ekomia is a certified B Corporation

Was ist eine B Corp?

B Corp certificates are awarded by the non-profit Organisation B Lab™, which works to change the global economic system towards an inclusive, fair and regenerative economy.

B stands for Benefit for All. Founded in 2006 in the USA, the non-profit organisation and its members want to change our economic system in such a way that added value is created for all stakeholders - employees, customers, communities and the environment. Well-known sustainable companies such as Patagonia, Weleda or The Guardian are now certified B Corporations.

What is checked during certification?

Companies must answer detailed questionnaires in 5 categories. All answers must be provable, promises must be formalised and anchored in the company's bylaws.

1. Corporate Governance: Assesses a company's overall mission, commitment to social and environmental impact, ethics and transparency.

2. Employees: Evaluates a company's contribution to the financial security, health and safety, well-being, professional development, and commitment and satisfaction of its employees.

3. Community: Assesses a company's engagement and impact on the communities in which it operates. Topics include diversity, equality and inclusion, economic impact, civic engagement, charity and supply chain management.

4. Environment: Evaluates a company's overall environmental management practices and its impact on air, climate, water, land and biodiversity. This includes the direct impacts of a company's operations as well as its supply chain and distribution channels. This section also recognises companies with environmentally innovative production processes and those that sell products or services that have a positive impact on the environment. Examples include products and services that reduce consumption or waste, protect land or wildlife, bring less toxic alternatives to market or educate people about environmental issues.

5. Customers: Evaluates a company's responsibility to its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data protection and security, and feedback channels.

Our path to the B Corp certificate

Since our founding, we have paid attention to the consistent ecological and social development of our company. For example, we almost exclusively use materials made from renewable raw materials such as FSC®-certified solid wood and organic cotton for our products, and we do not use plastic for packaging whenever possible. We select our suppliers according to strict specifications, such as short transport routes, quality and the use of natural dyes and sustainable packaging. We also do a lot to reduce consumption in general by offering repair kits for our furniture and free upcycling instructions.

It is sometimes very difficult for consumers to evaluate the sustainability promises of companies. Therefore, it was important for us to have our social and environmental impact quantified and confirmed by an independent entity.

We took the lengthy certification process as an opportunity to critically examine our business processes and to see where we can still improve. It has also helped us to formalise things for our further professionalisation that were previously only in our heads and that we did automatically. For example, ecological goals are now binding for each team member and product and service specifications are clearly written down so that the entire team is pulling in the same sustainable direction now and in the future.

Today we are pleased to announce that after a long process we have been awarded a B Corp certification with a high score of 119.9 - especially around environmental aspects.

What do the points tell us?

If a company achieves over 80 points, it has qualified for the certificate. 51 points is the average for all companies in the initial examination, 131 points are achieved on average by the best B Corps (5%) in the world.

The results are published transparently on the B-Corporation website. Every three years, the company has to re-qualify. Because certification is not the end of the line, the requirements become tougher every year and all companies have to set new goals to improve their own footprint.