Our Journey to B Corp – Part 3
A blog series. Read parts one and two.
Learnings from BLD New England
Amber Trudell and Steph Oeser recently attended the 2022 B Corp Leadership Development New England Conference. They met attendees from other New England businesses who are currently B Corps (or working towards certification, like we are). They met interesting people during highly collaborative sessions, where folks were encouraged to share their ideas, experiences, challenges and suggestions. Everyone was there to learn and grow, which made it a very inspiring and informative conference.
Strong emphasis was placed on how crucial it is for companies to hone in on who they are and what they do best because every company is so different. When you do that, it becomes clear how your company can uniquely do business for good, which is what B Corp is all about!
What have we discovered so far?
In looking at the B Impact Assessment, we quickly realized that we need more processes in place. Some changes were quick and easy, like adding policies to our handbook that we were already practicing, but did not have documented. Other updates will take more time. Our mission, vision, policies and goals need to be updated and recorded in a more formal way so that we can focus our efforts and hold ourselves accountable.
This process illuminates the value of communication and employee engagement. We need more robust systems in place to measure and survey our performance as an employer, so we can attain 360-degree feedback. We’re also diving deep into our supply chain and working closely with our vendors to understand our impact.
According to Bruce, “This journey is a lesson in vulnerability and introspection. You have to get really clear on what you are trying to accomplish as a business, and why. Being true to yourself is the best way to do this.”
Next steps & goals
In the next installment of this blog series, we’ll detail some of the specific goals our team is working towards.
