B Corporations: The Power of Social Responsibility
Here at Acorn Sign Graphics, we believe that we are responsible for a triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. With this business model comes a commitment to social and environmental responsibility, and an understanding that the measure of our success is the value we provide not just to shareholders, but to all stakeholders, including our community, our workers, our customers and our environment.
“As a values and purpose driven company, Acorn found that becoming a certified B Corp was a powerful way to measure and hold ourselves accountable to our impact on all our stakeholders and to provide a meaningful third party assessment by which others could also verify the kind of company we are,” says Beth Gillispie, CEO. “It is humbling and inspiring to stand beside B Corps like Ben and Jerry’s, Cabot, Dansko, Etsy, Patagonia, Seventh Generation, and Warby Parker with our shared vision of ‘people using business as a force for good in the world.”
According to the official website for B-Corps, “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 Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.”
Acorn is the only sign company among over 2900 certified B Corps across 150 industries and 64 countries and over 5,000 companies with benefit corporation status. As participants in this global movement of ethical and sustainable business practice, we see that people are making new choices in where they work, what they buy and who they choose to do business with. We strive to be a company where those choices can be made with confidence.
B-Corporation Requirements
Becoming a certified B Corp requires a process that requires time, commitment and transparency. Every company interested in becoming a B-Corp must complete the “B Impact Assessment (BIA),” which analyzes not just a product or service, but your company’s overall social and environmental performance. A company must also meet various legal standards, which can vary by location and business type. Overall, companies must meet an 80-point bar in the BIA, as well as fulfill all legal requirements in order to obtain the official B-Corp designation.
Business Ethics magazine states that, “Companies that qualify must then revise their articles of incorporation so that managers and directors can start factoring in how their decisions affect all stakeholders, not just financial shareholders, while recertification every [three] years requires that companies maintain that commitment to all stakeholders in order to keep their status.”
Acorn Sign as a B-Corporation
At Acorn, our mission and dedication to giving back runs through all we do and is embodied in our company culture. We do more than make signs. We are dedicated to being a company where our employees flourish and our work enhances the human experience in the built environment.
We have been a certified B Corporation since 2013. In service to the “planet” we have been pioneers in our industry in implementing more eco-friendly signage fabrication processes and products, as well as corporate practices from recycling to waste reduction to offsetting our energy and shipping footprints. Our benefits and training, gainsharing for all employees, our local community engagement, and banking relationship with a local B Corp are examples of the “people” focus of our social responsibility.
One of our passions as a company is to be signage industry-leading experts on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in relation to making the built environment more accessible and inclusive for all ability levels. Not only are we collaborative and creative while working with our clients, we also hold ourselves to the highest standards of customer service and communication, and to delivering expert project management and top quality products.
We also believe in contributing to education within our industry, and we offer programs available to signage professionals, architects, designers and more. These include “Lunch and Learn” programs, as well as certified AIA/IDCEC continuing education courses to hundreds of individuals each year. In addition to this industry work, we co-chair our local chapter of SEGD (Society for Experiential Graphic Design), a non-profit professional association for designers and creators within the signage and wayfinding industries that strives to connect people to place.
To learn more about the Acorn story and how we might connect ours with yours, contact us today.
If you’re interested in supporting and learning more about companies that are committed to positively impacting our world, see the full directory of B-Corps here: https://bcorporation.net/directory
Sources:
https://business-ethics.com/2017/11/16/whats-so-good-about-b-corporations/
https://bcorporation.net/certification
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