Dr. Bronner’s Drops B Corp – What’s Going On?

Hello, Hello. So.

It'S all kicking off in, in B Corp world by all accounts. So Dr. Bronner's the highest scoring B Corp in the world have decided that they will not renew their certification this time around. And you know, that's cool you do you. But yeah, I mean the socials are blowing up, man. It's all kicking off and it's kind of interesting. And the. Here we go. Let's actually bring the post up. There we go. So this is the Original post from Dr. Bronner's so you know, the highest scoring B Corp in the world not renewing due to what they see as a lack of integrity in the standard.

And the full article is here. You know, nice bit of picture PR on Bloomberg where they basically say, you know, look, they feel that lack standards, particularly as pertaining to supply chain is, is the thing that they really are taking issue with. So you know, they're saying B Corp allows for greenwashing because it fails to capture the impact of large corporations with exploring supply chains. Well, I mean, it's fair enough, yes, that is a reasonable concern. But we've got to remember that actually B Corp is a certification of a company's performance.

Primarily like how do you perform less? So you know about your, your full supply chain. But obviously that is a consideration. And indeed on the B Corp assessment there are questions if you, particularly if you're in the manufacturing sector or wholesale retail, there are questions that do ask you about your supply chain. A bit more on that later on.

Brianne, who I'd like to consider to be a mate of mine, she's also, you know, kind of jumped in on this and said, you know, look, she gets a lot of questions. So obviously Atique was a business that she founded a few years ago, um, first certified as a B Corp way back in 2015. I think they were possibly be hot number two or three in New Zealand. So really, really early adopter.

And she has since launched a new business called Incredibles and she has no current plans to certify Incredibles as a B Corp. And that's cool.

Now with, with both of these.

Articles, I guess one of the things that they also cite is the allowance of some large companies like Nespresso to become a B Corp. And.

It'S, you know, yeah, it's, it's, it's controversial possibly, you know, is Nespresso, the world's best company, ultimately owned by Nestle. Nestle has got a history of some very dodgy activity across, you know, the globe in various ways, shapes or Forms. If you go and have a look on YouTube, there's a, there's a ton of videos on, you know, some of the activities that Nestle Speaks been critiqued for.

But I still feel that B Corp is one of the best, if not the best framework that's out there for companies wanting to do better and possibly be amongst the best of companies around their social and environmental performance.

So just, I guess some thoughts on, you know, on why B Corp is still a thing.

I think it's interesting just to reflect on the fact that, you know, Brianne had a, you know, Ethique was a very high scoring B Corp and she is 100% focused on solving primarily environmental, you know, challenges within the sectors that she's been involved in. Dr. Bronner's clearly a very high performing company. And so it's interesting that the high performing companies and people who are high performing and very, very, very, very much aligned around making impact are the ones who are sort of saying, hey, come on B Corp, I think you can do more.

I still think B Corp is a very, very, very, very rigorous assessment tool. However, I've helped about one third of the B Corps in New Zealand certify and I've yet to really meet anyone go, man, that was super easy, let's go do it again.

I think it's worth, you know, reflecting with that on some of these bigger companies. Like if we look at Nespresso. So Nespresso, you know, they like 80 out of 200 points is the current pass mark to be able to be a Certified B Corporation. 84.3. You know, these guys, they, they've snuck in realistically, you know, and if we look at Uni, Uni, Libra, you new lever ANZ, 82.7. So the two like really, really big entities that a lot of people have kind of gone, how can these guys be a B Corp? You know, they're, they're massive companies, you know.

You know, I know from having spoken to some senior leaders at Unilever and Nespresso, it took, you know, each of those companies, it took them about three years to retune the business to get them to a position where they just snuck in to meet the minimum requirements of B Corp. And so I think that's worth noting that they didn't just turn up and pass B Corp. They actually had to put a ton of effort in, you know, to meet the minimum standard. It's interesting seeing a couple of comments on LinkedIn people sort of saying, oh well, you know, yeah, you know, we're not a B Corp. But if we did, we would absolutely nail it. And it's like, well, would you go prove it? It's kind of interesting to say, well, we're better than them, but actually we haven't, we haven't gone through the process.

You know, I'm not saying that Unilever or Nespresso are perfect. Far from it, I'm sure. But I think, you know, that is the, the bigger thing to consider here, that there is no perfect business. You know, Patagonia is held up as one of the world's best businesses in terms of their social and environmental performance. And they certainly do amazing stuff. They're a very, very high scoring B Corp. But are they perfect? No. And no one is perfect. No entity is perfect. You know, if we look at the, the negative impact that every, any business makes, pretty much there's always going to be some kind of negative impact. So I think we're kind of living in a bit of a false reality if we think that somehow we're going to have all these perfect businesses that make no impact. So I think that's just a bit of a positioning point. So I think, yeah, some of these high performing B corps who are kind of like, yeah, look, we're done with B Corp. We're now out the other side. Well, you know, good on you. You've gone beyond B Corp. And that's kind of what we want companies to do. Like, you know, ultimately we want companies to become so good that they don't need the framework anymore. But I think there's a real risk of, you know, throwing the baby out with the bathwater here by going well, you know, just because we're doing really, really well and we're doing fantastic, then, you know, the framework's rubbish.

I think it's also interesting when we look at one of the things that a lot of people were criticizing Nespresso for was it's kind of like, you know, how can this company that sells, you know, their products have got single use plastic and you know, recyclable pods and you know, they were absolutely lambastable. How can this company be a B Corp? Well, you know, Dr. Bronner's still using plastic bottles. Yes, they are packaged in 100 post consumer recycled bottle, but it's still plastic. And okay, yes, it's recycled plastic but you know, there's increasing concerns around what plastic is doing for us, you know, as humans and for the planet. You know, we can get down. And I think this is the thing, you know, we yes, we wanted challenge companies to be better.

But when we're sort of nickel and diming it and really, really trying to squeeze lemon and, and I guess accusing is like a strong word, but we're like, we're with, you know, it's like we throw rocks at people for not being perfect. It's like there's no perfect company. This is the highest scoring B Corp and they're still using plastic packaging. A lot of people would go, well, how can they even be a B Corp on, you know, if we follow the same tack as how people were criticizing Nespresso. So yeah, it's really, it's interesting. You know, some other thoughts and reflections. Like, you know, no one has ever said that B Corp is perfect. All the certification is perfect. Like it's run by humans. From research and understanding I've done in terms of actually how B Corp, the B Corp certification is.

I guess, designed and created. You know, there's quite a bit of consultation, research goes in to enable it to become a thing.

There is, you know, global standards committees, B Corps around the world can lobby, they can have conversations with their B labs, with the standards team. There's regional standards advisory groups.

You know, so it's, it's not like this body that just sits there and dictates how things could and should be.

You know, there's a ton of things on the B Corp framework that I, I personally don't agree with. Although the approach that they're taking towards solving that problem, I, I don't think that's the best way to do it. But you know, it's, it's not perfect, but it's, it's better, it's better than nothing. The overarching. I think like the really big thing that B Corp brings is that it is social. You know, it's a measurement of social and environmental performance. It's globally recognized and it's independently verified. In a lot of the chats on socials, there's like, oh, you know, ISO is a better framework. Well, yeah, for environmental sustainability, ISO will be more in depth and more rigorous than B Corp. But it looks at nothing to do with how you treat your staff and what you're doing in your community or how you treat your customers. I don't think really that I can't think of any customer based certification that would prove that you look after your customers well or equally. You could be, you know, child labor free certified or living wage certified, but you could be destroying the planet. So. And that's why I've always liked B Corp is it. It looks at the business across, you know, all areas. Not just one to the detriment of the other. The, you know, and along with that, a lot of people have criticized B Corp and said, hey, you know, look, it's, it's really easy. You can, you can be doing really well, say environmentally and be doing nothing socially and kind of still sneak through as a B Corp. Again, in my experience, having helped certify quite a few companies, I, I've not come across one where they have been, you know, absolutely nailing their social impact and been doing nothing environmentally on the current standards. Pretty much you have to be doing okay across all the areas. Well, my experience is almost every, well, every company I've worked with, they've been doing pretty good across everything and to reach that 80 threshold, you pretty much have to be doing that. So.

Yeah.

Some other thoughts. I mean, yeah, the assessment is a US based assessment that sometimes brings criticism in this region and that's reasonable. But again, you know, the risk is if we try and create splinter movements and smaller, more nuanced and localized ones, they lose, possibly lose their relevance and their, I guess, authority.

You know, there's people creating their own little frameworks and that's great, but I just think the value is of this global framework where we can learn off each other and connect with each other, understand and work for people from around the world.

What else have I got?

I think the other big part of this for me is.

Yeah, I'd rather companies, you know, B Corp is a framework. It's a great place for companies to be able to connect to and just start thinking about the good that they're doing. And I genuinely do believe that companies that even meet the 80 out of 200 threshold, you know, people go, it's not even half marks. How high can this thing be? It's like, well, go give it a go if you're that convinced that it's that easy, you know, go do it, go nail it. But yeah, I just think it's, it's a really useful framework and I guess perhaps the most important part of B Corp and I think the secret sauce in B Corp is any certification in and of itself can become a tick box exercise. Some people have sort of said, oh, you know, look, it's big. B Corp has become, you know, pay to play. You pay your money and you get your cert. I don't believe that that's true. Yes, companies that are, that have resource, you know, whether that's people, money, time, you know, whatever, like Some of the bigger companies, like Unilever, yes, they can put effort, financial resources, human capital into creating better results. But surely isn't that what we want them to be doing?

I think, you know, another thing just to ponder is that the vast majority of B Corps globally and locally here in New Zealand are small to medium businesses that are doing good and are genuinely wanting to be better companies and make more impact. There's a handful of large companies and I've written an article about this previously. You know, isn't it better that. Let's see if I can find it over here. You know, isn't it better.

That we have some of these big companies in the, you know, in the tent as it were, with people.

Holding them accountable rather than them being outside the tent doing the right things? You know, like, I guess a good example of that would be say Capris, who, you know, dropped Fair Trade. And you know, I know that there's.

Criticisms on Fair Trade and this is the thing like this, you know, there's criticism on, on every, every framework that's out there. Here we go. Finally found it. Probably should have got this one lined up before I started recording, but hey, that's how we roll. So, yeah, like I wrote this article when, when Nespresso certified. You know, some people like, this is amazing. It's epic. This is so huge. Other people like, hey, yeah, look, this is, this is the thing. But you know, I'll put a link to this article.

You know, I'd rather that they were a B corp and were held accountable rather than they chose their own framework. And I think, you know, this is one of the risks is we have some of these large companies go, oh yeah, we're doing our own thing. And you know, away we go.

The last thing I think the big thing that I want to finish off on is it depends how you use B Corp. Like I say, if you just approach it as a tick box exercise where you're kind of like, you know, are we doing these things? And typically a lot of companies will do this where they have one person just going through the assessment. It's like, hey, we're doing this, we're doing this, doing this, right? We need to create this policy. Can someone go and check in on this? It's like, sure, you can do that, but there is.

The real value in B Corp is using it to really connect into the purpose of business and the purpose of an organization. And I think that is the real secret source of B Corp that people are kind of missing the point here or Maybe not missing the point. It's like that's the real thing to connect to because that's how I first connected into B Corp. Was working for large global organizations in the health sector that really should have been about making people, people better. Actually didn't really give a damn and just wanted to maximize the amount of money that they're making. I think B Corp as a framework is a great step to help companies understand, okay, well, where do we make an impact and, and so on and so forth. But the real key to B Corp is actually the, you know, it's like the spiritual metaphysical.

Change that can happen through B Corp. And this is.

I think, the, you know, the real key. And for me, the, the best example of that or the phrase that comes to mind is that there's a guy called Gus Speth and he is an environmental lawyer and he's got this great quote. He said, let's see if I can actually share this screen as well. Come on, technology.

Not sure how do we do that? Let's see. Stop. Do that. And then let's present.

Share screen.

There we go. I think it's worth having that up there. This is old Gus, Beth. So he used to think, he said, I used to think that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address these problems. We. But he was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy. And to deal with these, we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and scientists do not know how to do that. And for me, that is at the heart of what B Corp can really, really, really do. If you use it as a tool to connect to the feeling of meaning, the purposeful performance, the like. Actually, why do we all come to work and why is this meaningful to us? And how do we want to create change as a business and how can we make a better contribution then? That is the real secret. It. And I don't think that any other framework works or allows you to work in that manner. There is something, there is a secret source in B Corp that people connect to that I haven't seen with other frameworks that are out there like your isos. And I think for me that's the real, real key. And what we need is for companies to connect to the more spiritual, metaphysical, like what? Why the feeling side of things, but with the measurement and reporting of. Okay, and this is how we're fixing it. This is what we're doing to it.

I guess. Yeah. Some final thoughts. Greg Hart Mate of mine, farmer in Napier, east coast and north island of New Zealand. He's got another great quote. It's like, you know, humans shouldn't be aiming to minimize their impact on the planet. They should be aiming to maximize their positive impact. And I just think let's focus on having the best party on the street. Let's focus on doing as much good as we can and not really get too stuck in the weeds about, you know, some of this, some of the detail of this stuff. Yeah, I don't know. That's just my 2 cents worth. What do you think? You know, we, we're, you know, when you look at the growth of B the last few years, it, it doesn't seem to be slowing down. A lot of people are getting a lot of value out of it.

Yeah, I don't know, like it's actually the, the final, final point or two points.

That, you know, there's a lot of, you know, these guys shouldn't be a big caught because things they've done in the past. Well, you know, can we keep. How long do we hold people responsible for. For former crimes versus giving them a platform and a environment for them to want to be better and make amends for past, you know, things that they might have done.

And the final, final thought is.

You know, from. Again, my. Almost a decade of working with companies to get them B Corp certified is doing good and making positive impact is very, very rarely black and white. The T shirt I'm wearing, shout out to Nick from ETIKO in Australia.

It's CO B Corp Certified Fair Trade T shirt. This T shirt is fundamentally better than buying a T shirt off Temu or Shine Sheen, whatever it's called. Like, it just is. Yeah, it's made from more sustainably sourced, you know, from the highest levels of sustainably sourced cotton in a manner that treats their staff with dignity and respect. And it's purchased through a company that is leading the way in terms of its social and environmental impact. So easy. One of my favorite stories to refer to is the gentleman who invented the plastic bag. He did so back in the 50s and 60s because he recognized that there was a waste byproduct from the plastic manufacturing industry that he thought he could create these plastic bags which would be indestructible and last forever because he was so concerned with the amount of trees that people were cutting down to make paper bags. And for me, that is one of the classic stories around. You know what, what we think we're doing today is amazing for people and planet actually in 50 years time might be proven to be a complete pile of rubbish. And so, yeah, I just think, you know, let's, let's approach this with a collective mindset of, yeah, let's all work to try and be better. Let's support each other as and where we can. Let's collectively work to solve some of these big problems that you know, are facing you that you're particularly concerned about, rather than trying to throw rocks at the people who aren't perfect. I don't know, that's just my $0.02 little addendum on the end there because I forgot to add those two bits. But again, let me know. What do you think? Hit me up in the comments. What do you reckon? Is, does B Corp new to do need to do more, or is B Corp doing enough in terms of helping people measure and report their impact? Catch you later.