Why we became a B Corp: Resource Futures tells its story

To celebrate one year of Business West becoming a B Corp, we’re speaking to a handful of other B Corp businesses in the region who have also started their B Corp journey. 

B Corp is an international certification which recognises business that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

Certified B Corporations are businesses verified by B Lab, a non-profit organization. B Lab certifies companies based on how they create value for non-shareholding stakeholders, such as their employees, the local community, and the environment.

We spoke to Business West Initiative Member, Resource Futures, about why they became a B Corp and their advice to other companies.

Resource Futures is an employee-owned non-profit distributing environmental consultancy with a vision to create a sustainable world. 

It helps businesses make better use of material resources, from informing national policy on material use, to visiting schools to run environmentally focused assemblies.

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Sam Reeve, CEO of Resource Futures, said:

“An example of some of the work we’ve done with government was around single use plastics, where we focused on impact assessments. We worked with businesses to understand how they use them and what the impact would be of banning plastic versions. 

“We also do a lot of work around the circular economy helping businesses understand the carbon footprint of manufacturing processes. We support firms to understand what their options are to use those materials more sustainably.”

Resource Futures has worked with Dulux Paints for many years on a project called Community RePaint which takes left over paint and distributes it at low or no cost to the local community through a network of 65 Community RePaint schemes.

The aim is to take the valuable material of leftover paint which often ends up in landfill, creating a huge carbon footprint, and supply it to local communities which can use it for home improvements or community projects. It’s also distributed to individuals who may not have access to products like these.

The company became a B Corp in 2016 and Sam says there were three main reasons:

“The first one is that being employee owned and non-profit distributing, is an interesting business model. We, the members, don’t get a financial dividend on any surplus we make after we’ve invested in growing the business, rather it is reinvested back into the business. 

“Becoming a B Corp and showing that we use business as a positive force gave us a way of explaining what we are about as a business.

“We also wanted to join like-minded, profit-making businesses. And that’s important, that you can only become a B Corp if you are for profit. It’s not only about making money, but it’s also about using the very purpose of the business and the surplus to drive positive social and environmental change.

“Finally, becoming a B Corp was a really good way to benchmark what we’re doing, by going through the accreditation process to actually challenge ourselves and see where we could improve and also acknowledge where we’re doing really well.”

Resource Futures says its priorities over the next year are to continue to measure and minimise their environmental impact by looking at the travel they’re required to do for work and their suppliers for events as well as how they support other firms. Sam said:

“On our staff days, we will look to procure from vegan and locally sourced suppliers. 

“We want to better understand how we can legitimately and transparently talk about the impact of the consultancy projects we deliver for our customers.” 

How your business can get started on its sustainability journey

As a B Corp, we want to help firms get started on their journey to Net Zero. 

Since starting the Net Zero workshops in 2020, we’ve supported over 200 businesses to get started on their net zero journey. Find out more about these events here.