You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
On becoming a B Corp
The co-founder of indie audiobook platform xigxag reveals the processes through which the firm has recently achieved B Corp Certification.
Xigxag is now B Corp Certified, joining a global community using business as a force for good. If you haven’t heard of us, xigxag is the only indie alternative for audiobooks in the UK. And now, we are the first audiobook app in the UK to have achieved B Corp accreditation. We are one of only a handful of businesses in publishing to have done so, and we hope others will join us. This is our call to action.
We want to help create an environmentally friendly industry that reaches more readers, and feel that becoming part of the B Corp community is a perfect place to start. More than 800 firms in the UK (and 5,000 worldwide) have gone through the rigorous B Corp certification process, including leading brands such as Patagonia, Abel & Cole and Emma Bridgewater. That process looks at many areas of an organisation, from environmental impact to governance structure and employee wellbeing. At xigxag, we have a young, tech-savvy user base: nearly half of our users are under 35. Research shows they are likely to care about sustainability and climate change, and they are 85% more likely to trust a brand, 84% more likely to buy their products, and 82% more likely to recommend that brand to their friends and family if they learn it is socially responsible.
We believe that businesses must consider their impact on customers, teams, society and the environment as well as shareholders
B Corp was something my co-founder and I had wanted to do for some time. We believe that businesses must be the change they want to see, considering their impact on customers, teams, society and the environment as well as shareholders. Last year’s FutureBook was the catalyst for us to apply for B Corp certification. The theme of the conference was Sustainability, coinciding with the COP26 conference in Glasgow. So I was surprised and disappointed not to hear any mention of digital formats as a means of achieving sustainable consumption/net zero. At the same time, I fully appreciate the difficult position the industry finds itself in, given the dominance of a certain big tech behemoth in digital formats.
That is where xigxag and other digital innovators can make a significant difference. Like many start-ups, we are serious about tracking and minimising our environmental footprint, so we can help publishers understand the downstream impact of their audiobooks. Our audiobooks have 0.2% of the carbon footprint of a paperback and consume a fraction of the natural resources to produce (in the form of trees, water and energy).
We are excited about how B Corps like us can help the industry continue to improve accountability around sustainability. If more businesses join the B Corp movement, we can play a collective part in creating a publishing ecosystem that is better for the planet.
The B Corp process
Anyone interested can start with the online B Impact Assessment, which is free, but rigorous. It required us to come together as a team to articulate our mission and values and review our environmental performance. It challenged us to address gaps in our governance and policies and consider the transparency of our reporting. We found the assessment a powerful tool to help us clarify the type of business we want to be.
To be eligible for B Corp certification, companies have to score 80 or above. The assessment itself took two months to prepare, with a dedicated, one day per week project manager. The questions are organised across six impact areas: governance, workers, community, environment, customers and disclosure questions. The governance questions cover a company’s mission and engagement, ethics and transparency, governance and metrics, and require a company to have in place measures that legally ensure that its social or environmental performance is a part of its decision-making. We were fortunate to be in the middle of a fundraising process, which gave us the opportunity to incorporate this “mission lock” in our Articles of Association, committing to have a material positive impact on society and the environment, and to not prioritise any stakeholder’s needs above those of other stakeholders. This is a stark contrast to the “winner takes all” mantra of the big tech competitors we are up against.
The workers section reports our employee metrics: the degree to which we meet the needs of our team through the lenses of financial needs; health, wellness and safety; career development; and team engagement and satisfaction. This challenged us to formalise an existing informal commitment to paying a living wage to all team members, and encouraged us to commit to offering health insurance to our team. This area highlighted opportunities for us to improve as we grow, especially with respect to measuring team engagement. At the moment, we are small enough to believe that we know how the team are feeling through daily interactions (remote) and quarterly meet-ups (in person).
The community questions evaluate a company’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, its economic impact, its civic engagement and the way it manages its supply chain. Here, we could confidently convey our ongoing commitment to Cornwall, where our company (and my co-founder) is based, by prioritising local suppliers, hiring and hosting all our company “on-sites” in the region whenever possible. Our confidence diminished when identifying and categorising our major suppliers (big tech and big publishers) amid a major concern that we would be penalised for not doing more to screen or evaluate our major suppliers for social and environmental impact. We felt particularly at the mercy of these big companies. Thankfully, the rest of our efforts offset our “zero points” score in this area.
Publishers serious about sustainability could do more to address the structural advantages still conferred on print formats
The environment section evaluated our performance across dimensions such as the business model, environmental management, air and climate, water and waste. We earned the least amount of points in this category, primarily because there are the fewest points on offer. But these questions also highlighted opportunities to do more to encourage good stewardship in virtual offices, to monitor and set improvement targets in energy consumption, water use, carbon footprint and waste. This will be a focus for us in 2023.
In the customers category, we demonstrated a specific, material, positive impact for our customers (beyond the value normally provided from goods or services). Our responses reflected the customer-centricity at the heart of our business. We were able to demonstrate our commitment to quality and customer feedback, the positive outcomes we create for our customers, how our product is improving an experience for underserved populations (like the visually impaired) but also for those who struggle with traditional reading, through our accessibility solutions.
The final section, disclosure, is a catch-all designed to flag disreputable industries, companies and practices. It didn’t impact our score—thankfully, we were able to answer “no” to all the questions—but it could prevent a company from being eligible for B Corp Certification.
Of the impact areas, the one most established companies might find most difficult to deliver on is the “mission lock”, as they would need to get existing shareholders to agree to a stakeholder model of governance. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Unilever sets a brilliant example to big companies, with nine B Corp-certified brands in its portfolio. Big publishers (and individual imprints) could use Unilever’s example as a blueprint.
The greatest challenge for us in the process was policy development. It’s boring, tedious and formulaic—words we would never use to describe ourselves. But we understood the role that good policy plays in good governance and creating transparency for our team, so we made the extra effort.
The B Labs team, who are tasked with the evaluation and approval/rejection of all B Corp applications, are busy these days, with the dramatic rise in companies applying. They were very clear to manage our expectations on timelines, but it was nonetheless a surprise to understand the process could take between six and eight months. We spent two months preparing, two months waiting to be assigned an analyst to review our application, two months for that review before a review call with the analyst, then a few more weeks of follow-up work and documentation before finally receiving our certification.
Now, we get to shout about it.
The ripple effect
Becoming a B Corp has improved our governance, challenged us on transparency and made us think about what we can do to have a positive impact on our world. It makes us proud of what we have achieved, but also makes us realise how much more we have to do. It has led us to consider other ambitious programmes for company target-setting, like Tech Zero, the climate action group for tech companies of all sizes committed to fighting the climate crisis.
Our target in 2022 was to achieve B Corp status. Our ambition in 2023 is to set ambitious goals around sustainability. We are meeting soon in Cornwall to define the size and shape of that ambition. It has also given us more confidence to start the conversation I missed hearing at last year’s FutureBook. Through the work we have done in assessing our impact, we can help publishers understand the downstream impact of their digital content.
Publishers serious about sustainability could do more to address the structural advantages still conferred on print formats, from pricing to availability and release dates. Digital formats must be recognised as a cornerstone of sustainable publishing and a net zero strategy. Of course, as an upstart digital innovator, we would love more support to take on big tech, winner-take-all incumbents. But as fellow passengers on this planet, what we would really like to see is those big players taking this issue as seriously as us. It’s not just about xigxag.
There is room for everyone in the industry to do more. The B Corp movement is for anyone who wants business to play a stronger role as a force for good in the world. As a business, we know we are the better for having done it. We would love to see others in the publishing industry join us and we are happy to speak to anyone thinking about taking the plunge. Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more.
