#86 Bernard Gouw & Jo Chidley: Will Every Company Become a B Corp?

Is this the start of a B Corps revolution? Listen to Bernard Gouw, Senior Social Standards Manager at B Lab Global, and founder of the natural skincare brand Beauty Kitchen, Jo Chidley

What are the new B Corps standards, and what impact will they have on the future of responsible business?

In this episode of the Frankly Speaking podcast, Richard Howitt was joined by Bernard Gouw, Senior Social Standards Manager at B Lab Global, and founder of the natural skincare brand Beauty Kitchen, Jo Chidley.

Together they explained how the new B Corps standards differ from the previous ones, and where B Lab sits within the broader certification landscape. You’ll also hear more about:

The significant emphasis the new standards place on stakeholder governance

B Corp’s latest milestone of encompassing 10,000 companies employing over one million workers

How Beauty Kitchen developed a returnable packaging system to meet the standard’s environmental requirements against single-use, plastic packaging

How the EU’s Empowering Consumers Directive will affect B Corps, especially regarding third-party verifications or audits

The impact that big corporations becoming B-Corps has on the overall movement

Why the ESG backlash hasn’t been felt as harshly within the B Corps movement

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"We're coming together under this badge of collective action and for me that's what really drives the change that will happen within the B Corp movement. You're not an individual bystander; you're rolling up your sleeves. You're coming together to really admit the areas that you need to tackle within your particular industry and creating that blueprint so that nobody is doing it on their own. You're doing it together."

Jo Chidley