Today we’re going to chat about something that’s very close to our hearts here at Sapling Spirits: B Corp certification. What does being a B Corp mean, you ask? Well, let's unravel this together.
B Lab’s mission is to transform the role of business within society by ensuring companies operate alongside a commitment to generating positive and sustainable impact. They want to reshape the current economic system by addressing core issues related to legal structures, business practices, and corporate culture. Through these efforts, B Lab seeks to combat prevalent issues that arise such as social and economic inequality, environmental degradation, and the decline of individual wellbeing and social cohesion. The B Corp community is a fast growing one with ‘over 2300 B Corps in the UK, and over 125,600 employees’, so there’s so many to choose from; from your shampoo to your chocolate to your vodka!
For us at Sapling Spirits, being a certified B Corp is more than just a label. It's a testament to our commitment to sustainable and socially responsible business practices. Chris Turner, the Executive Director of B Lab UK, states that, ‘As a B Corp, Sapling is raising the bar for businesses in the drinks industry. It's time for others to follow suit’. In line with B Lab’s mission, we strive to use our business as a platform to bring about positive and lasting changes in our industry and beyond. Positivity is an emotion we try to bring into all aspects of the Sapling community, as our co-founder Ed Faulkner says,
'At Sapling, one of the things that's core to our values is being positive about the future, because all of the research shows that if you're negative and doom and gloom with the environment, you actually turn a lot of people off and positivity is really key.'
For both of our founders, the transparency with which they’ve always communicated all aspects of Sapling pairs perfectly with the process of B Corp certification. In fact, they found that B Corp certification made them question things which they had not thought about. Because of this they’ve learned to implement lots of policies around employee support, further layers of impact reporting, and holding our whole supply chain to account.
Ed outlines the process of obtaining a B Corp certification as this,
'A company gets a B Corp score by answering over 200 questions on their whole business, covering everything from social and environmental sustainability within operations to governance structures and supplier auditing. If you score over 80 points you can become a B Corp. We score 127.4 which we are very proud of!'
Being B Corp is something we’re immensely proud of as a company. But the standards with which the B Corp badge holds us to is something that has been fundamental to Sapling since its inception. Ivo Devereux, one of our founders, captures this by saying, ‘my proudest achievement so far since starting Sapling is the fact that we've never actually given up on the key principles that we've started the business with.’
Being a part of a community of like minded B Corp companies is one of the best parts about being a B Corp too. For example, The PIG are a group of B Corp Hotels who state they are ‘committed to help lead the way for the hospitality industry to be a force for good.’ Consequently, together, we have created the zero waste Sapling x The PIG Climate Positive Coffee Vodka using spent coffee grounds from their hotels! You can find this across the PIG sites on their bar menu, like in their PIG White Russian! YUM!
When you choose a B Corp like Sapling Spirits, you’re not just buying a product—you’re backing a movement that champions transparency, community, and eco-conscious innovation. Kate Jackson says consumers, ‘are increasingly buying from companies that they believe behave ethically. They want, rightly so, to see action from the companies that profit from their spending.’. So, when you buy a bottle of our Climate Positive spirit, you have actively contributed to the planting of a tree. You can even track your tree using the unique code we have on top of all our bottles. The knowledge that small actions can lead to positive change is something we believe our consumers value. India Wye Wenner says, ‘People need to believe their actions will have tangible results. [...] Positive activism uses hope and inspires excitement to make a difference, focusing on the results people can achieve with action rather than the consequences of failure.’
We hope you’ve found this little blog informative, this is all quite new to us! So, if you have any feedback or anything you’d like to know, leave us a comment below!
