Davines made big news when they became recognized internationally as a certified B Corporation at the end of November this year. We first want to define what being a B Corporation is and what traits a company has to possess in order to gain the widely recognized certification. “At the end of November 2016, Davines Group and its 2 brands – Davines and Comfort Zone – became a B Corporation® , a new type of company that meets the highest standards of overall social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability, (source).”Davines consistently displays awareness regarding its ethical and social practices making it only a matter of time before a official certification was met. “Davines Group was born with the aim of being a business with a positive impact both on people and the environment. Through the years, we have carried out this goal with different projects, such as our Ethical Chart and our Sustainability Report , (source).” First let’s define what exactly a B Corporation is:
B Corporation: B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance. This includes accountability, and transparency. “B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA organic is to milk, (source).” There are currently over 2100 Certified B Corps from 50 countries and over 130 industries working together toward 1 unifying goal: to redefine success in business.
The next question is how does a company get evaluated in order to become a B Corp? and how does Davines rank in all of this?
Certification: B Corp certification is a long process that usually takes years from application to certification. “To become certified, we had to meet the requirements of the nonprofit B Lab®, which measured “what matters”, meaning the performance of the company regarding five fields: workers, governance, community, customers and environment, (source).” B corporation’s are able to publicly claim an identity as an organization interested in both shareholder and stakeholder success. By having an identity that is clear customers are able to witness the difference in industry norms.
“B Lab certifies companies based on how they create value for non-shareholding stakeholders, such as their employees, the local community, and the environment. Once a firm crosses a certain performance threshold on these dimensions, it makes amendments to its corporate charter to incorporate the interests of all stakeholders into the fiduciary duties of directors and officers, (source).”
Davines’ evaluation ranked a 99 out of 200 and for a company of it’s size is incredibly positive. Davines excelled in various areas including: The analysis of the product life cycle (SLCA) based on their environmental and social impact, the reduction of materials for the packaging of our products, through a lower environmental impact choice and a more responsible product design, the reduction of our waste, and an increase in the percentage allocated to recycling, the involvement of all suppliers in the certification path, the attention to the welfare of the company staff.
Here at DesignHouse we are incredibly fortunate to not only carry Davines products but also posses the same values and ethics surrounding our own business. Want to learn more about Davines? Contact us at 778-433-4393 or on our contact page!