B Corp Certification is a validation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on areas of employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain and materials. The 7,600+ Certified B Corporations worldwide are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.
In order to achieve certification, a company must demonstrate high social and environmental performance, make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders - not just shareholders - and exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website. B Lab is the non-profit organization behind the B Corp certification. You can learn more about B Corp and B Lab on their website.
We believe in B Corp, as it is so much more than just another certification. It's a comprehensive impact measurement tool, that helps us measure our impact and guide us in the direction of improvement opportunities. Further, it's an inspiring international community of companies using business as a force of good. By operating transparently, sharing best practices and learning from each other, this helps the community to grow its impact. Lastly, the certification recognizes companies with high social and environmental standard that are on a continuous improvement journey and reflects our achievements and ambitions.
Being B Corp certified enables us to provide our serious commitment to people and planet in a way that customers, consumers, suppliers and employees can recognize, thanks to the growing awareness of the high-standards set by the B Corp certification.
B Corp's thorough impact assessment focuses on 5 impact area's. Here's what they mean to us:
Governance evaluates a company’s overall mission, engagement around its social & environmental impact, ethics, and transparency. As part of this impact area, we formalized our commitment to the B Corp movement in our legal structure by amending our statutes. This means that we have now explicitly expressed our accountability to all our stakeholders – not only shareholders.
Workers evaluates a company’s contributions to its employees’ financial security, health & safety, wellness, career development, and engagement & satisfaction. Being a family owned company, caring for our people has always been a core part of our DNA.
Community evaluates a company’s engagement with and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires from, and sources from. We maintain a strict Code of Conduct for our suppliers and select only those that meet our standards. Did you know that Bolsius played a leading role in developing the RAL quality mark for candles? We also support local communities and numerous charities – like the local Christmas market, cemetery cleaning and 1% for the planet.
Environment evaluates a company’s overall environmental management practices as well as its impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity. We developed our Impact Strategy which focuses on three pillars: Reduce, Care and Engage. As a part, we’re committed to the Paris Agreement and are in the process of setting SBTi reduction targets.
Customers evaluates a company’s stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels. Our customers and consumers are always a top priority. We are always open for collaboration and consumer engagement.