B-Corps
“We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.”
I’ve been working for as long as I can remember. The weekends cutting yards around the neighborhood. That first job with a uniform and name tag. The job after college that came with benefits and a salary. To some degree, they’ve all been spin offs of the capitalist corporate hegemony. Any spare time was, for the longest, a window to earn extra money.
I’ve been a human since day one. I have not, however, been as aware of this state as my worker persona. The humanity we all share from day one, is a reality we learn to embrace over the course of a lifetime. The full perversion of existence is that a child may know more about the purpose of, say giant mega toy corporation, than their own.
Businesses do not have a responsibility to fulfill core human principles of belonging, purpose, community, and ritual. When they try to, the outcome is a simulacra of the real thing. Often cold, plastic, and disposable. Their goal is to make money, for their shareholders, and maybe after the fact look after their stakeholders. But what if their was a corporate structure that worked differently? A way of existing for or co-existing with the mission to fulfill larger human objectives, beyond what is socially of the moment.
The more research I have done, the more I have come to realize that B-Corporations, benefit corporations, are the natural evolution of traditional corporate structure and co-op groups. B-Corporations have many Legal Requirements: but most importantly the PURPOSE CLAUSE of the entity must state that: The purpose of the Company shall include creating a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole, from the business and operations of the Company.
The Pandemic forced us to see the human side of our colleagues’ lives from the other side of a Zoom meeting. Social Justice entered the spotlight. The lives we lost reminded us that time is fleeting and every moment precious. Most of all, we learned that the traditional approaches of corporate operations did not align with our collective social objectives. The rough trampling of worker’s rights for decades was countered by the push for unionization and strikes for higher pay during the pandemic.
The struggles of the working class stole the spotlight for a moment and likewise companies responded. Many of the people first policies enacted where old news to B-corps. But the responsibility over profit approach of B-corps remains lost on the masses. How can we better recognize their contributions and how can traditional business start taking notes? Good companies make money, great companies make a difference, iconic companies do both.
B-Corporations are not perfect, but in a world where nothing is perfect, we should not lose out on progress by waiting for perfect allies. Maybe the next time you shop for that next product or search for that next role you’ll consider starting with Certified B-corporations before defaulting to the traditional companies.
