By Carl-Gustaf Harroch and Julia Zaman

It’s official, Novoda has joined the ranks of more than 7,000 businesses in 92 countries that have achieved B Corp certification. We couldn’t be prouder of our team who have worked so hard to get us here, or more excited for what B Corp accreditation represents for the future of Novoda.

Becoming part of the B Lab global network means that we’re now part of a group of purpose-led, forward-thinking, conscious businesses whose mission is to transform the global economy to the benefit of people, communities and the planet.

Now, that’s a big mission! So, let’s break it down and get a bit more personal about what B Corp status means for us and our clients.

What B Corp means to us

When we embarked on the Novoda rebrand, we knew we wanted to put doing good at the core of our business. We wanted to have a purpose that every single person in the company could unite behind. We had ambitious goals, and we were looking for a framework to help us achieve them – and that’s exactly what B Corp has been for us.

Joining the B Corp community has also opened the doors to an incredible network of like-minded business owners who share our philosophy when it comes to business for good, and who continually inspire us to keep learning and improving.

What’s more, having official recognition from B Lab gives us the confidence that we’re doing all we can to be a sustainable, ethical, person-centred business. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and being part of the B Corp community helps us to keep thinking about the positive changes we can make now and in the future.

“The B Corp accreditation is the main reason I joined Novoda. I was drawn to work here because I have an innate desire to create a positive impact in the world, and I saw an opportunity for that.”

Sarah Gruneisen, Director of Engineering

What B Corp has taught us

One of our biggest learnings from the B Corp process is that it’s within the power of ANY business – no matter your sector – to do good. We’re certainly not the same company that started this process, we’ve learned and reframed so much of what we believe and how we operate along the way.

We’ve always known that the people who work at Novoda are what makes us so special – and it’s been incredible to see how everyone has banded together during the B Corp process, wholeheartedly embracing all the changes we’ve made along the way. Knowing we’ve made this happen together has hugely strengthened our team.

There is something incredibly empowering about coming to work and knowing you’re doing good in the world – that’s not an opportunity everyone gets. Going through the process has strengthened our foundational principles and positively impacted how we work together, the work we do and the decisions we make.

But the process has also taught us that there is still work to be done. We want to go above and beyond the B Corp requirements. For us, this process was much more than a tick-box exercise, and we’ll continue to focus on making more impact in our strongest areas of community, learning, wellbeing and reward.  

How B Corp has changed our approach to business

Our identity as a B Corp has become a fundamental part of how we operate – it’s not just a tag on to business as usual. We take pride in the fact that, together with thousands of other businesses around the world, we are working together to create something better.

It’s important to us that the clients we work with share our values and intentions, and we’re looking forward to our B Corp journey becoming a key part of our sales and marketing conversations. Having the accreditation means we can step confidently into these discussions and demonstrate our commitment to the B Corp vision for an inclusive, equitable and regenerative global economy in everything we do.

Interestingly, we’ve met very few fellow tech companies that have achieved B Corp status – but we want to see more of them. We believe that when you combine innovation in technology with a vision for a better world, incredible things can happen.

For example, we would love to dig deeper into how technology can be used as a force for good in the areas of privacy, democracy and equality. Big tech has a bad reputation in these areas, but they need to be tackled – and we hope to see more funding and investment become available for this kind of work in the future.

“As part of the B Corp process, we had to sign a declaration of interdependence, showing that we are committed to working together with other businesses to make something better. I love this idea.”

Carl-Gustaf Harroch, Founder & MD

How becoming a B Corp benefits our clients

First and foremost, we are humans – it’s always been the case at Novoda, but now it’s written into the fabric of how we do business.

We bring the human touch into everything we do – we aren’t robots with a rate card, we bring genuinely creative thinking that adds huge value to our clients. B Corp has given us a framework to align our products with our purpose, which isn’t the case for most agencies.

As a team, we’re feeling motivated and inspired to apply our values to every single project we work on in the future and make great things happen as a result.

Considering becoming a B Corp?

Here’s our advice…

• Start now! It’s a long process and there’s no time like the present to get started on the journey. It will have a huge impact on your business and will prompt deep reflections that can be transformative.
• Don’t think you’re ready? Look at your business carefully and be open to the possibility that you can have more of an impact than you think.
• Lean on and engage with the incredible B Corp community throughout your accreditation and beyond – the fellow businesses we’ve met have been amazing, leading us to excellent conversations and ideas on how to implement our ideas and aspirations.
• If you’re a service-based company, it’s easy to think you don’t have that many emissions – but you still do! We did a carbon footprinting workshop and it was eye-opening, one of our biggest impacts (and easiest to reduce) was from banking, which many businesses don’t think about.
• B-Corp is just the first step, together as businesses we have the potential to do so much more good in the world!

Want to find out more about working with us?

Book a discovery call and let’s talk about making good things happen for your business and in the world.

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