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Worthstone celebrates ten years of making an impact by becoming a B Corp

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Written by Gavin Francis

Worthstone, the award winning social business with a vision to bring impact investing into the UK mainstream, is pleased to announce that it has been certified as a “B Corporation”.

B Corporation, or  B Corp are companies that value purpose as much as profit – promoting a “better” way of doing business and helping to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

To become a B Corp, Worthstone:

  • has been certified by the non-profit B Lab as meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency,
  • amended its constitution to make it a legal requirement that it considers the effects of its decisions, and the way in which it does business, on all stakeholders, and
  • commits, going forwards, to re-certify as a B Corp every three years

And by becoming a B Corp, Worthstone joins the 3,000+ B Corps across the globe, including Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia, and Triodos Bank, who are helping drive the shift towards a new economy, that is better for workers, better for communities and better for the environment.

Gavin Francis, founder and CEO of Worthstone, commented:

Our long term vision at Worthstone is to see impact embraced as a valued metric in every investment decision. We are the first independent specialist to be focused exclusively on delivering sustainable and impact investment support to the financial planning community. So it felt like a natural fit with our own values, and those of our partners, to be certified as a B Corp.

Our business is assessing the social and environmental performance of funds on the impact investment spectrum, we are subjecting ourselves to the same independent, transparent and rigorous scrutiny to ensure we continually challenge ourselves and maintain the high standards we expect from others. 

Becoming a B Corp helps us demonstrate to our partners and key stakeholders, and the wider Worthstone community, that we are doing more than just talking. It’s a way of demonstrating to them what type of business we are, the values that we represent and the collective goals that we want to achieve.

And as a Certified B Corp we’re more dedicated and accountable than ever. We’re now legally obliged to consider the impact of our decisions on all our stakeholders, not just our shareholders. Every year we’ll be reporting on the impact that we have achieved, and every three years we have to recertify, so we (and our stakeholders) will be able to track our progress.

It’s a really exciting way to celebrate Worthstone’s tenth anniversary. It’s a big commitment for a small business to make, but one that I believe is fundamentally important to keep us true to the mission to see impact investment become the investment style of choice amongst UK financial planners.

About Worthstone:

Worthstone is an award winning social business with a vision to bring impact investing into the UK mainstream.

We are a completely independent and impartial one-stop knowledge centre for financial planners whose clients are interested in investing for good i.e. making investments that achieve a financial return, but also make a positive impact on society or the environment.

In other words, we help financial advisers enable their clients to generate more positive social impact, as well as money, from their investments.