Emma speaks about what it means to her to be a part of B Corp and how worthwhile she has found the certification process.
What does Emma Bridgewater being a B Corp business mean to you and why did you apply to become B Corp?
I was told about it by a dynamic businesswoman/friend called Laura Tenison, she’s the founder of JoJoMaman Bebe. As she talked about B Corp I realised it felt like exactly what I’d be longing for – a framework for all our good intentions.
I was sometimes frustrated that our green efforts and purposeful plans were episodic or subject to bouts of enthusiasm – B Corp puts a frame and a dynamic thrust around all the plans to improve the purposefulness of the business (and holds it to those goals, where without B Corp they might have fallen away) to create a consistent version of the responsible organisation I hadn’t always felt it to be. B Corp helps to keep driving these plans.
What was the hardest part of becoming B Corp?
Creating the baseline data required by B Corp is a massive task- like others I’ve spoken to, we found it daunting and time consuming. However, from the beginning it was evident that this was all incredibly worthwhile, whether we got accreditation or not, as they were all areas where we benefitted from answering the questions posed by B Corp – not a waste of time, rather a use of it.
What did you learn through the process?
We learnt that there was plenty of room for improvement, that we’re not as good as we thought – the reality is quite often not met by one’s optimistic self-assessment!