By Bob Kerr and Yola Carlough, Pure Strategies’ Benefits Corporation Board Member

Pure Strategies was founded to help companies transform business to create a more sustainable future. As an organization, we became B Corp certified to continue on that mission and connect to like-minded organizations working to do the right thing to support each other. We are proud to share our progress over the last year as a certified B Corp.

Advancing B Corp Values

Pure Strategies, a leading sustainability consulting firm founded in 1998, has been a Certified B Corp since 2017. Our work is focused on helping clients on their journey to improve environmental and social performance.

In 2019, we helped Walmart, Ben & Jerry’s, The North Face, Everlane, sweetgreen and many others take meaningful steps forward. For example, we helped Ahold Delhaize USA develop a commitment to advance sustainable chemistry for their private brand products, and several companies, including Seventh Generation, to set important science-based greenhouse gas emission targets for their business, working together to proactively address climate change. We helped Walmart and their suppliers progress on sustainable packaging with new resources.

In addition to our client projects, we work to have our own company practices help to advance employee, community, and environmental improvement. We achieved two key milestones in 2019 by enhancing governance with the addition of a board member focused on B Corp implementation and shifting our legal structure to be a registered Massachusetts benefit corporation. These steps formalized our focus on the social and environmental impacts of our corporate decisions. Below is additional information about progress made in 2019.

Workers

• We increased our corporate activism by joining the American Sustainable Business Council and actively participated in the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage campaign. We helped raise awareness on this and other issues through our social media channels and, inspired by the leadership of the youth movement for our climate, we provided paid time off to employees to join the Global Climate Strike on September 20.
• Spurred by the B Corp Inclusive Economy Challenge (IEC) to create opportunities for all workers, we improved several benefits and policies, including adding paid primary caregiver leave, enhancing our volunteer policy, and promoting Equity, Diversion & Inclusion in our hiring processes.

Community

• Our corporate giving and employee matching programs were upgraded and engaged 90% of our employees. We matched a portion of each employee’s donations to their charities of choice, leading our company to more than double its giving impact and expanding our support to include eight environmental, health, and social organizations, compared to just two charities in years past.
• Each year our company volunteers a day at the Food Project to support local and healthy food systems.

Environment

• We share our expertise in sustainability with the broader community through presentations, webinars, and articles. For example, Tim Greiner, Managing Director, presented on the impacts of climate change at the B Corp Champions Retreat and our team published articles on how to advance a safer and circular economy and greater biodiversity in our food systems.
• We continue to be committed to being environmentally responsible and purchasing carbon offsets for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from our business activities. This has been part of our approach for ten years. We work with NativeEnergy, a public benefit corporation and certified B Corp, to purchase GHG offsets, including those for Montana Improved Grazing.
  
  

A Look Ahead

We are encouraged by the notable progress our clients make in their sustainability work and are excited to be a part of that. Within our own organization, our work in 2020 will continue to promote the B Corp values that help us realize that even small incremental steps can lead to impactful change across all facets of business, including our obligations to society, the environment, employees, and customers.

Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario recently noted, “B Corp companies must lead by example. It’s not enough to have purpose. We have to serve one another and collaborate across industries and borders.” We couldn’t agree more. Our B Corp certification helps us use the power of business to solve society's most challenging social and environmental problems. We are proud to be part of a growing membership of more than 3,000 companies that are working together to advance social and environmental performance. We have met the rigorous B Corp standards for accountability and transparency and plan to complete our recertification this year — expanding on our commitment to create value for our employees, communities, and the environment.

Bob Kerr, Co-Founder and Principal at Pure Strategies.

Yola Carlough, Pure Strategies’ Benefits Corporation Board Member, oversees the company’s Benefits Report and implementation of B Corp social and environmental values across the company.

Yola joined B Lab in 2011. Her work as Senior Associate in Community Development facilitates entry into the global B Corp community for businesses that aspire to build a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable economy. She retired from B Lab in 2017 and currently operates a private consulting initiative in the field of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. She serves on the Board of Directors of Vermont Business for Social Responsibility (VBSR).  Prior to her work with B Lab, she was Director of Sustainability at Burt’s Bees natural personal care products and before that, was Director of Social Mission at Ben & Jerry’s.