Being a Certified B Corp is so much more than the badge
What's a B Corp certified company?
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Together, we’re a global movement of People Using Business as a Force for Good®—shifting our economic system from profiting only the few to benefitting all, from concentrating wealth and power to ensuring equity, from extraction to regeneration, and from prioritizing individualism to embracing interdependence. The “B” stands for “Benefit for all.”
Learn more from B Lab
Vermilion’s reason to “B”
For us, being a B Corp certified marketing agency isn’t a state of accomplishment; it’s a daily commitment to Vermilion’s honest self-improvement. By “self-improvement,” we mean making equity, sustainability, representation, and community a deeper part of daily decision-making. We mean establishing, sharing, and reevaluating meaningful measurements of progress. And we mean holding ourselves accountable to change even when it’s hard. We treat B Corp as Vermilion’s sole board member, and they have high expectations. Our founder, Bob Morehouse, started Vermilion more than 40 years ago to use the power of marketing and communications for good. So while our certification is newish (2017), the values have been in our DNA since day one.
The 10 B Corp assessment categories
Like any achievement worth its salt, earning the B Corp badge takes work. B Corp certified companies are held to high standards and expected to continuously track progress across 10 key impact areas:
Climate Action
B Corps take science-backed action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Circularity & Environmental Stewardship
B Corps are stewards for the environment and contribute to the circular economy in both their operations and their value chain.
Risk Standards
B Corps avoid, manage, and/or effectively respond to negative impacts associated with their industry or practices, as well as any concerns from their stakeholders.
Human Rights
B Corps treat people with dignity and respect their human rights.
Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
B Corps have inclusive and diverse work environments and contribute meaningfully to just and equitable communities.
Worker Engagement
At B Corps, workers’ views are respected and management fosters two-way communication to keep their teams engaged.
Collective Action
B Corps work with their peers to foster a shared understanding of, solutions for, and implementation towards an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative economy.
Purpose & Stakeholder Governance
B Corps act with a defined purpose—one that contributes to an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet.
Fair Wages
B Corp workers can afford a decent standard of living for themselves and their families, and there is wage equality among their team members.
Impact Management
B Corps keep close tabs on and measure their business impacts and improve upon them over time.
Where we’re focused (right now)
Worker Engagement
Every Vermilion team member gets a day off each year to volunteer, observe a personal holiday, or grow the good in whatever way they choose.
Our quarterly “State of Vermilion” share outs give the full team insight into the business of our business—including transparent, up-to-date financial information.
Through periodic all-staff surveys, we collect anonymous feedback from our team and use that data to inform our next steps.
Climate Action
We work with our energy provider, Xcel, to power our office with 100% clean, renewable energy.
We operate within the climate goals outlined by Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE), a key sustainability support group in Boulder County.
We purchased carbon offsets for Vermilion’s 2021 GHG emissions, dividing the 65 mtCO2e between three recipients: a solar power project in India, stoves in Myanmar, and wind power in India.
Collective Action
We proactively seek out B Corp partners to prioritize pouring our energy into companies and brands that share the common-ground belief in what B Corp is all about.
We offer fellow B Corps free consultations on all things branding, marketing, advertising, and digital—a deep-dive with our very own Marketing & Biz Dev Director, Craig Spalding, for expert advice on how to level-up their marketing. Fellow B Corp? Reach out!
We embed diversity and inclusion into the workflow for client deliverables, especially public-facing marketing materials.
Some of our B Corp client partners
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