The Editor's Post: The B Corp movement at 20: Celebrating progress, facing the critics

This week, the B Corp movement celebrated its 20th anniversary, highlighting that there are now more than 10,700 certified B Corporations operating across 104 countries and 162 industries, collectively employing 1m people. 

At Pioneers Post, we’ve documented – and been part of – a good part of this journey. In 2015, we were involved as B Lab launched its 62 founding members in the UK. They included names that are familiar to many in the Pioneers Post audience, the Big Issue, Elvis & Kresse, Forster Communications, Bethnal Green Ventures, Bridges Ventures, Charity Bank and Bates Wells. 

James Perry, B Lab UK’s first director, and co-founder of socially responsible ready meal company Cook, said at the time that certifying as a B Corp in 2013 “transformed” the company. “While we were always trying to do ‘good business’, the power of changing the directors’ duties has been seismic,” he wrote in Pioneers Post. “It has changed the business strategy. Our long-term goals used to be expressed only as a page of financial projections. No longer.”

Today, B Lab, the organisation behind the B Corp movement, contends: “For two decades, the B Corp community has demonstrated that business can address society’s most pressing challenges while driving sustainable growth and long-term viability.” 

It’s perhaps not quite as simple as that – the movement has certainly been through its ups and downs. Yet it has undoubtedly caused ripples of positive change around the global economy. Our senior journalist Laura Joffre (who not only interviewed Andrew Kassoy in 2022, but also co-lead Sarah Schwimmer last year) documents the two decades in her feature this week, as well as highlighting just a few of the pioneering B Corps that have hit the Pioneers Post headlines over the years.

Bog standards

Also this week, I’ve had the pleasure of (metaphorically) deep diving into bogs. I now have much more knowledge about sphagnum moss and the hugely important role that Europe’s peatlands (which cover an area larger than France) could play in combating the climate crisis than I ever did before.

They’re not only amazing natural carbon sinks, but bogs and fens should be glorious habitats for rare and endangered plants and animals. However, millions of hectares of them are degraded and dried out. They need at least €2bn investing in them – and public and philanthropic funding just can’t provide that. 

My newfound expertise is because Matt Robinson in his role as senior advisor to the Landscape Finance Lab has set out his arguments in Pioneers Post for how the restoration of peatlands could – and should – pique the interest of private investors. 

As Matt points out, peatlands don’t provide the glamour of forests, but they’re environmental heavyweights. Enjoy this week’s content!

This week's top stories:

B Corp movement celebrates 20 years ‘challenging the world to redefine the role of business’

For peat’s sake: How we can turn Europe’s bogs and fens into investable green infrastructure for the future

The EU’s souring relationship with the US is an opportunity social entrepreneurs must seize