Moving Forward: Becoming a Pending B Corporation

UPDATE 20 May 2021: Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to graduate from being a Pending B Corporation to become a fully certified B Corporation, as our operations are not currently large enough to qualify for full certification. Which is decidedly gutting, to be honest with you. Our long-term goal remains to become a Certified B Corporation. We’re extremely keen to join their gang, and we’ve already done almost all of the required work to analyse, adapt and build our business to meet their stringent requirements. So the second we’re large enough, we’ll be applying for full certification. So we can ensure we deliver our guests the most responsible hiking holidays in Northern Ireland.

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When we started The Inside Trek, we promised ourselves that we were going to be responsible in our comms, that we were never going to just post for the sake of posting, that we’d make sure we’ve got something valuable to share.  But it was never our intention to go quiet for five months! Where on earth did that go!? (Quick Answer: a mix of a frantic wee late summer staycation driver busy period, coupled with lockdown constraints and a few other things getting in the way).

We’ve still been ‘Moving Forward’, we promise

Still, shame on us – not least because we’ve actually had things to tell you about. In fact, we’ve actually been holding back this one – the biggest of our ‘Moving Forward’ initiatives – since early summer, to make sure we gave it due prominence. (Note to self: don’t do that again: when you’ve got news, just tell people). So this post is really about three months late – for which we beg your forgiveness.

Serendipitously though, this actually now seems like the perfect time for this news. Because, on the 5^th Birthday of the launch of this initiative in the UK, we are stupidly proud to tell you that The Inside Trek is an official Pending B Corporation.

B Corporations

If you’ve not come across B Corporations yet, here’s what they’re all about.

B Corporations are businesses that commit to using profits and growth as a means to greater ends, such as working toward reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities, and the creation of more high quality jobs with dignity and purpose. 

B Corporations meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.

Each B Corporation has adopted a legal requirement to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment, in order to balance purpose and profit.

Each B Corporation has agreed that shareholder value is not the overarching consideration but is instead just one factor amongst the many stakeholder interests which need to be taken into account when running a business.  

B Corporations believe that business can be done better, and famous examples include Patagonia, Toms and Finisterre. We believe that too and we’re proud to have taken those steps ourselves.

Why Just Pending B Corporation?

As a new business, Pending B Corporation status is the only level available to us here at The Inside Trek, as a company needs to have 12 months trading under their belt to become a fully certified B Corporation. Nonetheless, we have worked hard to build The Inside Trek on the right principles and foundation stones to enable us qualify as a Pending B Corporation, and we can’t wait to have clocked up enough trading time to become an official Certified B Corporation.

We are proud to be a small part of leading the shift to a better way of doing business and proving the case for stakeholder governance. And we are proud to be a small part of the B Corp UK story, one of the fastest growing BCorp communities in the world. So Happy Birthday B Corporation UK, we’re convinced that you’re going to change the world for the better.  And we promise we’ll keep playing our part to the best of our ability.

For more info

You can find out more at https://ourstory.bcorporation.uk. Or just message us. We’ll be happy to tell you all about something that we believe will one day become a ‘must have’ for all businesses.

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