ORCA started the process of becoming B Corp certified a couple of months ago and we wanted to share with our peers exactly what the process entails. It’s a long old process which will take a year to complete, but one we’re so proud of and happy we’ve started.

Due to the long process we thought it would be helpful to break down what we’re learning along the way and the steps that we’re taking to get there, in an effort to help others.

What is a Certified B Corporation?

“Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose” - B Corp

In short, they’re a new kind of business, balancing profit with people and the planet. With this model they hope to build an inclusive and sustainable economy that works for everyone.

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Why does ORCA want to be certified?

ORCA has always been focused on pursuing a positive and ethical mindset within our business, so we wanted to commit to our standards by starting our journey to becoming B Corp certified.

The emotional intelligence and progressive mindset of the country is developing and so is the demand for it. We've seen the increase in demand for transparency within companies, which has elevated the need for us to express our values, more so now than ever.

This demand has created a shift in the industry, encouraging brands to build internal and external systems that reflect their values, regardless of whether it is a consumer facing brand or not. It’s becoming a lot easier to pin-point positively impacting brands rather than ones solely focused on profit, which benefits everyone from consumer to CEO. We love that there's been a shift within the industry, and for us this allows ORCA to be able to locate companies, brands and organisations that we can trust as well as work and build together.

The steps we’re currently taking

To achieve a certified level of B Corp as a company, ORCA will have to evaluate and develop within five categories including:

1. Governance

• This refers to our overall mission as a company which includes our social/environmental impact, ethical code and overall transparency. Making sure that what we state is reflected in action and what we state is compliant with B Corp standards.
• This is something we’ve been working on since the end of last year. We’re happy with our overall messaging and are currently fine tuning our values to really resonate with our values as a team.

2. Workers

• We must evaluate our efforts to create financial security. We’ll implement development programs for ORCA’s workers too. This will promote their health and wellness, and career development.
• The ORCA team has always been encouraged to go for gold and we’re constantly on the lookout for courses and workshops that play on each individual person’s skills. We’re currently in the process of implementing more benefits for our team which focus on health and wellness such as published wage brackets; annual salary increases to reflect inflation as well as performance increases; employee referral scheme with cash incentives; private healthcare; quarterly socials and biannual trips; increased personal development and training budgets; monthly team lunches; increased maternity and paternity scheme, clear career progression and much more.

3. Community

• We’ll also look at ORCA’s impact on our local communities. Topics we’ll focus on include diversity, equality and inclusion, economic impact, charitable giving, and supply chain management.
• We’ve already kicked off team meetings to start revising and creating new policies for our team. We’re working together to decide how to help our local community, through things such as annual volunteer days and quarterly pro-bono projects, and hope to have this agreed and implemented by the end of the month.

4. Environment

• Assessing our own supply chain as well as those of our client’s will be a huge part of the process. We need to make sure we’re doing the best we can and that we’re working with people who are doing the same. It will help us to look at our management practices as well as our impact on the air, climate, water, land and biodiversity.

5. Customers

• There will be an in-depth look at our customers and how we work with them. We will be evaluated on the quality of our services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels to name a few.

While we can say that many of these sections have been ticked off, we know it’s a long journey before we get to a position where we’re content with our impact. We’re currently looking to fine tune our efforts with immediate action and aim to continually improve over the years to come.

There’s a lot more on our journey of refinement but we’re excited for what's to come and to know we’re helping to create a new progressive path into a world of better business, happier workforce and a healthier world.

What else we’ll do

At ORCA, we feel it’s important to take it a step further and show our commitment to the cause.

At the beginning of COVID we started to develop a series of self-initiated impact campaigns that bring awareness to societal issues that sometimes go unnoticed. We've addressed topics like the digital divide, hustle culture, mental health and addiction. We designed and developed these campaigns to put an individual visual and fresh perspective on the issue, creating awareness in a market that isn’t normally exposed to these issues.

These campaigns are something that we will be continuing, focusing on pivotal issues we as a society are facing. If you’re interested in seeing our previous campaigns, look at our journal.

A final word about B Corps

There are now 757 B Corps in the United Kingdom. With the demand for ethical companies growing socially and economically, this number will only rise. We hope with our continued efforts we’ll be able to officially be a proud part of the B Corp community very soon.

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