It’s official! QBS is now a B CorpTM – joining 5,000 organisations around the world certified for Using Business as a Force for GoodTM.
While QBS’ 2022 35th anniversary celebrations primarily impacted employees, its newly attained B Corp Certification (covering the company’s operations in the UK, Germany, France and the Nordics) is a recognition of the company’s positive impact across all stakeholders: employees, communities, customers, suppliers and our planet.
“After a huge team effort, we are proud to announce QBS is a Certified B CorporationTM. We found the application process to be an incredibly valuable experience and over the coming years we are looking forward to continuing to make positive changes that will further benefit our stakeholders and wider society.” – Therese Stevinson, Sustainability and Diversity Officer, QBS Technology Group.
What is a B Corp?
Certified B Corporations (B Corps) are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Unlike other business certifications, B Corp Certification is unique in that it measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact.
B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must:
– Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact AssessmentTM score of 80 or above and passing the B LabTM risk review.
– Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
– Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their B Impact performance to be publicly available on B Lab’s website. View QBS’ B Impact Score.
Leading the Way from Mission to Execution
QBS’ mission is to enable publishers and customers to optimise their procurement process and create sustainable value for all stakeholders, sustainably (ie, not to take from future generations or leave them with negative consequences of its actions). This is embedded in its Articles of Association, believing that profit is its reward for serving society well, not the aim in and of itself.
“For several years, QBS has legally been a company focused on stakeholder governance as opposed to shareholder primacy. We aim to ensure that we have an exceptionally well-governed business that values all of our stakeholders equally – our B Corp Certification provides external verification of this,” says Dave Stevinson, QBS Technology Group’s CEO.
QBS believes it is currently the only channel company listed in the B Corp directory, and hopes that it can encourage others to also become B Corps.
The journey to B Corp Certification has seen the company already attain ISO14001; follow the SBTi framework; provide environmental disclosure in annual accounts; pledge to net zero; win CRN Sustainable Distributor of the Year; become the first net carbon neutral distributor in the UK; support the tech community in becoming carbon neutral; focus on 6 specific UN Global Goals; use only Gold Standard VER (Verified Emission Reduction) offsets and more.
And the journey continues. There is always more that can be done and being part of the B Corp Community, along with annual impact reporting and three-yearly B Corp recertification, will help QBS continuously improve.
