B Corp: Certified For ‘Better’

Being a CEO used to be easy. As ever-increasing returns to shareholders were the be all and end all of everything, all you had to do was cut corners on production, dispense with quality and keep the wages for your staff low – and the champagne corks would pop at the AGMs. And who the heck cared about keeping your customers happy if there was a chance of scooping up a few extra million in the performance bonus? 

Those self-congratulatory days are disappearing now however, as disgruntlement grew amongst the staff who worked for such companies, plus the young newcomers who entered the workforce wide-eyed in amazement at how out-of-touch these C-suites were with reality. The winds of change began to blow in newer and more progressive companies as these rebels grew in confidence and influence. Initially they began to talk of ‘triple bottom lines’ where the social and environmental impacts of a company’s output were to be given as much weighting as its financial performance. Then these triple bottom lines eventually were coalesced into a quantifiable measurement known as B Corp Certification. This was created in 2006 by the non-profit organisation B Lab as an acknowledgement that governments and non-profit organisations can only do so much to tackle some of the problems our modern societies face. Their B Corp Certification was designed to help mission-driven businesses protect and improve their positive impact over time. 

One company who eagerly sought this Certification is the Bruichladdich Distillery, Scotch whisky makers from the island of Islay off Scotland, as a proof of the triple bottom line work they had already been doing. Bruichladdich understood that in order to succeed, they needed to act as an antidote to tradition by taking on the modern philosophy of balancing profit and purpose via adhering to the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and accountability.

This change started in the workplace itself with Bruichladdich bucking the centralisation trend of moving your operations into cities. The distillery now employ 80 people all the way out on the island of Islay, which means that locals don’t need to move to an overcrowded city in order to find work – particularly if they are being offered career opportunities in such varying roles as; human resources, design, hospitality, customer services, bottling and communications. The benefits Bruichladdich offer to staff also caught the B Lab’s eye as the distillery deliver a Living Wage employment, a bonus scheme for all staff, annual cost of living adjustments as well as private healthcare, life assurance provisions and 34 days paid annual leave as standard.

Being a diverse employer also scored points with almost half of the distillery’s senior management being women and an age range from 19 to 75 years is represented throughout the company. Plus, 41 of their staff have either been promoted internally or transferred to departments that better suited their work/life balance. Which comes in handy considering the paucity of other options out on remote Islay!

Environmentally Bruichladdich have been active too with a recent switch to 100% green energy plus a new hot wastewater installation that recycles condenser heat throughout the company’s offices to help reduce carbon emissions. 

This all added up to an impact score of 83.2 points, more than enough to achieve B Corp status which Bruichladdich achieved in May this year. Of course, that doesn’t mean the Scotch maker can rest on their laurels as the B Lab will be back in three years to evaluate them again for a new score. So, in the meantime Bruichladdich have got plenty of work-ons including their agricultural work with single vintage Regional Trials, improvements in packaging, waste and also in having another crack at developing anaerobic digestion as a source of energy.

All of which also gives the distillery plenty of real content to communicate with their stakeholders on social media – which is one of the great side-benefits of being a modern, progressive company. 

 

Discover more Bruichladdich at Glengarry.