Interactions - January/February 2019

the majority of agencies to embrace a better way to do business. This doesn’t mean you have to become a B Corp, but every company has room to improve its practices and better align purpose with profit. So what are you waiting for?

Endnotes

1. See https://bthechange.com; https:// consciouscompanymedia.com; https:// www.triplepundit.com

2. See https://hbr.org/2018/01/facebook- blackrock-and-the-case-for-purpose-driven-companies; https://bthechange. com/how-investors-really-feel-about- b-corps-7dcf7988a6e3; https://hbr. org/2016/10/the-type-of-purpose-that- makes-companies-more-profitable

3. Frick, T. Designing for Sustainability: A Guide to Building Greener Digital Products and Services. O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol, CA, 2016.

4. While B Corp certification is available only to for-profit corporations, anyone can use the B Impact Assessment to measure their impact. Currently, over 40,000 organizations use it to improve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

5. https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/ mightybytes-wins-illinois-sustainability-award; https://bthechange.com/the-203- companies-taking-impact-improvement- to-heart-23362e1463e6.

Tim Frick is CEO of Mightybytes (www. mightybytes.com/), a Certified B Corp and one of the oldest digital agencies in Chicago. He is also a speaker and author of four books, including, most recently, Designing for Sustainability: A Guide to Building Greener Digital Products and Services, available from O’Reilly Media. → tim@mightybytes.com

• By powering the websites we build with renewable energy and offsetting our company’s greenhouse gas emissions, we support SDGs 7 (affordable and clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 12 (responsible consumption and production), and 13

(climate action).

• By joining 1% for the Planet and committing 1 percent of our top-line revenue to environmental nonprofits, we support SDGs 6 (clean water and sanitation), 7 (affordable clean energy),

11 (sustainable cities and communities),

12 (responsible consumption and production), 13 (climate action),

14 (life below water), and 15 (life on land). Our 1% membership also helps us foster productive partnerships with member nonprofits, which supports SDG 17 (creating strategic SDG partnerships). Some of these partnerships in turn provide business referrals for us, helping the company generate sustainable profit.

• The majority of our company advisory committee comprises women, which supports SDGs 5 (gender equality) and 10 (reduced inequalities).

• Many of our clients are in the education sector, which supports SDGs

4 (quality education) and, longer term, 8

(decent work and economic growth).

• Finally, by helping values-aligned, mission-driven organizations find success, we support the majority of SDGs in some way. In 2016, over

70 percent of our client base was nonprofits, community foundations, and mission-aligned businesses, such as other B Corps. That number rose to 81 percent in 2017.

We know we can improve performance on several more goals, such as SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), 5 and 10 (gender equality and reduced inequalities, respectively), and 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions). How we track all these goals over time could use some improvement as well.

We renew our B Corp certification every three years. Staying on point with all our social and environmental goals between certifications can be an ongoing challenge amid the day-to-day tasks of running a business.

To do this, we fold environmental,
While the B Impact Assessment is a
wonderful toolkit, as a small business
we can do only what our resources
allow, and this can impede progress
on some goals. After our first
certification in 2011, it took several
years before we hit our stride. This
took team turnover, new policies,
revised hiring practices, and more.
Unfortunately, we overextended
ourselves several times during those
early B Corp years, often the result
of wide-eyed idealism usurping
financial practicality. It’s a balancing
act. Last year (2017), however, was
the company’s most profitable year to
date, and we were still able to create
significant impact, earning industry
and community accolades in the
process [ 5]. Being a B Corp, in my
experience, is the most rewarding way
to run a business.

AGENCIES MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN

There are thousands of B Corps around the world. Over 50 percent of them are outside the U. S. Each company charts its own course toward a shared and durable prosperity for all of society, and redefines success in business while doing so. In order for change to happen in our industry on a scale required to meet the SDGs, however, we need