B Corp, or “benefit corporation” certification, is a concept that originated about six years ago in the US. It involves companies signing up to meet certain measures of sustainability and ethical behaviour in the way they are run, with the aim of creating “general public benefit” while at the same time permitting them to generate reasonable profits for their owners.
Thus far, some 20 US states have enacted legislation designed to accommodate companies wishing to incorporate as B Corp enterprises, and another 18 are “working on it”, according to B Lab, a non-profit organisation based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which developed and awards B Corp certification for for-profit entities.
The B Corp movement was given a boost last July, when Delaware, the corporate home state to a large percentage of US companies, including around half of its publicly-traded corporations, became the 19th US state to enact B Corp legislation.
Outside the US – and inside the US where desired, or where state law does not provide for benefit corporations – “Certified B Corporation” status is conferred on companies that have been judged by B Lab to meet a certain standard of “overall social and environmental performance”.
According to B Lab, the way it certifies companies is similar to the way that “Fair Trade USA certifies Fair Trade coffee, or [the] US Green Building Council certifies LEED buildings”.
It is this type of certification that Maseco has been given, according to James Sellon, one of the founders of Maseco and one of its three managing partners.
“We wanted to become a B Corp as a signal to clients and the wider world that we strive to manage and operate in an ethical and sustainable way, and to demonstrate that sustainability is at the very heart of what we do,” Sellon said.
Added Joshua Matthews, another Maseco co-founder and partner: “We see maintaining B Corp status as a way of measuring and tracking our progress as we move forward, while also influencing the way investing and charitable giving is viewed in both the financial and wider communities, while also promoting the standards of accountability that being a B Corp member represents."
'Doing well by doing good'
As noted in a profile of the company last year, the brand of bottled water served at Maseco’s Mayfair headquarters is One Water which, among other things, channels all of its profits into water projects in Africa.
As Sellon explained then, Maseco’s sustainable investment approach is not aimed at attracting clients with tree-hugging tendencies, nor is it solely because the company’s principals fundamentally support it, even though they do.
Rather, he says, they genuinely believe that you really can do well, if not even better, by doing good.
This appears to be backed up by the facts: Since Maseco began introducing a sustainable option into its investment offering to its clients in around 2010, the performance has been “in line with the standard portfolios that we currently run”, Sellon said.
B Corp status, though, is more about procurement policy, hiring policy and similar business protocols affecting the way Maseco is run than it is about matters that directly affect clients, according to Sellon: "It shows that you really do practice being good, rather than just saying that you do."
To read a profile about how Maseco has been helping American expats cope with the growing challenges they face, click here.
To read and download B Lab's 60-page 2012 annual report, which contains information about the B Lab certification programme, click here.
