B Lab is the non-profit network transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet. It was created in 2006 with the mission to inspire and enable people to use business as a force for good. There are B Labs across the globe (forming the B Global Network) including Australia, Africa, mainland Europe and North and South America. B Lab UK is a charity that launched in 2015. As part of this international network, B Lab UK leads economic systems change to support our collective vision of an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy. Our purpose is to redefine success in business through building a community of engaged businesses, raising awareness of the B Corp movement and influencing change in the UK economy. Together, we are shifting our global economy from a system that profits few to one that benefits all: advancing a new model that moves from concentrating wealth and power to ensuring equity, from extraction to generation, and from prioritising individualism to embracing interdependence.
B Labs commitment
B Lab UK’s vision is of an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet. To achieve this vision, the voices and perspectives of all individuals must be heard. Justice, equity, diversity, inclusion (“JEDI”) are connected to our mission and critical to ensuring the well-being of our staff, our community and those we work with. We are committed to ensuring B Lab UK is an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace where anyone that works for us, and with us, feels valued and respected.
What we’re already doing:
- Developed a comprehensive JEDI Action Plan with key targets for each team, and a tracking and monitoring process
- Providing mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all employees led by external experts
- Running JEDI events for the team to build awareness and enable embedding our values and principles in all our plans and work
- Using an inclusive hiring platform to avoid bias in recruitment
- Being transparent in job advertisements — providing salary ranges and benefits
- Supporting managers to mitigate unconscious bias in the recruitment process
- Providing internships paid at the London Living Wage rate Collecting diversity data for recruitment to enable monitoring and corrective action – Inclusion is a required behaviour in our competency and development framework
- Implemented a hybrid working arrangement with monthly all team social days for meaningful face to face working
- Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys which monitor inclusion and respect
- Conducting annual diversity surveys for staff and Board to monitor progress to targets and support action to include under-represented groups
- Improving accessibility to IT tools for all
- Developing an ethical procurement policy so suppliers we work with align with our social and environmental standards, including reducing carbon emissions, supporting local communities and under-represented groups in business
- Implemented a Carers policy
- Developed a clear, agreed and effective approach for the Board to support JEDI throughout the organisation and in its own practice, and to regularly monitor progress on the action plan to hold ourselves accountable and ensure progress is achieved, we have set short, medium and long-term objectives
Whilst every team member is responsible for ensuring B Lab UK is diverse, equitable and inclusive, we have a JEDI working group, made up of employees from different teams, with different backgrounds and perspectives, who meet regularly to discuss progress and actions. B Lab UK is currently undergoing a strategic review. Once this review is complete, we commit to updating this page with longer-term actions and targets.