Frank Bold has recently become a certified B Corporation for its activities as a law firm. This new status reflects the firm’s general policy of combining its business activities with socially valuable objectives.
The B Corporation label is a certification process demonstrating that a company adheres to the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. It also shows that a company is dedicated to using the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems.
B Corps are part of a growing movement that aims at redefining success in business, so that it is not limited to making profit but extends to creating benefit for the society and the planet. It thus goes a step further than the numerous initiatives targetting the avoidance or limitation of social and environmental adverse impacts.
B Corporation certification is supervised by B Lab, a non-profit organisation that serves the expanding global movement of people ‘using business as a force of good’. Certification is granted to companies that pass B Lab’s Impact Assessment, which includes detailed and standardised impact assessment indicators, as well as a customised platform for measuring those impacts. Companies must also meet the legal requirements for accountability set by B Lab. These requirements depend on the company’s state of incorporation and corporate structure.
The median score for businesses completing the B Impact Assessment is 55 points. To be certified, businesses must earn a verified score of 80 points. For the year 2016, Frank Bold earned 96 points for its commercial activities. Frank Bold has a unique hybrid structure that brings together (1) a Certified B Corp law firm that services primarily commercial clients that meet ethical guidelines set by the organisation, and (2) a non-profit section that benefits from funding from Frank Bold’s business activities, charitable foundations and other entities in order to fulfill its mission. Frank Bold as a whole shares the purpose of creating public benefit by solving social and environmental problems.
Today, more than 1,700 corporations are Certified B Corps, coming from 42 countries and covering over 120 industries. This includes several world-wide known brands such as Ben & Jerry’s (a subsidiary of global consumer product giant Unilever), and Patagonia, as well as publicly traded companies, such as the e-commerce site Etsy, cosmetics maker Natura, and Triodos bank.
By becoming a B Corp, Frank Bold has entered a leading business community, which proves its ability to do business by directly serving social and environmental interests.
Further information is avaialble on the official B-Corporation website: http://www.bcorporation.net.
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Text edited by Sandrine Brachotte
Czech Supreme Administrative Court ruled today in favour better protection of human health from air pollution in Brno, a Czech city with 370 thousand inhabitants. The Court revoked the city's Air Quality Management Plan, issued in 2016 by the Czech Ministry of Environment. The reasoning of the ruling has not been made public yet, but the main argument against the plan was that it was not effective enough and would not lead to a swift achievement of the binding air quality standards. A similar ruling was issued in December 2017 with respect to Ostrava and in February 2018 regarding Prague and Usti region.
Czech Supreme Administrative Court ruled yesterday in favour better protection of human health from air pollution in Usti region on the northern border of the Czech Republic. The Court partially revoked the region's Air Quality Management Plan, issued in 2016 by the Czech Ministry of Environment.
Prague Municipal Court ruled today in favour better protection of human health from air pollution in the capital of the Czech Republic. The Court revoked most of Prague's Air Quality Management Plan, issued in 2016 by the Czech Ministry of Environment.
