During B Corp month, the B Corporation community pulled together to promote the B Corp movement and share our business practices which represent our environmental and social initiatives.

We believe being a B Corporation impacts not only the environment but also has a positive influence our employees and client base.

We’ve put together this short clip to visit some of the questions which have been circulating during B Corp month and to talk about our company efforts which are core to our philosophy.

New to B Corp? take a read about the movement on the B Corporation website.

The organizers of B Corp month have also curated some great footage of various B Corporations speaking about their outlooks and practices, check it out at the B Corp month website!

Hi from HQ! Serversaurus is proud of these initiatives that strengthen our current business:

• Exceptional Customer Happiness
  It’s one of the things that drives us. We always want to improve and make things easy for others to succeed.
• 4 day workweek for employees
  Happy employees make customers and operations. We’ve gone beyond Google’s 20% Time.
• Datacentres in Australia
  Our customers and their customers know the location of their data. Data sovereignty is very quickly becoming a high priority. Our Melbourne datacentre is Tier 4 ISO 27001 certified and we’ve a secondary datacenter Brisbane.
• Fair Super
  Serversaurus contributes an extra 5.5% to female employees so we can do our part in addressing the gender gap in retirement savings.
• B Corporation
  B Corporation is an accreditation for businesses that covers progressive operations across people, environment, technology and more. Like the business version of Fair Trade for coffee. Check out other B Corp’s at bcorporation.net.au.
• Contribution to 1% for the planet
  We donate 1% of our Sales revenue to environmental causes, including Take 3 for the Sea. What’s your business doing to help save the planet?
• Fully carbon offset operations
  Serversaurus has been fully carbon-neutral since 2007. Partnering with Greenfleet to plant trees to offset all our emissions: servers, transport, electricity, and more!
• Often faster than AWS, Azure, GCE and others.
  (Had to be said). Delivering mission critical, high performance sites. Want to avoid a meltdown? Talk to us.We like to refine what we do. What works for you?

Diana Barnett, founder of The Toxic Fox Radio speaks with Martin Gleeson, Co-founder of The Electron Workshop and Serversaurus to discuss a range of topics that include and elaborate on how & why practising Equality, Autonomy and Justice in the workspace is key, the journey of becoming B-Corp accredited, the influential factors behind Martins ethos and increasing business productivity= Quality vs Quantity.

Martin Gleeson | equality | social justice & a 4 day week | TFS011 – The Toxic Fox

To listen to the interview, read the article or to find more about The Toxic Fox Show, follow the link above ‘Read the article on thetoxicfox.com’.

The Serversaurs would like to acknowledge our gratitude to Diana Barnett for being an amazing host and facilitator, to the rest of the Toxic Fox crew for helping make this happen and to Martin Gleeson for welcoming and embracing the opportunity to share with us his thoughts, practises & insights.

Interview Quote from Martin Gleeson:
“Don’t be afraid. Be prepared to be yourself and to put your values and your ethics way upfront. Sometimes people may be fearful about how they may be perceived by other businesses, and I just say forget particularly about the thoughts of businesses that you don’t like. It’s often funny that we worry more about the opinions of people that we don’t respect than those that we do.
So if you are worried that another business will think that you arent serious enough because you are supporting environmental issues and so forth then you really shouldn’t be worried about what they think because they’re not on your same wave length re: values.”

The Journey – recap

We approached B Corp tentatively, perhaps putting the certification process on a metaphorical pedestal. In hindsight, we may have spent an excessive amount of time researching and planning for a project which was in actuality relatively straight forward.

However, our thoroughness did have an ironic benefit – as we meticulously contacted and interviewed the B Corp community, we quickly discovered that the certification process was not as complex as we first thought. In the process of meeting a great bunch of B Corp ambassadors, we adapted accordingly, taking on board all the advice given, and dove into the assessment and post-assessment review as quickly as possible.

Our advice here would therefore be to dive into the deep end from the outset – the B Lab and B Corp lifeguards won’t let you drown.

The Benefits

Benefits of being a B Corp are myriad – for now, the clear benefits for us have been:

• Benchmarking opportunities. The need to properly look at our environmental and social policies during the assessment has clearly highlighted areas of strength and areas in need of improvement.
• Formalisation opportunities. We have created a comprehensive HR document / employee handbook which outlines our mission, sustainability policies and employee policies. This has positive ramifications for the business because it provides a clear, codified roadmap for employee and employer alike, as well as providing an excellent working document that can be modified as the business grows and changes.
• Networking opportunities. All B Corps we contacted during this process were incredibly passionate, friendly, and more than willing to help. We have no doubt that being part of this network will open up a plethora of business and marketing opportunities, as well as the opportunity to be part of and contribute to innovative discourse on better business practices.

However, the real benefits are to the environmental and community within which we now reside. This commitment to and proof of better and sustainable business practices ensure that our business has a net positive impact on our human and ecological environment, both on a local and a global scale.

Indeed, the buzz and excitement within the B Corp community is undeniable. We are excited to join this community and campaign, bolster its voice and power, and truly B the Change. As a founding Australian B Corp, we are proudly committed to driving this goal forward towards a fairer and more sustainable world!

Fin

We hope that this series of blog posts inspire future B Corps out there and help them achieve certification. We’d like to thank B Lab and the B Corp community for their amazing help and support.

This is by no means a guide, but rather a series of posts reflecting our unique journey – we’re more than welcome replies and comments to help refine this series and improve its rigour and universality. For any questions or suggestions about these blog posts or the B Corp process generally, please feel free to get in touch.

Creating the Required Documents

Even if your company is small and has very little business documentation, the documentation process is not as daunting as it first appears. B Corp generously provides several templates to help you get over the line – in fact, 5 of the 6 documents required had B Corp helper templates.

The templates were relatively simple to complete, and included the required addition of guidelines such formalising a series of wage increases for non-director employees over 3 years.

One question which didn’t come with a template enquired about our paternity leave policy, which is something we hadn’t yet needed to formalise. This was a good opportunity to incorporate this policy into a wider HR document and employee handbook. For this task, we used another template from the Business Victoria website which was extremely useful and expedited the process.

During the initial scouting phase which involved chatting with a host of existing B Corps and having the generous opportunity of seeing much of their submitted paperwork, it was clear that many organisations had written a lot of their submissions from scratch – so while it was hugely insightful to see these documents, they unfortunately didn’t help with ours!

Our biggest tip at this stage is to talk to B Lab before you start working on any documents, and if you are based in Victoria, Australia, use the host of templates and business documentation provided by Business Victoria (there are undoubtedly other such departments in our other states and territories).

The B Corp process is primarily centred around an online assessment, followed by a telephone conversation with a member of B Lab (the non-profit which certifies companies) who guides you through the areas your business needs to improve upon to achieve certification. Finally, documentation is required to prove you undertake the policies and initiatives you have outlined in your assessment.

Certification is not a hugely difficult process, however it is one which requires quite an investment in time, putting together documentation (financials, utility bills etc), and writing new documents (HR doc, sustainability report etc).

The Assessment

It’s important to do a first run of the assessment with as much paperwork as you have on hand, and use the score to work out which parts of the assessment you need to focus on – otherwise it can all seem a bit overwhelming.

TIP Involve as many stakeholders as possible during the assessment. The more people actively involved in the process will likely mean that you score higher and achieve certification quicker. Indeed, having this collaborative attitude is one that B Corp look for and can positively affect your score.

The key conclusions we came to at the end of our assessment were:

• Attempting the assessment without adequate documentation and prep left us well below the pass mark (30/200) of the required minimum of 80/200.
• When re-attempting the assessment with preparation, we achieved 90/200 – 10 points beyond the pass mark.
• However, our policies were not codified in any formal documentation. This was going to be a critical task as the uploading of documents, including sustainability policy documents is a requirement for certification. Collating this data for these reports and then writing it up could be a timely process.

TIP Because the assessment is fairly broad and US-centric, you should interpret each question favourably. Don’t omit small details such as dual flush toilets which could get you extra points.

Reach out to the B Corp community

We reached out to such organisations as HUB Melbourne, One Stone, Shout, Reho Travel, Interface Constructions and Talent Nation for insights into the B Corp process – the key points were:

• Reassuringly, all agree that it is not a difficult process, especially when your company values already align with those represented by B Corp.
• They recommend quickly establishing contact with B Lab to hit the ground running on your B Corp journey. They are the best guides and can fast-track you through the process.
• Start the assessment process ASAP and get in contact with B Lab afterwards to give you focus on improvements that you can easily make.
• The bulk of time is spent on finding data and writing the required documents. This is more true for smaller businesses with informal reporting practices as opposed to larger firms with readily available data and formalised/codified documents.
• These docs do not need to be incredibly detailed. They don’t need to take into consideration specific or in-depth corporate governance or employee laws.
• It is essential to be dedicated to the process in order to complete it in a timely manner. Whilst they agree it is not a difficult process, it requires significant time to power through the writing of docs.
• Because of the US-centric nature of the assessment, and the irrelevancy of some questions for service businesses, it is important to favourably interpret some questions on the assessment. Don’t omit any details that may help you and elaborate on any policies or initiatives you undertake already, or plan to undertake in the near future as these can help you score points.
• Appreciate the impact of your value chain. For example, Seversaurus hosts TOM Organics website, one of Australia’s founding B Corps. This impact positively contributes to your score.
• It is important to truly understand your own business financials, operations, structure and governance.
• Engage as many stakeholders as possible in the process so they can rally behind the B Corp idea and give it more meaning and longevity for the entire business.
• Get external help. Reach out to the B Corp community for advice. Also use open source templates when writing the documents.
• The B Corp journey differs from company to company depending on size, sector, and how formal the business governance and practices are.

Thanks to everyone who took time out to provide thoughts and feedback on the B Corp process.

Till next week!

Introduction

Becoming a certified B Corporation is a symbol of a business’s ethical and sustainable policies and practices. It is becoming an increasingly desirable certification to hold, as B Corp recognition is an important statement of a business’s (re)definition of success – a definition which puts the environment and people before profits, while still performing its economic role as a for-profit business: B Corps are not non-profits!

Whilst the process is a relatively simple 3-step process outlined on the B Corporation website, it can be time-consuming. Sometimes awkward technicalities and the formalisation/codification of sustainablility policies and procedures can stall progress, especially for smaller businesses with limited resources. This series of posts describes our steps and thoughts in becoming a certified B Corporation. We hope that together, these posts can act as a guide to smaller enterprises embarking on their own B Corp Journey, ultimately promoting positive business practices both here in Australia and globally.

What is a B Corporation?

Put simply, certified B Corps are a grassroots movement of businesses who choose to broaden the definition of business success to include environmental and social responsibility alongside profit-making. In this way, they use the power of business for the greater good.

Why did Serversaurus decide to become a B Corp?

• The values upheld by B Corps are truly reflected in both our mission and history, which upholds environmental stewardship and social responsibility as being an integral part in everything we do. This value alignment meant that pursuing B Corporation certification was a natural step for Serversaurus.
• It’s also important to substantiate Serversaurus’ sustainability efforts and to make our business stand out from the crowd.
• Certification would also mean joining a great network of B Corps, in Australia and globally, with which bigger and better sustainable business ideas could circulate and materialise.
• Finally, the formalisation and documentation of sustainability practices required to pass the assessment would also act as a lasting record of sustainability achievements and benchmarking tool to set & maintain targets.

Our journey begins in the next post!

Tim Silverwood of Take3, an organisation which aims to encourage beach goers to take 3 pieces of garbage off of the beach on every visit, spoke of the key environmental issues revolving around plastics in Australia, and his rather encouraging take on the situation.

The key takeaways were:

National ban on plastic bags

Like the state of California and other regions of the world, Australia must take action and ban bags nationally. The duopoly of Coles & Woolworths will not take this initiative on their own. Countless campaigns have tried, however unfortunately these large corporations wish to be part of the problem, instead of the solution – without government intervention, the biggest producers of single-use plastic bags will continue to give them away to consumers. It’s unfortunate the government has to take a big brother approach on corporate activities like this, and it’s disappointing these organisations can’t innovate and lead with their own initiative for the betterment of the community and our environment.

National ban on the use of micro-beads

If you haven’t already heard about micro-beads, they are an incredible mis-use of resources and the epitome of short term thinking. Large cosmetics manufacturers insert tiny balls of plastic as exfoliation elements into their products. These tiny pieces of plastics go down the drain, and straight into our waterways. In the documentary trailer for BAYKEEPERS below, you’ll see how this is impacting local areas such as Port Phillip bay in Melbourne. Manufacturers who are culprits of micro bead manufacture include Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oréal, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and others. Many companies have vowed to discontinue micro bead use, however giants such as Unilever have no intention to stop until well into 2017.

National bottle refund program

In many countries, the return of recyclable bottles is rewarded – in Germany, bottles can be returned at supermarkets, where dockets are printed and immediately available for use within the supermarket – you can effectively trade bottles directly for food.

In Australia, we have no such program except in South Australia, where bottles can be returned and rewarded at up to 10cents per return. As a kid I remember asking my dad whether we could fill a trailer up with cans and drive to Adelaide…

This lack of a refund scheme which rewards people for returning cans and bottles is both disappointing and nonsensical. Again, this issue falls into the political sphere, and requires government intervention to help resolve – as the slow wheels of political change move, bottles continue to float swiftly out into our last remaining wild areas.

Tim Silverwood

Tim Silverwood speaks passionately about change, and gives off an aura of positivity which can sometimes be lost in environmental campaigners – campaigning is almost always an uphill battle. Tim thinks these key issues and more can be solved within 5 years, and I actually believe him – which isn’t something I often feel!

Following Tim’s intro, we watched the really excellent local documentary BAYKEEPERS from filmmaker Michael J. Lutman – not only is the story and message engaging, but the editing and production value of the film is exceptional – if you can, be sure to find a full version of the documentary.

We see again and again, that in a world dominated by corporatism, a fundamental change in the very DNA of business is required – we cannot only rely on our governments to guide us – they have had, and will continue to have a significant role, however business is often operating one step ahead and with greater agility – let’s make that step the right one.

In a recent talk I will blog about another day, a representative from Bankmecu spoke about our biggest communicator: The money in our pockets. Use this communicator to communicate your values, and fight to support the individuals and businesses which have foresight, insight and a purpose which reaches beyond the simplistic notion of profits for stakeholders.