond contributing to global warming, these forms of energy also have a significant impact on the company’s energy bill.
In order to help you improve your energy performance and achieve financial savings, Greenly accurately measures your energy consumption and then guides you through the implementation of a high-impact reduction plan.
We offer you the expertise of our partners
We work in partnership with many companies to reduce their environmental impact.
The expertise of these Greenly partners allows our clients to learn how to better control their emissions in wild array of fields.
The objective? Allow your company to maximise its environmental performance in specific impact categories, promoted by the B Corp label - supplier commitment and energy management, for example.
We propose audited carbon contribution projects
The carbon contribution is essential to the business climate strategy.
Effectively, it’s about sequestering residual emissions from their operations - those that cannot be avoided.
Previously audited and validated by our experts, the "carbon offsetting" projects that we offer to our clients are rigorously selected to respond to:
- the Gold Standard label, which certifies climate protection projects in the fields of renewable energy, forestry, agriculture, water and energy efficiency;
- the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS or Verra), which directs large-scale investments towards activities addressing environmental and social issues;
- the Low Carbon label, which certifies GHG emission reduction and carbon sequestration projects.
The Greenly platform offers many virtuous projects to provide support across various sectors, such as afforestation or electromobility.
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