The next presenter was Anthony Santilli from Bullfrog Power, an organization that matches and offsets carbon emissions by producing renewable energy to be re-introduced into the grid, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fueled power placed into the same grid. Bullfrog Power was one of the first B Corp organizations in Canada and the framework allows them to continuously improve on areas that could improve their score. Anthony also mentioned the benefit of being able to compare your progress with similar B Corps, which creates a healthy desire for improvement. He then provided some tips on areas that can be easily improved upon in order to increase your score. Some of these strategies were simple – from looking into recycling programs for your company to looking for efficiency programs for building resources – but hold value in improving the overall sustainability of your organization.
The takeaway from this event was an uplifting one – B Corp is a certification that represents organizations that take not only their environmental impact seriously, but also their relationship with their community, their employees and also with other like-minded organizations. To find out more about the work of BDC, click here. To learn more on the resources available through Bullfrog Power, click here. To look at a short video explaining the B Corp certification, click here.
Becoming a B Corp – Why and How
This morning, Sustainable Waterloo Region held a breakfast event at EY to give some more insight about ways to improve your e-score, and the benefits of becoming a B Corp. The environment score (e-score) is calculated from an online assessment that measures and compares your environmental score with tens of thousands of other organizations around the world and in the SWR network. It’s powered by the group behind B Corps.
To start the presentation off, Craig Ryan, the Director of Social Entrepreneurship at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) spoke about the social benefits that have come out of being a B Corp member, highlighting businesses such as Beau’s Brewery and their social initiative to alleviate homelessness. Craig also shared the level of interest potential employees express in working at BDC because they are a B Corp. His presentation concluded by highlighting once more the increasing value consumers place on the social initiatives in an organization and that ‘value melts distance.’