Our Journey Towards B Corp Certification6 min read

For the past few months at Cloud9, we have been striving towards becoming B Corp certified. This journey has not been without its challenges, but it has been educational and invaluable. We have learnt a lot about how to align our operations with the highest standards of social and environmental performance. In many ways, going for this certification felt like putting a name to what we were already working towards, and giving ourselves both recognition for the things we’ve built, and fresh inspiration for what we can do next. Here are some of the key actions we have taken towards achieving B Corp status:

Creating an Inclusive Work Environment

Through certifying as B Corp we have aquired new ways in which can improve the workplace for all of our employees. That’s why we’ve introduced several wellbeing-focused policies, including a menopause policy, a breastfeeding policy, and an ergonomic health and safety policy. These policies have helped us to look more closely at how we can make Cloud9 a safe and inclusive space for everyone who works here.

We have also started conducting regular employee engagement surveys so that we can learn what is important to our employees and ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.

Following on from some diversity and inclusion training which we ran for our employees, we decided to introduce a series of sessions which we are calling ‘Lunch and Learns’. These sessions are used to bring everyone together to learn about something that is important to our business and to our people. Our sessions so far have included discussions on privilege, financial literacy training and budgeting tips, alongside what is sustainability and why it is important.

Working With Our Community

As well as improving our internal relationships, we have also looked at solidifying our place in our local community. We are now giving preference to local suppliers, to help promote these businesses and to strengthen our relationship with our local community.

We have also taken a more active approach in organising charitable events with our team. Last December, our team helped with fundraising for The Clock Tower Sanctuary’s charity sleep-out. The Clock Tower Sanctuary does important work to support young homeless people in Brighton and Hove. For one night, fundraisers brave the cold and sleep outside in Brighton, like many young people in Brighton face every night. We raised over £1,000 to help provide shelter, hot food, and soft skills training to young people in Brighton and Hove. It is wonderful to see our team engaging with a local charity in this way and raising money for a good cause within our local community.

Monitoring Our Environmental Impact

A big part of becoming B Corp certified involves assessing our company’s impact on the environment. We have introduced a new environmental policy which champions our efforts to protect our planet, as well as a sustainable corporate travel policy to try and reduce our carbon footprint.

We have updated our office supplies so that we are now using recycled paper notebooks and pens made from recycled coffee beans. These actions serve as a reminder of how even a small change can make a big difference.

Also within the theme of recycling, we decided to host a charity clothes swap in the office, where employees could bring in all of the clothes they don’t want and could browse for new clothes from their colleagues. Any clothes that were not picked up at the end of the day were donated to our local charity shop.

A big task we underwent in order to cement our goal of reducing our environmental impact was completing a Greenhouse Gas footprint report for scopes 1, 2, and 3. This was a difficult task because we had to gather a lot of data about our business, such as our electricity usage for the year, the total distance covered for corporate travel in the year, and our total freight for the year, which was not readily available information, and so completing the report took time. However, this was a valuable experience because now we have learnt which areas of our business we should be tracking, which we did not track before. This report showed us that the majority of our emissions came from scope 3, which is value chain emissions. This includes purchased goods and services, business travel, and employee commuting. Now that we know which areas of our business practices are causing the most emissions, these will be front of mind when we take action to try and reduce our GHG footprint. Additionaly, to offest some of our emissions we have bought carbon credits and sponsored UK wilderness regeneration programmes through Ecologi.

Engaging With Our Stakeholders

Becoming B Corp certified has required contributions from all of our stakeholders, from our employees to our suppliers to our customers. Every area of our business has been involved in some way. We implemented a stakeholder engagement plan to ensure everyone was included, and this has helped us to be transparent with everyone about our environmental and social goals for Cloud9.

For our suppliers, we conducted a survey which included environmental, social and governance (ESG) screening questions. This helped us to gain a clearer picture of the sustainability practices of our suppliers.

We have also sent out a materiality assessment survey to our clients, our suppliers, and our employees. The answers to this survey will help us to set our sustainability goals for the future and implement changes which are important to everyone that we engage with.

Our Key Takeaways

Undergoing the B Corp certification has opened our eyes to what more we can be doing to align closer with our ethical and sustainability goals. Whilst implementing some of these practices has allowed us to gain B Corp points to help us certify, we have also been inspired to look at the bigger picture and to align with our purpose, despite not getting any points. Moreover, one of the unexpected takeaways of certification is that it has helped improve our company culture and has provided team bonding experiences through events such as Lunch and Learn and fundraising pursuits.