What does it mean to 'belong' in the B Corp community?

This #BCorpMonth, and in celebration of B Lab UK 's new equitable growth advisory board, we hosted a panel discussion on what it means to ‘belong’ in the global #BCorp community.

As our panel acknowledged early on, belonging is a fundamental human need but its attainment isn’t universal. So we set out to hear stories from people with different perspectives to remind us that the ways in which we experience ‘belonging’ aren’t all the same. We wanted to surface the things that brought us together as members of the B Corp community.?

Laci Chisholm is founder of Brooklyn-based Fit4Dance NYC. Her affordable dance classes, unifying diverse groups through a shared love of movement, is philosophically B Corp through and through. But the people in her neighborhood don’t know what B Corp is and she doesn’t really know any fellow B Corps in New York. She has, however, collaborated with B Corps around the world and is, through the very existence of her business, influencing the way her sector operates. This year she moved to a new studio space - her impact is spreading.?

She spoke of the importance for people feeling ‘seen’ in their community; the B Corp movement stepped in to support her during Covid and amplify her voice through times of tense race relations in the US. She brought on-the-ground #leadership, B Lab U.S. & Canada brought brand power and voice - that’s a hugely potent potential combination, a point later picked up by Samie Al-Achrafi who founded Marmalade Fish, until last year #Dubai ’s only Certified B Corp.?

In Samie’s region - host to upcoming #COP28 - posting opinions contrary to the government (and indeed aligning with some of the B Corp standards) is a potential crime. As such, he never really felt like he ‘belonged’ in the community but highlighted that there are benefits of not belonging: ”evolving requires you to be disloyal to your current system..it can be powerful to stand on the periphery of systems.” This is needed so that increasingly diverse voices come in and, in Samie’s words, we “stop hearing things like ‘that doesn’t apply here’.”

??John Brown , founder of Don’t Cry Wolf, is a professional brand activist. For him, the community is a focus point for #activism and, as such, it’s a movement rather than community. We surfaced the tension around the arrival of mega-brands such as #Nespresso and agreed that healthy tension is good for a vibrant and growing community. But we need to watch out for those tensions and differences becoming ‘over-managed’ or alienating (the ‘members’ club' effect); we must maintain a focus on ‘belonging’ rather than ‘fitting in’.?

After all, everyone sees B Corp slightly differently, as Bridget Banton from Dear Creative Gurl highlighted. Not because of region, race or ethnicity but because we’re a hugely disparate bunch of businesses. We should embrace being a dysfunctional family by first recognising that we are a family: we all share a common belief that the current system is broken.?

We closed by asking our panelists what an equitable and inclusive B Corp movement would look like to them. Laci captured it beautifully: “a place where you belong through #authenticity in your leadership.”?

Leadership comes in all shapes, sizes, colours, genders, seniorities and countries. The shared global crises facing us need to be met by everyone with a shared sense of purpose.?

And that, ultimately, is why we believe so much in what B Corp stands for. In spite, or perhaps because of, its tensions we are here because we, as leaders, believe in our hearts and minds that a more inclusive and regenerative way of doing business is possible.?