This is a decision I have been considering for some time. ELE’s B Corp certification will end on 18 June but this isn’t a step away from being a responsible business. It’s a step away from a particular badge that, in my view, no longer means what I believe it should.
I’ve watched the B Corp movement evolve in the UK, supporting it as an early B Corp and then a B Leader since its first days. I have been an outspoken advocate for the movement and what it said it aimed to do.
At the end of 2025 B Lab launched its new standards. And, now I’ve considered the revised criteria carefully, while it is better than the last, some of the things that needed fixing simply haven’t been, in my opinion.
First, large multinationals still don’t have to obtain credible, third-party certification of their supply chains. This means that a number of brands have been certified that I feel uncomfortable about.
Second, every certified company, whether they’re a decade into the work or they are making promises on a five-year plan, wears the same logo and tells consumers the same story. While on paper this might make sense, I believe it makes the certification less about merit and more about administrative skill. In short, there is little way to distinguish a genuine leader from a competent box-ticker.
Third, the certification has systematically failed to adapt to the ways in which virtual and small, flexible employers operate. This is a drum I have been banging for almost a decade. We are still asked to report as if we have a head office, and little has been done to consider the impact a virtual workforce has, or the ways it needs to operate.
Fourth, this lack of understanding as to the nuances of differing forms of business means that the Impact Assessment also fails to offer tailored recommendations for improvement. This misses one of the real opportunities, in my view, for businesses, in helping to establish an action plan for change. By lumping everyone into the same boat it once again makes the exercise more about box ticking than systemic change.
And fifth, I have always believed that systemic change will come from ground-up practises, not top-down policy and legislation alone. I had hoped the new B Corp criteria would reflect this more but it seems even more distanced from the day-to-day realities of modern commercial life.
Having consulted with the full ELE team, as well as our advisory board, I have now reached the decision that I would rather put the time (and increasingly large financial burden) into the work itself.
We are absolutely not stepping away from the principle. We were one of the highest-scoring UK marketing agencies holding B Corp certification, demonstrating our ethical credentials in both the way we operate and the ways we support our clients. This has taken determination and focus, and ELE will continue to operate the way we always have. We will work hard, every day, to be better and more ethical. We will still advocate for fairer and more responsible business practises. We will continue to support the Better Business Act and Good Business Charter campaigns. And we will always hold ourselves to the highest standards, as well as helping our clients to do the same.
None of that needed a certificate to be true, and none of it changes on 18 June.
I am aware that many of our clients and partners are B Corps, or working through the certification process. If this is you and this sound as a criticism, it isn’t. There are brilliant businesses inside the movement doing real work. I am proud to see the legal sector finally starting to embrace certification, as well as the many legal businesses using it as a framework to underpin their strategic growth. The process, for many, is transformative. My quarrel is with the standard, not the people holding it. I hope it gets to where it needs to be.
In the meantime, the work continues. Just without the logo. And without ELE.
