Ethical and environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important to consumers, due to the pandemic and revelations about the damage non-sustainable companies can inflict on people and the Earth. As this trend towards sustainability continues, it is important to have a way of measuring a company’s commitment to ethical practices. One way for a company to do this is by applying for B-Corp certification.

A B-Corp certification is a private third-party assessment of a company’s ethical, environmental, and legal practices and commitments which must be reapplied for every three years. By examining a number of factors, B Lab assigns each company a score which will either grant or deny them certification.

Research from MoneyTransfers shows that the UK is in second place with 454 B-Corps, mostly in the food and beverage sector. The UK is sandwiched between the USA, with 1,343 B-Corps, and Canada, which has 299.

Sustainability is important across all industries, but by looking at the ones which are applying for certification in the highest numbers we can see where consumer pressure is having the greatest effect. Currently, companies applying for B-Corp certification are most likely to be in the food and beverage and IT/web services industries.

Social awareness towards issues such as worker exploitation, gender and racial inequalities, and environmental concerns continues to grow, so it is likely that corporations will have to prove their sustainability in order to win the favour of increasingly ethics-conscious consumers.

Credit: https://moneytransfers.com/news/content/countries-with-the-most-b-corp-businesses