- Oxford hosts the largest-ever gathering of B Corp businesses in the world
- COOK, Octopus, Cotswold Fayre, Tony’s Chocolonely and Little Moons are among the 1,200 attendees at Louder Than Words
- B Lab UK wants to see every UK business acting as a force for good within 10 years
- Mary Portas says ethical business needs to become sexy
“Become sexy”, Mary Portas tells ethical business.
Ethical business needs to become “desirable and sexy as well as deeply trusted”, Mary Portas told the world’s largest ever gathering of 1,200 B Corps today. “That’s what makes Beautiful Business”.
Speaking on the first day of the inaugural Louder Than Words festival in Oxford, hosted by B Lab UK, the former Queen of Shops said pre-owned items had started to become desirable in part because charity shops were stealing the ideas of luxury brands.
She pointed out that when she recorded Mary Portas Queen of Shops on BBC2 in 2007, they increased footfall by getting rid of the word “charity” and making the shops “cool”.
“We are now seeing charity shop revenue surge 300% faster than fast fashion. It is starting from a low base but it is only getting faster. Owning pre-owned is becoming a badge of honour.”
“But we need to make this bigger. Desire, sexy, doing good, trust and integrity together”
She warned ethical businesses against taking the moral high ground.
“Around the world, we are concentrating much more on what divides us than what brings us together. But in business, taking the moral high ground doesn’t work.”
She pointed to B Corp Who Gives A Crap as a company that is achieving both desirability and doing good.
Alongside Mary, executive director of B Lab UK, Chris Turner, and co-founder of the UK B Corp movement, Char Love, highlighted the continuing momentum of the purposeful business movement in the UK. For the first time, they revealed that, within 10 years, B Lab UK wants to see every business acting as a force for good. This means businesses align the interests of people, the planet and profit.
New figures from B Lab UK indicate how appetite for B Corp Certification has grown. The UK now hosts one of the largest and fastest-growing communities in the world. Out of the 9,000 B Corps spread across the globe, a quarter of these are based in the UK with 2,300 certified businesses — a figure that’s doubled in just 18 months. B Corps span every size, sector and corner of the UK.
Prioritising people and the planet, alongside profit and financial interest is proven to benefit business for the better.
B Corps are twice as likely to be carbon neutral than ordinary businesses and are almost two times as likely to perform pay equity analysis based on gender/race/ethnicity.
If put into action today, a purpose-led economy could unleash tens of billions of pounds of capital investment and turbocharge spending on research and development.
New polling commissioned by B Lab UK also detailed the increasing number of business names across the UK who believe that ethical business practices have had a positive effect on their company.
Over half of business leaders (59%) believe the UK economy would be stronger if all businesses aligned the interests of people, the planet and profit.
This was also especially true for small (74%) and medium-sized (74%) businesses, small being 10-49 employees and medium being 59-249 employees.
Additionally, over half (55%) of business leaders believe that making long-term decisions, with people and the planet in mind, increases trust in their business.
Many of the country’s leading business names will be coming together at Louder Than Words. Taking place across 12 venues in Oxford over two days (10th-11th September), the festival is a space for B Corps and friends of the movement to mobilise business as a solution to the urgent challenges facing our workers, local communities, climate, and economy.
There are headline moments from the main stage at Oxford’s New Theatre with speakers including former managing director of Ben & Jerry’s, Anuradha Chugh, former Minister of State for Health, Chris Skidmore, and founder and director of Community Clothing and judge on The Great British Sewing Bee, Patrick Grant. There are over 40 fringe sessions led by organisations including Tony’s Chocolonely, The Living Wage Foundation, Elemis, Brompton, COOK, House of Hackney and Finisterre.
Chris Turner, executive director of B Lab UK and campaign director of the Better Business Act, said:
“It’s been almost 10 years since the first business was certified as a B Corp in the UK. The movement was founded on the belief that there was a different and better way of doing business, a way of doing business in a way that balances the needs of our planet and future generations while still being commercially successful.
We’ve proven that point. Now it’s time to stretch those ambitions and push ourselves to ensure that this model becomes the norm. It’s what business leaders want, and potentially the greatest economic opportunity of our lifetimes — the UK can’t afford to miss out.”
Welcoming the festival to the city of Oxford, Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon adds:
“I am delighted that B Lab UK has chosen Oxford as the location for its very first Louder Than Words festival. Oxford is known internationally for its contribution to academia, but it is also a city focused on changing business for the better. A number of Certified B Corporations have their home in Oxford and are showing what’s possible when businesses are empowered to put people, the planet and profit on a more equal footing. It is a privilege to welcome some of the UK’s most progressive business leaders to the city for what is an incredibly engaging event.
