Sustainability initiatives such as B Corp certification, ESG scorecards, and inclusive governance are translating into real business value – from talent attraction to culture, innovation, and customer growth.
“Sustainability success isn’t just about ticking boxes – it’s about building momentum, engaging people, and embedding purpose in everyday decisions,” stresses Bethan Casey, Assistant Director of Sustainability at Inflexion. B Corp, seen by many as the gold standard of doing business for good, has been achieved by five companies within the Inflexion portfolio – encouraged and supported by Inflexion’s Value Acceleration team. But it’s not a one-and-done exercise: “You don’t get the accreditation and stop there; it actually propels you to do more,” Beth points out. She hosted a panel with the portfolio at the recent Sustainability Exchange to discuss how a strong framework can add real value to a business.
Bethan: How do you leverage your B Corp certification with stakeholders?
Alexandra Florea, Head of Sustainability, Medik8: We immediately identified that it created value across multiple dimensions. Firstly, with consumers: our B Corp announcement was the post that got the most traction on social media from our sustainability communication perspective – it was clear it meant something to our community. Then, as part of our employer brand: people joining us told us they were attracted by our B Corp status, as this was present across our recruitment sites and LinkedIn.
Another value creation aspect I found really exciting – from both a personal and company perspective – was leveraging the B Corp community. There is a massively thriving B Corp community, and it’s really valuable networking with people who share your values for doing business for good. We are working with other B Corp beauty businesses as part of the Beauty Coalition to change our industry for the better. We’d not have been part of the conversation without the accreditation. It’s about both harnessing the collective power of like-minded businesses to solve company-specific problems, but also to generate change at scale by all working together on industry and even global challenges.
Sarah Morbey, Director of Legal Affairs & ESG, CNX Therapeutics: We just certified in March and were the first UK pharma to achieve this so we sent a lot of posts out on social. Our CEO had been speaking at conferences and to analysts about our intention, so we had to get on with it!
We’d already established an internal engagement committee, but becoming a B Corp has given us a broader set of tools to work with. To realise the full value, it has to be properly embedded – it’s not just a personal passion project, but something the whole organisation can benefit from. The B Hive, B Lab’s community platform, has been especially valuable in helping us make a meaningful, positive impact on society. It also gives you a useful lever – a principled framework to refer back to if someone’s trying to push through a decision that doesn’t feel quite right. In our case, being a relatively new spin-out made it easier to build B Corp principles into the foundations from the start.
How do you get employees motivated?
Nil Sönmez, Chief Sustainability and Customer Experience Officer, Easyfairs: We wanted to achieve carbon-reduction results we could be proud of – and that our employees could be proud to talk about, too. Our first sustainability report was designed to be accessible and engaging. One advantage of the pause on CSRD is that it’s given us space to continue sharing best practice and implement truly impactful actions. Internally, we’ve developed a sustainability scorecard to support our reporting. With up to 150 annual events across Europe, we ask each team to report key data and complete a simple 20-point scorecard to assess their sustainability efforts. Based on their performance, they earn bronze, silver, or gold medals. Our events teams are highly competitive – they want to outperform their peers – and that’s become a real driver of progress across the business.
How do you keep sustainability on the agenda and what does it mean for culture?
Chris Dell, Partner & Head of Brand, Creative & Culture, TC Group: Ensure you give people access to it – all generations should be given the opportunity to participate. Recognition and celebration is important, since great ideas can come from everyone. We bring new companies and people into the Group all the time and therefore need to both attract and retain them, which is why it’s important that all who join can participate in what we do.
We have a very strong culture that pulls us together. Our forums – whether around D&I or mental health – aren’t there just for discussion. They set their own objectives, feed valuable insights back into the business, and align with our overarching people strategy. Our employee board, for instance, holds the exec team to account and is leading some really important, short, medium and long-term projects.
Can you share an example of being proactive in sustainability and it helping the business?
Nil: One of the biggest drivers for us has been employee engagement – giving people a sense that they’re part of something bigger than just managing events. We’re clear about what we’re doing and we communicate it well internally but also with our customers. That visibility has also helped us win awards, which in turn drives recognition from customers.
Sarah: The impact you can make is not just ticking a box and goes beyond compliance. It's about better innovation, better leadership, and smarter decision-making. Done well, it’s a source of real market competitiveness and that’s how sustainability creates real value.
Alexandra: You need to create space for people to come up with good ideas. Last year, during our Company Day, we held a sustainability workshop where we asked our colleagues to come up with ideas on how to engage employees around sustainability. As a result, we brought together over 280 employees across the UK and US for our first ever Positive Impact Day. We volunteered together, but also used the opportunity to celebrate our sustainability wins of last year. It was key to ensure everyone took part, to be together for this one day, so we even stopped production entirely. But more importantly, we wanted to engage teams in sustainability, so we came up with new, fun ways to talk about carbon, human rights and B Corp, with games, role playing and even a B Corp pub quiz.
Chris: We’ve taken our people off-site for our Quarterly Business Reviews since day one – these sessions ensure full transparency of what’s happening in the business, including detailed financial information. Until recently, we tagged on a short board Q&A at the end, answering anonymously submitted employee questions. It worked so well that we’ve now made it a regular, hour-long lunchtime session every two months as it gives us real insight into what matters to our people – and often flags topics that feed directly into boardroom conversations.
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