Thinkshift earns a place on B Lab’s Best for the World list
Our years of poring over our B Impact Assessments, looking for every little thing we could do to be a more socially and environmentally responsible business, have delivered an unexpected honor: Thinkshift earned a spot on B Lab’s 2018 Best for the World list, announced today.
Thinkshift was recognized in the Best for Governance category because we scored in the top 10 percent for governance on the B Impact Assessment among more than 2,400 Certified B Corporations. The governance portion of the assessment evaluated our overall mission, ethics, accountability and transparency, measuring whether we have adopted a social or environmental mission, and how we engage with employees, board members and the community to achieve that mission.
Good governance matters deeply—it gives us a foundation that allows us to deliver on our mission and demonstrates that we are living up to the values that we promote, both inside our organization and for our clients.
Measuring what matters
We earned high marks in particular for being a California Benefit Corporation (one of the first!) and measuring our performance on social and environmental objectives over time against predetermined indicators, among other actions.
B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies B Corps, also recognizes B Corps as Best for the World Overall, Best for Environment, Best for Customers, Best for Workers and Best for Community. (That gives us plenty of other targets for our A-student tendencies.) You can see the full list on B Lab’s Medium publication, B the Change. Many honorees are well known (Patagonia, Green Mountain Power, Method) while many others will be discoveries. We couldn’t be more proud to be associated with all of them—please get to know them, hire them and buy their stuff.
‘Companies need to be best for the world’
B Corps in general are great companies for people and the planet as well as for their owners. This list shows that the best companies around the world believe that you can always get better—and many of us are challenging ourselves to do that every day.
B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert makes the case best: “With the rise of anger at a system that feels rigged, people are hungry for companies [that] are changing the system by building businesses that seek to create the greatest positive impact,” he says in B Lab’s Best for the World announcement. “As consumers, talent and investors increasingly demand transparent, values-aligned businesses to buy from, work at and invest in, companies will need to be not just the best in the world but the best for the world, and not just to be nice but to be the most successful.”
When Thinkshift became a B Corp in 2010, there were about 300 of us, all in the U.S.—we could fit in a midsize hotel meeting room. Topping 2,400 B Corps in over 50 countries was an exciting milestone, but it’s not nearly enough. We can’t resist taking this opportunity to proselytize: if you have a purpose in your business beyond making money, consider becoming a B Corp. At least see how you stack up: any company can take the B Impact Assessment—no charge, no obligation.
You may even be a future Best for the World company. Meanwhile, huge congratulations to all our fellow 2018 honorees!
