In October 2023 we received the incredible news that we had successfully become a Certified B Corporation. This is one of the most rigorous company certifications in the world and one of the hardest things we have ever undertaken. What we thought would be a simple, quick assessment in summer 2022 turned out to be a much longer process.
The process revealed that although we had a lot of good business practices, we didn’t document them. It also identified the areas that needed more attention to ensure better routines. The process took us through the entire business which was an incredibly valuable experience.
The certification process inspired us to close the gaps and keep trying to be better. This wasn’t something we chased just for ourselves; we did it for all the stakeholders affected by our business - our employees, customers, suppliers, owners, and community – and for the planet we all share.
Being part of a community
The B Corp movement has almost doubled since 2020. As the certification is so tough to obtain, there are fewer B Corps in the Nordics than you would think and there is less awareness of the B Corp movement as a result.
There are many well-known companies in the world that are B Corps such as Patagonia, Innocent Drinks, The Guardian Newspaper, WeTransfer, Ganni and Rituals. We are now one of over 7,500 B Corps around the world all trying to balance purpose with profit. Obtaining the B Corp certification has opened the doors to new networking and partnership opportunities with like-minded companies for Db. We are looking forward to sharing best practice and pushing each other to achieve faster and more impactful progress.
The details of our certification, including disclosure of our performance across all impact areas and sub-categories, are available in the B Corp Directory here.
B Lab is a nonprofit organization transforming the economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. The ‘B’ in B Corp and B Lab stands for ‘Benefit’. It began in 2006 with the idea that a different kind of economy was not only possible, but also necessary – and that business could lead the way towards a new, stakeholder-driven model. B Lab certifies B Corporations, which are companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
B Lab Nordics – now under the management of B Lab Europe – was founded in 2015 and currently oversees the growth of the movement in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland. We mobilize the community in the Nordics toward driving collective actions that address the grand challenges of society and in collaboration with other B Lab partners, we create standards, policies, tools, and programs that spark changes in the culture, behavior, and structure of our capitalistic system.
Together, we are shifting our capitalistic system from profiting only the few to benefiting all, from concentrating wealth and power to ensuring equity, from extraction to regeneration, and from prioritizing individualism to embracing interdependence.
“Certified B Corporation” is a trademark licensed by B Lab, a private non-profit organization, to companies like ours that have successfully completed the B Impact Assessment (“BIA”) and therefore meet the requirements set by B Lab for social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. It is specified that B Lab is not a conformity assessment body as defined by Regulation (EU) No 765/2008, nor is it a national, European, or international standardization body as per Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012. The criteria of the BIA are distinct and independent from the harmonized standards resulting from ISO norms or other standardization bodies, and they are not ratified by national or European public institutions.