Becoming a B Corporation
Faherty Brand recently became a Certified B Corporation™. What does that mean? Well, pull up a chair. We’re going to tell you all about it.
But first, let’s go back to the start of this journey.
Becoming a B Corp™ has been a long-term goal for our Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer, Kerry Docherty. Since 2013, she’s worked tirelessly to lead our social and environmental impact efforts. Every idea, email, and project has brought us to this moment, and we’re honored to celebrate her and her team. A Certified B Corp™ is a company that has been independently verified (by the aptly named global nonprofit, B Lab) to meet high standards for social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. It means that our entire organization completed a rigorous assessment covering the 5 impact areas: Governance, Workers, Environment, Community and Customers. To get certified, we had to achieve a minimum score of 80 points in the B Impact Assessment, consisting of 250 questions.
We scored 85.7 points.
The entire process took 14 months. First, we had to educate ourselves about the 5 impact areas, the scoring framework, and the roadmap to certification. Then, we set up a cross-departmental B TEAM to answer all 250 questions. This took us about 7 months, as we also had to pull together supporting documentation to validate our responses. We submitted the completed assessment and celebrated this first milestone – it felt amazing! We then went through the verification process, working closely with B Lab to ensure we could prove what we claimed in the assessment.
Through completing this process, we identified our areas of strength and also areas that need improvement in the coming years.
COMMUNITY: We were able to highlight our Indigenous partnerships and our work to end the appropriation of native artwork, design, and culture.
ENVIRONMENT: Our resale program Second Wave underscored the importance of circular business models in the fashion industry.
CUSTOMERS: We accentuated our incredible retail team, who strive to add value for our customers with excellent customer service, satisfaction, and retention.
But it was clear that we need to make a big commitment to reduce our GHG emissions, increase the transparency of our global supply chain, and share our strategy, goals, and progress publicly. These renewed areas of focus are included in our inaugural impact report, launching today.
Overall, becoming a Certified B Corp™ has emphasized that we truly are better together. While we’re deeply proud of this milestone, we’re not resting on our laurels. We’ll continue leading consciously, bravely, and inclusively.
Thank you for helping us build a better future. Our victory is your victory, too.
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