Leveraging Sustainability Software to Attain (& Maintain) B Corp Status
If you're an existing or aspiring B Corp, you'll know that embedding sustainability into your operations and culture is a top priority. To facilitate this process, developing interoperability frameworks that break down data silos is key.
Every year in March, B Lab and Sistema B (the non-profit network that certifies companies as B Corps) runs a campaign to boost awareness of and celebrate the collective impact of the global B Corp community – a thriving ecosystem of more than 9,000 companies who believe in balancing profit with purpose.
In this article, we provide an overview of what it takes for a company to become a certified B Corp, and how sustainability software can be used to achieve, and keep, coveted B Corp status.
B Impact Assessment
The B Impact Assessment is a B Lab digital tool that helps measure, manage, and improve positive impact performance for the environment, communities, customers, suppliers, employees, and shareholders. Used by more than 150,000 organisations, it serves as a road map for continuous improvement and long-term sustainability. Receiving a minimum verified score on the B Impact Assessment is the first step towards achieving B Corp Certification.
Annual Impact Report
All B Corps need to publish an annual Impact Report, detailing their social and environmental practices, and measuring their impact. Creating this report is a team effort, which means engaging departments across an entire organisation on an ongoing basis to ensure standards continue to be met in the period between certifications. Re-certification is required every three years, aligned with evolving B Lab standards.
So how can sustainability software help?
If you're an existing or aspiring B Corp, you'll know that embedding sustainability into your operations and culture is a top priority. To facilitate this process, developing interoperability frameworks that break down data silos is key.
A fit-for-purpose sustainability management system provides employees with a single source of truth for all of your organisation's energy and carbon data, and ensures that everyone is operating off exactly the same up-to-date information.
Leveraging intelligent automation to reduce unnecessary administrative burden helps re-orient your employees' time towards more value-adding tasks, such as accelerating and scaling enterprise-wide sustainability efforts.
And as your sustainability dataset continues to grow, it provides a deep corporate knowledge base to build on and learn from, driving continuous improvement through optimisations in systems, processes, behaviour, and insights.
A problem shared is a problem halved
Based on historical organisational data, a sustainability management system allows you to compare baselines and set benchmarks.
The software also helps identify and recommend project opportunities that can improve sustainability with measurable results, highlighting which projects should be prioritised in terms of effectiveness and return-on-investment (ROI).
Decentralising ownership of sustainability projects across various business units or teams, and promoting a culture of shared responsibility combined with clear accountability for the successful execution of those projects, can have a significant impact on the trajectory of your sustainability journey.
EnergyElephant gives you the tools you need
At EnergyElephant, we believe that everyone can achieve great sustainability outcomes without needing to be an expert. From reducing energy waste to maximising efficiency, our software allows you to take control of all your energy and carbon data and turn it into actionable insights for meaningful sustainability initiatives and carbon reductions.
Our multi-award-winning platform supports numerous methodologies to provide best-in-class accuracy in carbon footprints based on actual energy use and grid-associated carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the time of use (Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3). And our audit-ready reporting tools ensure your data is compliant with a dozen or so international frameworks, including B Corp.
Having all this substantiable data on hand in easy-to-understand dashboards is hugely beneficial to any B Corp – particularly when it comes to measuring the impact of your business's environmental practices in the mandatory annual Impact Report.
Try before you buy
We offer a free 14-day trial (and/or a paid three-month trial) so you can make sure our system meets your requirements before making any significant financial commitment.
There are flexible pricing plans for Small, Medium, Large, and Enterprise customers. And we provide premium customer support and quarterly review calls as standard.
