In late June of this year I received some wonderful news: Localize would be part of an elite group of mission-driven companies across the world recognized by the B Corp certification as ‘Best For the World Honorees’ for 2017. For the past three months we have kept this under our figurative hats, but today we’re excited to share the news!
Today we have been recognized not just in one category, but in three, all of which are measured by the auditable Comprehensive B Impact Assessment:
2017 Best For Community: Honored as Best for Community, creating most positive community impact.
2017 Best For the Long Term: Honored as Best for the Long Term, Creating Powerful Governance Structures to Protect Company Mission
2017 Best For the World: Changemakers list. Honored as Most Improved Impact Business, leading the race to the top of companies creating positive change. Between 2014 and 2016, Localize increased our B Impact score by over 30 points, rising from 87 points to 120 overall.
Achieving any one of these particular honors are an especially gratifying milestone for both myself and Localize – achieving all three is an especially strong validation of the incredible work put in by the team who has built this company, at every stage of our growth.
Best for the World Honorees represent the top 10% of over 2200 B Corps companies across the world, all of whom are companies who are innovating to enhance our communities, improve and sustain our environment, show transparency and integrity in leadership, and craft better solutions for a better world.
B Corp Certification is not a minor matter: It involves not just a social mission, but also the integrity to measure and prove the impact of that mission. Some people help communicate this meaning as being ‘what Fair Trade is to coffee, B Corp certification is to business.’
For Localize, our mission is to create a better food system through improved labeling and transparency. Our local food labels have shown shoppers how they can support more local and transparent food through hundreds of millions of purchases, all of which have increased reinvestment and profits for local economies.
As this company forges ahead with new labeling programs and big dreams for big food issues, being recognized as a 2017 Best for the World recipient is a validation that we’ve built a company and a mission that we can be proud of, and hopefully, share our wisdom and hard knocks with others to help them change the world for better business.
If you don’t know what a B Corp is, I encourage you find out more at www.bcorporation.net. For the exclusive list of Best For the World Honorees, find out more at www.bthechange.com. To learn more about the criteria that it takes to be Best For the World, go www.bthechange.com/2017-best-for-the-world-criteria-56aed7eab13a.
Lastly, if you want to learn more about our path to becoming certified as a B Corp, or if you are a company considering the standard, check out some of our reflections in our blog and in the news.
For the Localize and B Corp joint news release, please see attached.
