In big news just out overnight in Europe, Nespresso has announced it is a Certified B Corporation - making it one of the largest companies in the world to do so. This is the culmination of a three-year journey for them, and is further evidence of the growing recognition in global business that change is needed.
Given the size of the business and the visibility of the brand, Nespresso’s certification will undoubtedly attract a lot of attention, interest and potential criticism about the B Corp Movement. We want to tackle this head-on, as it is also a huge opportunity for all B Corps to demonstrate the leadership they are known for.
Like every B Corp, Nespresso has undergone the rigorous certification and verification process — which is increasingly complex given the size of their global organisation — and achieved 84 points on the B Impact Assessment. Their full transparent assessment is available publicly on their B corp directory profile. Their own website has comprehensive resources of their approach to certification, including where they are performing well and the areas of improvement they are focussed on.
We understand you may be keen to learn more about such a large business in the sector getting certified, so B Lab has collaborated with Nespresso on an extensive FAQ document for our community - see here (this will keep evolving as we add more).
The local AU and NZ Nespresso teams are thrilled to be a part of the community and will be making themselves available if you would like to get in touch directly with them. We’ll share plans for online and in-person events in our community, threaded below here as we finalise the details.
For those on your team who might be interested in this (Nespresso will likely get some public attention!) but are less familiar with B Corp Certification, it is a good opportunity to remind them of a couple of important things:
- B Corp certification is not just a badge of sustainability or an acknowledgement of environmental accomplishments - it is an holistic framework that looks to help businesses understand and improve their impact towards people, communities and the planet.
- B Corps and other businesses across the world use the certification process as the start of a journey of continuous improvement, and a framework from which to build better business practices.
We also shared this article recently with other examples of how the B Corp community is growing, and larger businesses are achieving certification across the world.
The power of this movement lies in the community, and its ability to look towards what we can do together to address the world’s most pressing challenges. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming Nespresso to the ranks, and inspiring them — as you have done with countless others — on their impact improvement journey.
Please also share your thoughts, comments and questions below!