Why D3 Became a B Corp
Alex Radford. September 2021

Why D3 Became a B Corp

Doing What’s Right Doesn’t Cost the Earth

Cast your back to a time when ‘Corona’ referred only to a beer and international travel was a thing. It’s 2017. Bags packed, I hopped on a flight to Austin, Texas, and headed for South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual film, music, and media festival. The entire experience was fantastic, but there was one talk which stood out. It was read by a man named Yvon Chouinard, also known as the founder and owner of the outdoor clothing group, Patagonia.

Chouinard’s talk began with the story of Patagonia’s humble origins. It started a means to fund his favourite pastime.

First and foremost, Yvon Chouinard is a rock climber. In 1953, to finance his adventures in Yosemite, he taught himself how to blacksmith and started selling pitons, metal bars which are hammered into a rock face to allow a climber to safely clip and climb, out of the back of his car. By 1965, he had partnered up with a man named Tom Frost to start Chouinard Equipment, which had blossomed into Patagonia by 1973.

No alt text provided for this image

It was an issue with his product, however, that prompted his crucial realisation. To use his pitons, a climber had to hammer the metal in to fragile cracks in the rock and remove it once he or she finished. Each day, hundreds of climbers would repeat this task repeatedly, irrevocably disfiguring the same rock he loved, and thus the way people could climb it. The knowledge of this marked a paradigm shift which would characterise his business forever.?

Chouinard realised that you could combine environmental activism with business and profitability to really make a difference. He was truly motivated to use business as a force for good by both people and the planet. And when discussing this, there was one phrase that consistently popped up when.

B Corp.

I left buzzing with intrigue. Back at the hotel, I spent several hours reading about ‘B Corp’. As it turned out, there was a community of businesses just like Chouinard’s, for whom profit was not the sole focus. Instead, it was a goal among many, balanced alongside social and environmental activism.

Admittedly, I was surprised to see businesses of all sizes on the list. Ben & Jerrys, Allbirds, Kathmandu, Innocent Drinks, to name a few. B Corps were businesses big. They were businesses that were hugely successful but still driven by core values.

Around this time, I also became increasingly frustrated with the integrity with which large agency groups spoke about sustainability, diversity, worker’s rights. It is hard to believe a business truly wants to be ‘diverse’ when the senior leadership team consists of 12 middle-aged white guys; that ‘community’ is important when you offer your people just one day a year to volunteer for a local charity; that you care for your employees when you look to move 10+ roles to a country with cheaper labour or make people redundant whilst also posting record profits. Charity, diversity, and sustainability for most agency groups are simply buzzwords used to win awards or to look good on a pitch document.

I promised myself then that if I were ever to set up my own business, B Corp principles would form the foundations it was built upon.

Two years later, after a year of mostly consultancy work, my good friend Richard Thompson and I sat down for a beer. I told him of my vision of creating the first agency in New Zealand to be B Corp certified – my elevator pitch was “doing what’s right doesn’t cost the earth”. And so, D3 was born.

The ethos of D3 was, and is, about balancing profit with doing the right thing for our people – both clients and employees. That means full transparency with our clients and no hidden costs; having the best people for the job, from diverse backgrounds, renumerated fairly; committing to thoughtful decision-making to minimise our environmental impact; and offering our services at a lesser rate to those who could use them positively.

So, with the support of our clients and team, I went to the web and typed in a familiar URL: bcorporation.net. To say I had underestimated the work required to become B Corp certified would be understatement. In short, to become B Corp certified, you need a minimum verified total score of 80 across all impact areas, and at the time of writing, only one in three who apply get through the certification.

The questions you must answer are determined by company size, sector, and market. In total for us, there were over 200 questions on topics including governance, workers, customers, the environment, and community. Some take moments to answer, some involve significant thought and action. All of them, however, require a level of introspection.

After over a year of working on the assessment, in March 2021, the now 10-strong D3 team had done it. We had become the first B Corp certified advertising agency in New Zealand. And not only were we B Corp certified, but we all got to work within an agency guided by B Corp values.??

By May 2021, we were finally allowed to share the news. We were overwhelmed with the positive response from our clients, suppliers, and partners. Interestingly, almost everyone was aware of B Corp and their mission. In fact, many of our partners were also going through the assessment process. It was a testament to the idea that what you put out into the world, you also attract. We were and are grateful to be working with clients that share our vision.

Just a couple of months ago, we found out that we are in the top 5% of B Corp businesses globally for one of the impact areas: Workers. It still doesn’t quite feel real. Our business is our people, and we had spent lots of time trying to create an agency that both attracted and retained the best people. There is still more work to be done, but it’s great to have our efforts recognised.

Now, D3 exists within a community of like-minded businesses and people across the globe. We continue to grow, guided by the same B Corp principles Yvon Chouinard spoke about in Texas in 2017, to use business as a force for social, environmental, and economic good. If you run a business, think about the B Corp certification. If one thing’s for sure, you’ll certainly learn a lot.

This article first appeared here: https://d3.co.nz/blog/why-we-became-a-b-corp





Paul Bobnak

Content Creator for the Printing and Marketing Industries

3 年

Very interesting!

回复
Lachlan McPherson

Brand builder, marketing strategist, creative thinker, digital marketer, social media specialist, business owner

3 年

B-rilliant work Alex and team

回复
Mark Pickering

Global Connector | Partnerships, Marketing, Events & Sport | Business Director | Board Member | Creative Strategist | Mental Health Champion | Speaker | Mentor | DJ | Crazy Dancer

3 年

Suzanne McNamara & Rebekah Rise - might be of interest?

回复
Amber Kesselaer

Management | Digital Reporting | Strategy & Business | Data & AI | Scaling Up

3 年

Well done! We also offer tools that help organizations in their B Corp Journey. Tools for people working on the B Impact Assessment, but also how to measure and communicate impact seperate from the certification. Maybe take a look at https://movetoimpact.com/tools-services/

Melanie Reece

Commercial Director NZ

3 年

Fantastic Alex - a true inspiration. Hope the multi National agencies take note.

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Alex Radford的更多文章

  • Google Search. From Pinnacle to Peril as AI Takes the Stage

    Google Search. From Pinnacle to Peril as AI Takes the Stage

    Remember when searching the internet felt like magic? You'd type in a question, and voilà - the answer appeared, clear…

    2 条评论
  • Why D3 is called D3? Reason three will shock you!

    Why D3 is called D3? Reason three will shock you!

    As my eight-year-old son was helping me move the last of our stuff into our new office, he asked me quite innocently…

    6 条评论
  • The Multifaceted Power of Media

    The Multifaceted Power of Media

    In a world that’s ceaselessly inundated with information, you'd think that using media to get your point across would…

    1 条评论
  • Do B Corps Really Practice What They Preach?

    Do B Corps Really Practice What They Preach?

    It's been over three years since we embarked on the challenging yet immensely rewarding path of becoming a B Corp…

    4 条评论
  • Too many Chiefs spoil the broth?

    Too many Chiefs spoil the broth?

    I've recently returned from one of the iMedia Online Retail Summits: AU, NZ & SEA conference, a few enlightening days…

    9 条评论
  • 10 Seismic Shifts In Advertising Happening Right Now

    10 Seismic Shifts In Advertising Happening Right Now

    It’s a strange time to be in advertising, especially on the media side of things. You see, we don’t seem to be very…

    7 条评论
  • 2020 Tech & Media Predictions (that probably won't happen)...

    2020 Tech & Media Predictions (that probably won't happen)...

    So ends, not just another year, but a whole decade. And, as is traditional at this time of year, I thought I’d share…

  • How to Choose a Media Agency in 2019...

    How to Choose a Media Agency in 2019...

    To start a digital media agency in 2019 all you need is a credit card and a website. There are literally hundreds of…

    1 条评论
  • Digital Marketing Is Not Rocket Science...

    Digital Marketing Is Not Rocket Science...

    Digital Marketing is really complicated. Or so we would like to make people believe.

    5 条评论
  • The DMP is Dead, long live the CDP

    The DMP is Dead, long live the CDP

    DMPs for the past five years have been the must have technology for savvy marketers in NZ. But there is a new kid on…

    4 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了