On March 19, Enviro-Stewards Inc. and ChangeIt, were recognized for creating the most positive overall social and environmental impact by the nonprofit B Lab with the release of the third annual ‘B Corp Best for the World’ list. The list honors businesses worldwide that earned an overall score in the top 10% of all Certified B Corporations on the B Impact Assessment (a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment).
The award was presented at Communitech’s Accelerating Social Cause Entrepreneurs (ASCent) pilot program by B lab’s Canadian and South American partnering organizations (MaRS Discovery District and Sistema B, respectively).
Today there are over 970 certified B Corporations, across 60 industries and 32 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business. There are over 105 Canadian certified B Corporations making Canada the country with the highest concentration of B Corps outside of the US. Of the 92 companies recognized as “Best for the World”, 12 of them are Canadian. .
“Employees, consumers, investors, and policy makers increasingly want to support companies that create a positive impact in the world and the Best for the World honorees are the best of the best. It’s particularly inspiring that 21% of the 2014 honorees are long time B Corps. They’re winning the race to the top.” Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder, B Lab
“Enviro-Stewards’ is proud to be a member of the community reinventing business models to create economic, environmental and social value. Revenue is like blood. We need blood to survive, but the purpose of life isn’t to make blood. Similarly, we retain a small portion of the savings we generate, which enables us to expand our social and environmental impact.” Bruce Taylor, President, Enviro-Stewards
“A big aspect of the ASCEnt program is providing valuable mentorship to the cohorts. Enviro-Stewards Inc. and ChangeIt serve as great examples of what these startups are striving to one day achieve.” Glenn Smith, ASCEnt Program Director, Communitech
“The B assessment is a fantastic tool for measuring a great part a companies’ impact, but mainly a route to follow in order to make your business grow better for all stakeholders. In TriCiclos we are so proud of having been considered in the Best for workers 2013 list, but are most proud of having raised from 103 points in 2011 to 145 points in 2014. This means everybody in the company has learnt what being a Bcorp means.” Gonzalo Munoz, cofounder and CEO, TriCiclos (first Bcorp outside north America)
“The ChangeIt team is proud to be honoured as a B Corp ‘Best for the World’ company for 2014. We strive to keep the values of B Corporations central to the mission and vision of ChangeIt as we partner with many valuable charities and non-profit organizations. ChangeIt will continue to keep these values at the forefront of our business as we continue to grow.”
David Beaton, Founder and Chief Philanthropy Officer, ChangeIt
Enviro-Stewards Inc. is an engineering firm and Certified B Corporation that helps clients increase their profits, sustain the environment, and compellingly benefit society. For example, their work with Tim Hortons’ Fruition Fruit & Fills facility was recognized as one of the top 5 Sustainability Projects in Canada for 2014 http://www.corporateknights.com/article/clean-50 In-plant measures at Fruition are saving $490,000/yr with an annual return on investment (ROI) of 260%, and reducing loading to sewer 80%, landfill 70% and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 30%.
A portion of the savings sponsored 40 BioSand Filters that purify 800,000 L/yr of drinking water and avoid 120 tonnes/yr of GHG in South Sudan, Africa. Tim Hortons’ director of manufacturing at the time visited South Sudan with Enviro-Stewards’ President to meet recipients of the safe water as well as the South Sudanese entrepreneurs that Enviro-Stewards trains to construct the water purification systems using locally available materials.
ChangeIt is a patent protected crowdsourced charitable giving platform that leverages the rapid shift from cash to electronic purchases by bringing together financial institutions, charities, and socially conscious consumers. ChangeIt enables users to register existing payment cards, eWallets, or other electronic payment methods, in a simple, automated, and secure platform that allows users to support their favorite charitable organizations by simply rounding-up each purchase. ChangeIt provides charities and non-profit organizations with access to new, recurring revenue at a fraction of traditional fundraising rates; all through the comfort and security of consumers preferred financial institution. Learn more at www.ChangeIt.com.
Triciclos offers Puntos Limpios (clean points) for citizens and companies to learn to recycle and become conscious consumers, acting to solve the problems of waste management. Working where there are no existing solutions, TriCiclos recycles some 20 materials, promising that every material received is effectively recycled.
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement to redefine success in business so that all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world. B Lab drives this systemic change through a number of interrelated initiative: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing legislation to accelerate growth of social entrepreneurship and impact investing (20 states have already passed benefit corporation legislation); 3) developing B Analytics, a customizable platform for investors to benchmark and report the impact of their global private equity portfolios; and 4) providing free, powerful tools for businesses to measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance (more than 16,000 businesses use B Lab’s free B Impact Assessment).
CONTACT
Executives from all B Corps including Enviro-Stewards and ChangeIt available for comment. Please contact Katie Kerr, B Lab at katie@bcorporation.net, (610) 293-0299.
For more information, visit http://bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net/
