Unless you live under a rock you may have noticed its B-Corp month.
A month to celebrate, promote and generally raise awareness about this certification, awarded to organisations that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. As a digital marketing agency specialising in sustainable marketing, Oxygen becoming a B-Corp (we are on our journey at the moment and hope to be accredited in 2025) represents our values and holistic commitment to making a positive impact on people and planet. It is also a way to demonstrate our commitment to clients and to hold ourselves accountable.
But for me personally, it’s also much more than that. Attending the inaugural B-Corp festival in Oxford in 2024, it felt like a movement rather than a certification. There was passion, ideas, sharing, a sense of comradery and of ‘being in this together’ and it was also a lot of fun – a tricky tangle of emotions to create optimism from when we are talking about the climate crisis and how we can effect change. Together is the answer. Yes there was also a lot of networking opportunities there, but with a sense of purpose.
Now there are B-Corp sceptics since the Brewdog, Nespresso and Havas scandals and the certification body hit a bit of a crossroads, with some saying the standards now felt outdated (it started in 2006) and that it catered more to bigger businesses making smaller reductions, rather than SMEs with baked-in sustainability (such as Oxygen). B Lab listened to this and has now released a new set of standards which moves away from the current flexible scoring method, to one that sets specific requirements across core topics which come into play in 2026 and means that organisations need to have a more balanced spread of points to be able to certify.
And I am in support of having a framework for which to set out the standards your organisation commits to and is transparent about and also the fact that you have to re-certify every 3 years, ensuring once achieved you don’t rest on your laurels. For an agency that is truly centred around trying to help make the world a better place, in any small way we can, I celebrate the opportunity to try and become a B-Corp and to live by those commitments once achieved.
Suzie Mills
CEO, Director and Co-Founder
