We've Recertified! How We Managed to Improve Our B Corp Score

We are so proud to share the results of our B Corp recertification, where we improved our overall score from the original 160.5 to 168.8!

This was a long process of examining every area of the business, from our buy-one give-one donations to our carbon footprint, to our manufacturers in India. Since we first certified, we have become a more established business meaning that improving our score meant even more to us!

We wanted to share the recertification process with you and give you an insight into exactly what is involved. So if you've ever wondered what a B Corp really is and how a business becomes one then take a look at how we did it!

What is a B Corp?

Certified B Corporations are companies verified to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

The minimum score required to become a B Corp is 80 points on the B Impact Assessment (BIA). The BIA evaluates a company's overall social and environmental performance across five key areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. The median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9.

We're now part of a community of over 10,000 businesses globally who have certified as B Corps. The B Corp community in the UK is comprised of over 2,500 companies and globally employs over 1 million people!

What is involved in the assessment process?

In order to fulfil all areas of the assessment process, you must examine and report on every area of the business. This means starting with the organic cotton grown by our suppliers, through the manufacturers making our fabric and products, shipping methods, our shop, our customers, and our charity impact, as well as many other smaller considerations.

As we've grown since 2021, not only through the range of underwear we sell online but also our stockists in our Oxford Shop, this recertification process was even more rigorous. We needed to track all our stockists to ensure they match our own fair-trade and eco friendly ethics. 

Where we improved and our score went up

Between the five different impact areas, we provided evidence for our business conduct to allow the assessor to provide us with a score for each one which is then totalled for the overall score.

Governance:

This impact area assesses a company's overall mission in its social and environmental impact as well as its ethics and transparency as a company. It compares this to the B Corp movements values to make sure you take into account your business's social and environmental impacts. 

As a company, we pledge to sell sustainable and ethically sourced products which give back, allowing customers to make a difference through their purchases. We also commit to creating a positive social and environmental impact through our products and through our support of disadvantaged groups, focusing on education, empowerment and the wellbeing of women and children in Africa and the UK. 

All of these commitments are formally included in our Company Objects, meaning that we're legally bound to deliver and report on them, and our social and environmental work, at the same level as our financial performance. We feel this is one of the strongest elements of the B Corp certification, and is supported more widely by the Better Business Act campaign, a move to make all companies consider their wider impact beyond just profits. 

Workers:

This section looks at the direct employees of the company - in our case, our small and lovely team who work behind the scenes on the business as well as in our shop! At Y.O.U Underwear, everyone is paid the same and we commit to paying at least the Oxford Living Wage to ensure our workers can be financially stable. We also offer skills based training to our team and support them to volunteer in their community. 

Environment:

In the environment section, B Corp look at a company's impact on the environment and how they incorporate sustainability into their policies. Through our use of organic cotton, we have been able to save huge amounts of CO₂ and water, as well as supporting regenerative and gentle farming practices. Our recycling programme, and our low-waste working policies also fed into this.

Community:

We scored highest in the community area - this section involves everything to do with a company’s positive impact on external communities in which the company operates, covering topics like diversity, civic engagement and supply chain impact. For example, within our supply chain we support the local communities in India by being Fairtrade and only using GOTS certified organic cotton, making sure the people who make our underwear are paid and treated fairly. This section also incorporates our buy-one give-one initiative with Smalls for All, where we donate a pair of underwear for every pair sold, helping tackle period poverty and keep girls in school. 

Customers:

We were also proud to have an almost complete score on our customer rating - meaning we score highly in our ethical marketing and transparency with our lovely customers! We also keep their data safe and don't send any spam. 

Our tips & tricks for managing the process

Gathering all the information and evidence needed to complete a B Corp certification is no mean feat! To help us keep on top of things, we kept a tracking document throughout the whole process. It can be a long and tricky undertaking with back and forth elements. After submitting our application, it was nearly 6 months before we went through the verification phase, so it was important to keep track of what we answered during the assessment so we could easily access documents and our answers when B Corp came back with questions. Organised spreadsheets will be your best friend! 

Trust the process and don’t be afraid to ask questions with other members of the B Corp community.

What's next?

We want to continue to be a business for good and to keep our score consistent as we continue to grow. We have all sorts of plans going forward, including looking into sustainable alternatives to elastane, new recycling solutions, and improving our carbon tracking. It will be important for us to maintain our transparency standards and continue to put people and environment over profit.

We are very grateful to be part of the B Corp community which exists to support each other and celebrate everyone's impact and growth. Sharing our knowledge with other businesses is very important to us as well as taking the time to learn from others. 

While we spent some time recovering after the application was finished, we're super excited to see where we go next! We're also looking forwards to the new B Corp standards coming in this year and continuing on our improvement journey in everything we do. 

Thank you to all our customers for being so fantastic and to the B Corp community for the sharing and uplifting! Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about any of the process or want more information:

info@youunderwear.com

 

Further reading:

Check out our Impact Report for an in depth look at our business accomplishments and goals

Take a tour of our manufacturer factories with our India travel diary 

And find out more about the challenges regarding underwear recycling

 

Images courtesy of Y.O.U Underwear