B Lab Australia, an impact certifier for corporates, is on the growth path, with chief executive Alicia Darvall recently hiring senior associate Mat Fitzgerald.
Ms Darvall told The Fifth Estate there is growing interest in the international organisation that started an Australian operation in December last year and recently launched in Sydney. It is focused on certifying Benefit Corporations or B Corps, which are focused on businesses that want to equally prioritise social, environmental values and financial outcomes.
“We now have 48 corporates certified in Australia and New Zealand and there is a lot of interest in impact assessment,” Ms Darvall said. “We’ve got more than 500 companies logged into our network.” This is a precursor to certification.
They include Australia’s first B Corp, Small Giants, which developed The Commons.
- See our report The Commons apartments – a community, not “your own little box”
- See an article on Berry Liberman, creative director and co- founder (with husband Danny Almagor in 2007) of Small Giants, and also publisher and editor of Dumbo Feather magazine.
Other companies now certified BCorps include Net Balance, Pangolin Associates, WattElse Solar, Impact Investment Group, Hub Australia, Interface Sustainable Constructions, Talent Nation, Neometro, Ecovantage, Hive Construction Group, Ethinvest and Orbis Environmental.
Ms Darvall’s background is in community building work with the private and public sectors including as event director of Moonlight Cinema, chief executive of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, at the Melbourne Fashion Festival and St Kilda Film Festival.
Mr Fitzgerald has a background in sales and marketing as a founder of the Disruptive Business Network that seeks to “build community around the idea of building work that matters” and disruptive technology as a “force for good’, he said.