Why we love B Corps in general and a few in particular

March is B Corp month in the UK, and if you're not familiar; in the words of B Lab, which determines who gets to be a B Corp "Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy." Sounds good, right?

I particularly love the vision that "one day all companies will compete to be not just best in the world, but also best for the world, and as a result society will enjoy a more shared and durable prosperity." Ahhh, beautiful isn't it? What a world that would be. Shareholders no longer the centre of commerce, conscious operation and production for the planet and all its people. Utopia. The cynic in me of course wonders if this is a pipe dream, but there are currently over 8,000 Certified B Corporations in more than 70 countries, so there's certainly plenty of hope. There might be a few on the list which surprise you as well, it's not all 'eco businesses', and I think for this ethos to really catch on, there has to be some leaders who've turned away from the dark side, as well ones who started in the light.

You may well already be supporting B Corps without knowing it, but you can search for certified B Corps on the B Lab website, or look out for brands using the B Corp logo. If you're not sure where to start, we've pooled our favourites here to get you started on your B Corp supporting journey.

Food & Drink

If you haven't found Tony's Chocolonely by other means, now's the perfect time to switch to a chocolate bar that's literally chock full of great reasons to buy. Delicious Candy Kittens sweets also on the list. Look out for ready meals in most major UK supermarkets from Charlie's Bigham - the Paneer Curry and Veggie lasagne come with a TSS recommendation. Pieminister ready made pies, Clipper Teas, Whole Earth peanut butter, Kallo rice cakes and Mr Crimble's gluten free goodies all belong to B Corp Wessanen UK. It's probably no surprise Innocent is on the list. If all that eating's made you thirsty wash it down with Harrogate Springs, one of the few companies offering glass bottles of water in the supermarkets. It's not just people food either, Rocky the cat is a big fan of Lily's Kitchen and the guys at Scrumbles are great supporters of the cat charity I volunteer with, so they get a TSS thumbs up too.

Clothing & Accessories

Our resident vegan and marathon runner knows her shoes, and wears VEJA trainers, and when she's running around in the dark, she's got her Alpkit headtorch on. Talking of the outdoors, the outdoorsey members of TSS are fans of Pategonia and Finisterre. There's a few pairs of Toms between us, and I know a few of us are urging our trainers to give up so we can replace with All Birds. A few of the TSS kid's have been decked out in JoJo Maman Bebe. I defy anyone not to lust after a gorgeous bag from Elvis & Kresse made from old fire hoses.

Home and Personal Care

Body Shop and Beauty Kitchen have everything you need to cover yourself head to toe in smell good, feel good, do good products. For sustainable period products, check out DAME. I think we've all given Who Gives a Crap loo roll a go then washed our hands with a bar of something from the Little Soap Company. Staying on the theme of cleaning, Wilton London offers a nice range of natural cleaning products and we've all got Beeswax Wraps in our kitchen drawers. And after all that cleaning, I recommend settling down with a good book, second-hand or otherwise from World of Books.

Services

It's not just producers of 'stuff' who are B Corps either, you may come across them in other areas of your life too, and given that they're committed looking after people as well as the environment and profits, they're likely to be good places to work. You'll find B Corps offering services like graphic design services, green energy, investment management, accounting and holidays, so it's worth a quick check before you buy anything from anyone!