Digital agency Engage has secured its B CorporationTM (B CorpTM) certification and is the first organisation in Leeds to do so.
Certified by B Lab, the not-for-profit behind the B Corp movement, Engage met rigorous social and environmental standards which represent its commitment to goals outside of shareholder profit.
Engage has joined 3,800 other companies across 75 countries and 150 industries which have achieved B Corp certification, with over 450 in the UK including The Guardian, Innocent Drinks, Patagonia, and The Body Shop.
The process to achieve a B Corporate certification is three fold, requiring assessment, verification, and finally certification by B Lab. As part of the self assessment, Engage had to answer over 100 questions across five categories including governance, team, community, and environment before spending six months addressing areas where improvements could be made. In that time, Engage has developed its staff handbooks, increased financial transparency with the team, formalised ethical supplier and environmental policies, and switched to ethical bank Triodos.
A formal application was submitted for verification in December.
Chris Turner, Executive Director of B Lab UK commented: “We are delighted to welcome Engage to the B Corp community. This is a movement of companies which are committed to changing how business operates, and believe business really can be a force for good. We know that Engage is going to be a fantastic addition to the community and will continue driving the conversation forward.”
Engage currently works with a number of ethically minded organisations including Bettys & Taylors, and Harrison Spinks.
Dave Wrightson, Co-founder and Director of Engage and leader of the initiative, added: “We’re really proud to be the first company in Leeds to achieve certification, and of course we hope that this will open doors to like minded companies we’d love to partner with. The certification validates our commitment to making a positive impact to our community, society and environment, and we hope this will encourage our clients and peers to also consider applying for the certification.
“Since we founded Engage we’ve always wanted to be a company with strong ethics at its heart. As we grew, we formalised our processes with our elympics initiative which encourages staff to get moving and convert the miles exercised into donations to local causes, and community work with CATCH, a registered charity in Leeds which helps improve opportunities for over 1,000 young people and their communities, however there’s always room for improvement.
“Being certified as a B Corporation brings a framework which enables us to benchmark Engage against best practice, consider where we’re excelling and where we must improve.”
Engage will take the learnings from its B Corp assessment and certification, and use the platform to build its Sustainable Development Goals, a UN global initiative to improve the world through 17 defined goals.
