As holidays approach, people start searching for family gifts to buy. While it's easy to buy from our known and big brands for the best holiday gift ever, it's time for us to realize that buying from our go-to corporations might be doing more harm than good for our society. That's where B-corps come in.
Known as Benefit-Corporations, these businesses have started to add the benefit to our society factor to their goals, and we should take notice of them because they are changing the world for the better.
B-corps are the evolution of our capitalist system that's been ruling since the end of 20th century. This capitalist system had businesses trying to maximize their profit and production (shareholder value) exclusively, regardless of environmental damage, human rights violations and footprints in our society. That mentality comes with a huge cost for our society, and thus we have news about the Australian Coral Reef dying, labor rights being violated and even animal mulesing.
Millennials, though, are having none of that. We are a generation that demands to have information at the tips of our fingers, and most of us care about things like carbon footprint, deforestation and human rights violations. We care so much that we invented B-corps to fight back against businesses who act without regard to our society, and they show proof of that change.
The primary goal of the B Corporation Movement is to create a type of business that challenges the traditional system of serving shareholders at the cost of society, and they are doing a great job at it. Since the founding of B Lab in 2007, the B Corporation Movement has added more than 1100 corporation to their long list, and many follow this lead by becoming Benefit Corporations themselves (B-corps and Benefit corporations are different terms.)
The mentality is simple: government and non-profits are too small in our economy to make a huge positive difference in social change. Businesses, on the other hand, make 3/4 of the US GDP and have an influential power in our society. Therefore, we should use companies and corporations to bring those social and environmental problems to an end. "Systems should exist to serve society," said Jay Coen Gilbert, the co-founder of B Lab, during a TED Talk in Philly, and B Corps are helping society by using their businesses as a tool for social change.
So, as you buy gifts to give your mother, father, sister and even your dog, consider buying from companies that hold the highest standard for the benefit of our society and environment. B-Corps are changing the world, and we can help by supporting them in their endeavors. Just to give some B Corps ideas (you can find the whole list here) keep in mind businesses like Patagonia, Inc., Mud Jeans, Voz, United By Blue, Reformation and WE-AR.
Happy holiday and ethical shopping!
