B Corp has pretty much just become a meaningless marketing badge.
When you have the likes of Nespresso (owned by mega corporation Nestle), you can be pretty sure there’s nothing particularly honourable about it.
Much better off picking local suppliers. There are plenty of micro coffee roasters that are far more deserving than the likes of Nespresso (and you’ll also have the added benefit of a much better coffee).
I’ve been reading today that they’re nearly finished on updating what it would mean to be B Corp certified. The new standards are harder to meet.
So for Nescafé as you mentioned, rather than being able to do enough “good” to offset the “bad”, there would instead be some absolute minimums across the board, as well as the usual “score”.
I see your point, and I agree with others that seeing “B Corp” alone isn’t enough to end your research there. But it’s certainly another tick in a box to help chose between multiple companies
The list of switches that I’ve made all feel like positive changes to me
Will agree to disagree. I just don’t trust a scheme that will allow a company like Nespresso, the very antithesis of sustainability with their pointless metal pods, to join.
Then again, I may create a C-corp scheme. If anyone would like to join, I accept Visa/Mastercard.
I agree with you up to a point, in fact I think there were like 30 or so other B Corps that tried to block Nescafés entry. And for good reason like you said.
The current system allows you to offset bad with good. Hopefully the updated system will tighten things up - I’m not gonna write off an imperfect system just for being imperfect
But you’re right, you’ve gotta be aware that it’s not foolproof 
That’s not quite what it is, although they do sort of sell it as that. The actual standards are all around policies and reporting - companies that report on the right things in the right way and have things like environmental policies. These are good steps for global businesses.
But the B corp charity doesn’t actually inspect businesses or actively monitor the businesses. Also note the standards are relatively low - eg companies need to report on and have policies around ensuring they aren’t violating the UN charter of human rights, which is a pretty low bar for social responsibility.
Not to write it off completely, it has merit, but it’s a long way from a guarantee a company is socially and environmentally responsible in my view.
Fun fact, I used to work for a company who held a number of yearly accredited certifications.
The three weeks beforehand “preparing” “established” process and “updating” documentation was quite the thing to watch.
I’m sidestepping the B-Corp accreditation discussion as I know nothing about it, but some other smaller companies I use with some good sustainability plans are:
Suri - Electric toothbrush. https://www.trysuri.com/
Bower - Cleaning products. https://bowercollective.com/
Wilde Mode - Underwear. https://wildemode.com/
Rapanui - Clothes. https://rapanuiclothing.com/
Lucy & Yak - Clothes. https://lucyandyak.com/
Stand4Socks - Socks. https://www.stand4socks.com/
Ohne - Period products. https://ohne.com/
Suri I’ve had my eyes on for a while now. Are they good? I just need them to do a sale again and I’ll jump in
So far really good. I’ve had one for about six months and my teeth feel so clean and shiny. I only need to charge the handle about once a month or six weeks I think. It’s so long in between that I forget the exact duration.
Depends what you’re coming from.
If you have sonicare, particularly the newer ones with the A3 brush heads, I wouldn’t swap. Suri is a significant downgrade in comparison, both in terms of power and the effectiveness of the brush head. That A3 brush head is just phenomenal, and sonicare’s higher end models are twice as powerful as Suri. 60k brush strokes vs 30k.
If you’re coming from a manual, or an oral B electric, then yes I’d recommend them, and it’s what I’d go for.
Not necessarily for the b-corp credentials, but their whole ethos which I’ve personally taken the time and vetted myself. The cradtsmanship is the best in the industry too. Very Apple in a lot of ways.
Guaranteed for life you sign up to the brush head subscription which I especially love.
This.
Ben and Jerry’s are a b-Corp. Their dog friendly ice cream may as well have been dog poison in a tub. Full of lactose, sugar, and fat. I’m not quite sure what is actually dog friendly besides the flavoured ingredient like pumpkin or peanut butter, which are listed well below the sugars and milk/cream contents.
They’d never be allowed to sell that in the U.K. and I’m not sure how they get away with it in America.
Jude’s on the other hand (also a b corp) is much much healthier for your dog. I’d probably still go with Billy and Margot for this niche though, and they’re not a b corp.
I’d imagine it might surprise folks to learn that I don’t actually use the products and services of that many b corps. I prefer to spend the extra bit of time researching who is actually best. B corp badges do grab my attention though in areas where I’m less knowledgable, and so is more of a cheat code to me which suggest this company is probably one of the better ones to go with in their field.
Like in the case of ISPs. Zen are not a bad one at all. One of the better ones for sure, though between the two ISP B-corps I’m aware of (the other being IDNET), Zen are the lesser. Still there are better choices if you’re willing to put in a bit more work.
When it comes to actual goods though, I’m more a buy it for life sort of person. And so if I can get them, I’ll still pick up my American apparel power wash tees on Amazon. Rapanui has the better credentials, but they’re too green in that I can’t pop their clothes in the heatpump dryer, but I have to instead care for them very specifically or ruin them in just a few washes. I like the circular approach, but ultimately it’s better to have a T shirt that will continue to look good after a decade of surviving a dryer versus one I have to send back to be recycled after a year of washing in cold water with non-bio detergent and line drying.
I just checked out that tissue company but their prices are far too high.
Just as an aside, I wash my Rapanui stuff for “30 @ 30°” then pop them in the airing cupboard (how I wash everything). But my husband washes everything hotter and then tumble dries it for 2 hours. So far both of our respective piles of Rapanui shirts have survived. The only casualty is one white shirt that I put in with some black dungarees from Ollie & Nic that leaked all their lovely black dye everywhere 
I did wonder what that was.
I have a vendor who sends me boxes with ‘we are certified B’ on the side, and I’m left wondering why I wouldn’t want to find the company who got the A and use them instead…
I like this idea a lot, I’m going to have to go through and see where I could switch to a more sustainable company
Please consider reading this too of course
B-Corp is good, but it ain’t everything.
So I work at a B-Corp - and was here at the business when we were going through our BCorp accredditation. I know a good chunk about the process, and have opinions. While I’m not in the part of the business that “looks after” the accrediation day to day (as in, partners with BCorp directly) most of the business is knowlegable about the process. So any Q’s, feel free to shout.
But my own personal reflections;
BCorp is really all about putting “Planet” and or “People” at the same level as “Profit”. So to say all these companies are “Sustainable” isn’t neccesarily the case, but they have made a commitment to do better for People or Planet, whilst being profit making. Which I think is an important distinciton to remember.
In most cases, companies have to make a change to their legal structure / company charter such that Shareholder Value isn’t the only consideration, and People/Planet do too.
For us, we had a strenuous audit against the BCorp standard to show that we were taking steps to go above and beyond the legal minimum in terms of people/planet impacts - and we worked closely with the B Lab - who help you close the gaps in blind spots or areas that may hold you back.
For example - the Standards are split into 5 categories;
To become a BCorp - you need to score 80 / 140 points across those 5 areas, or just over 55%.
You could, theoretically then, absolutely smash 4/5 areas, and get 0 points on one, and still become a BCorp.
So for me, it’s a useful flag to consider when shopping with new brands or doing a quick check of “does this align with my values”.
There are some slightly spurious BCorps registered I think; famous MLM scam Arbonne is one, different brands of Unilver is also, plus anyone and everyone in between.
I wouldn’t personally choose a product just because it’s a BCorp - but it’s a useful green flag in assessing the ethics and values of a company - but like many other things that you can get accredited for - (Organic, Fair Trade, etc) - it’s probably more convoluted than it appears.
Last thing I will say - is that bigger organisations generally already have a great deal of resources, and are more generally structurally set up to deliver CSR type programmes. So you might find the likes of Unilver and Coca Cola who are arguably some of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, will have an easier time to pass the audit than Local Bobs Icecream and Soda Parlour.
I only wear long sleeve T shirts, and Rapanui’s sleeves are on the short end to begin with. One oopsie wash, or one trip in the dryer and those sleeves will be too short.
Too many trips in the dryer and they can shrink by up to two sizes I’ve found.
I wash everything on the Samsung super eco cycle (cold water for a little over 2 hours). There’s no kinder way to wash your clothes unless you do it by hand. Then I’d preferably put it all in the heatpump dryer, which I can’t do with my rapanui T shirts without ruining the sleeves.
It’s a shame because they’re otherwise really well made. But the b corps don’t seem to want to spend the extra energy preshrinking and relaxing their fabrics, and then putting them through an enzymatic wash treatment to wear them in and protect them from the typical domestic laundry care cycle. Instead they expect their customers to go to the extremes of gentle laundry care in order to look after them properly. They’re more delicate than my delicates in that respect.
Thanks for this - have been considering swapping to Suri for reasons I can’t remember - probably brush head cost - but I will stick with my Sonicare.
Any reference to a specific “Higher end model” you mean here?
I’d need to double check, but I think it’s just the diamondclean and prestige models that do 60k pulsations. Models below that are 30k like Suri. All models can use the A3 brush head though.
Edit: protectiveclean is 62k as well. So it’s just the standard 3100 series that’s 30k pulsations these days (and possibly the kids brushes).