How a Focus on People + Planet Prepares B Corps for New Realities

B The Change Weekly: April 3, 2020

Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:

As everyday life changes every day, there seem to be more questions than answers. In times of uncertainty, our core values can offer a foundation of stability.

Certified B Corporations tackling unimagined business challenges can find some footing in a steady focus on all stakeholders — employees, community, and environment — and this additional accountability can serve as a model for systemic change. Whether your B Corp is seeing growing demand or facing a shutdown amid stay-at-home orders, maintaining a collective view for people and planet will prepare us for the new realities of everyday life.

Lending a (Clean) Hand During Crisis

When “Wash your hands” became one of the strong messages for preventing the spread of coronavirus, the country and the world experienced a surge in demand for soap, hand sanitizer, and other cleaning products. One B Corp in the thick of the pandemic’s economic impact is Dr. Bronner’s, a family-owned business that produces the top-selling soap in the U.S. natural marketplace.

See how Dr. Bronner’s maintained its commitment to sustainability and the safety and well-being of its workers while adapting to new, immediate challenges from COVID-19.

COVID-19 Is a Symptom of a Systemic Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed lives around the world — and, as Frederick Alexander of The Shareholder Commons says, it also serves as a symptom and a model of the larger crisis we and our planet face.

On B The Change, he shares why recalibrating our economic model (and our everyday behavior) to ensure that critical systemic and moral issues are prioritized along with profits will create a more inclusive and equitable society.

What the World Could Learn from B Corps

As coronavirus affects people, businesses and economies on a global scale, it also highlights smaller-scale opportunities for systemic change.

Laura Caccioppoli of B Corp Redvespa points to the B Corp stakeholder model as an example for businesses and people ready to make a shift for long-term strength.

Stay in the Know

Here’s your chance to catch up on recent articles:

• Lending a (Clean) Hand During the COVID-19 Crisis: B Corp Dr. Bronner’s Maintains Strong Focus on Employees, Customers and Environment Amid Growing Market Demands
• Lessons from a Crisis: The Challenges of Changing Habits and Collective Behavior: How the Current Pandemic Reveals a Need for Systemic Change
• What the World Could Learn from B Corps in the Age of COVID-19: Amid Larger Challenges, Small Mindset Shifts Could Create Lasting Change
• Stakeholder-Driven Frameworks for Companies to Support Employees — All the Time: Pandemic-Time Practices for Human-Centric Leadership
• Building Pathways to Capital Through Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Vanessa Roanhorse Creates Change Through Character-Based Lending Program and Community-Led Projects

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.

How a Focus on People + Planet Prepares B Corps for New Realities was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.