This year, TGW is celebrating our 5th year of being a Certified B Corp. Half of our existence!
Do we think about being a B Corp every day? No. Do we shout it from the rooftops? Not as much as we probably should. Do we use it as a helpful guide for making decisions with and for our business and team? Absolutely. That’s the key for our team. It’s a public layer of accountability we can link to our business.
As fellow B Corp Maine Beer Company’s motto says: “Do What’s Right.” For us, being a B Corp helps us do what’s right. Most of the time, it’s just that simple. Just as we know the difference between right and wrong on an individual level from an early age, we know the difference when operating a business. Making a decision that benefits the people on our team or the planet on which we live or the community in which we live is a driving force for our little social impact shop.
Like the individual choices we make between waking up and falling asleep each day, the decisions we make as a sole business have direct and immediate impact. While sometimes small, any positive impact matters. When that impact is multiplied by B Corps coming together to do good, which is a trend we’re seeing more of all the time, then big things can start to happen. A great example is a recent project between our pals at GreenSpark Solar and Home Leasing–two local fellow B Corps. These two business-for-good teams came together to develop a 2.2 MW solar array to provide power to Home Leasing’s affordable housing communities right here in Rochester.
When we think about the collective impact of all B Corps, then we have ourselves an impact party. To give a bit of an idea, here are a few quick examples of collective B Corp action last year for the planet (just one pillar of B Corp certification):
- Collective action, in 2020, B Corps…
- Saved 225 million liters of water
- Offset 16 million tons of carbon
- Protected 200,00 hectares of land
- Diverted 207 thousand metric tons of waste
Knowing that we’re playing a small part in this collective action with the decisions we make with our team, and knowing that so many out there give a damn, feels really good.
