Here at Huxley, we try as hard as we can to make a difference to our wider communities as well as to the internet. We want our company to be open, accountable and pleasant to work with, and for our business to practice what we preach when we talk about inclusivity and ethics.
To help communicate this commitment, we are working towards B-Corp Certification.
Certified B Corporations meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
From the B-Corp Website
In order to be approved for B-Corp certification, we need to obtain a minimum verified total score of 80 across all impact areas.
We currently have an organisational score of 65. That is no small feat for a business of our size, to give you an idea of where we need to monitor improvement..
Here are some of the things we are already doing
- We consistently incorporate social and environmental impact into decision-making because we consider it important to the success and profitability of our business.
- We are committed to positive social impact
- We nurture a culture of transparency within our team, with full organisation of responsibilities and accountability for all.
- We have management team meetings to plan strategy or make operational decisions, including non-executive board member contribution
- We regularly update the entire team on financial performance and measurables.
- We support staff with progressive employment policies
- We are demonstrably committed to diversity in our team
- We have formal quality control mechanisms and assess the outcomes produced for our customers
So we feel that we are off to a good start, but now thanks to the B-Corp Business Impact Assessment, we are able to work with B-Corp to shape our business to become the kind of progressive organisation we aspire to be, using business as a force for good.
Here are our plans for the next 3 – 6 months
- Sign a Board resolution committing to adopting a legal form that requires consideration of all stakeholders
- Improve staff personal development plans to include more 360-degree feedback
- Set and measure social and environmental KPIs
- Charitable donations.
- Dedicated volunteer time for staff
- Record and track carbon footprint, consumption and carbon intensity so we can plan reduction and offsetting
- Share resources with employees regarding environmental stewardship in home offices (e.g. energy efficiency)
- Introduce polices for the limitation of business travel / with incentivisation of public transport / carpooling / biking to work.
- Create a list of environmentally-preferred vendors for office supplies
- Put policies in place for the safe disposal of e-waste and other hazardous materials purchased for employee home offices
- Audit supplier ownership to track those majority owned by women or under-represented populations
- Move our banking to an ethical bank
Needles to say, this is an exciting process that we are all enjoying, and we have found it really engaging for the entire team.
We will continue to review our progress to certificaiton quarterly and I will keep a public update of our progress right here in our blog!