It’s the difference between doing good and talking about doing good.
Customers have been voting with their dollars based on a company’s impact on social good since early in this millennium. It’s becoming more and more the norm, especially for global brands, that consumers expect brands to act responsibly for “society’s well-being.” This ethical consumerism is a point of loyalty, and savvy marketers know it. As result, good, is the new green, and lots of companies are jumping on the bandwagon.
Unfortunately, talking about it and actually owning up to the responsibility are two different things. Enter the B-Corporation.
“This new class of corporation is a milestone for two reasons,” says Kyle Westaway, a lawyer who studies corporate forms and represented Launcht, the first company to file and officially become a Benefit Corporation in Vermont. The law, he says, “broadens the goals of the corporation from [just] profit to: profit, people and planet. Secondly, the Benefit Corporation increases transparency and accountability, by using an independent third party to verify that a business is acting in a socially and environmentally conscious fashion.”
— Good.Is, Business
Now law in 31 states with bills pending in 9 more.