Last week, the non-profit B Lab announced its 2014 ‘Best for the World’ list. 92 companies worldwide were recognized for creating the most positive overall social and environmental impact. Farmland LP is proud to be recognized among the honorees for the second year in a row, an accomplishment that truly speaks to our mission of creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
The B Corp ‘Best for the World’ list honors businesses that earned an overall score in the top 10% of all Certified B Corporations on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment. Honorees were recognized among micro, small and mid-sized businesses.
The ‘Best for the World’ companies come from 31 different industries such as manufacturing, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and real estate. A majority operate in a service industry. Farmland LP is the only agriculture company to earn recognition. (See the full list of honorees at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net.)
“Employees, consumers, investors, and policy makers increasingly want to support companies that create a positive impact in the world and the ‘Best for the World’ honorees are the best of the best,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab, the nonprofit organization that certifies B Corporations and governs the independent third party standard used to generate the comparable assessment of corporate impact.
Farmland LP sought B Corp verification as soon as we were eligible so as to align our operations with our values and to show our commitment externally. But more important to us than a certification is how our work sets up the conditions for long-term, positive changes in the land, environment and communities in which we work.
So, how are we doing? The B Corp Impact assessment rates us against other certified B Corps on each of four measures: Governance (our score 18, median score 10), Workers (our score 34, median score 22) Community (our score 87, median score 32), Environment (our score 12, median score 9).
We’d like to add to the list our other important stakeholder groups, farmers and investors. Currently, we have 21 farmer-partners, all of whom we work very closely with and do our best to foster mutually beneficial, enduring relationships. Our investors also represent a key part of the puzzle, because their support makes everything else possible.
We feel good that our investors have signed-off on our mission in its entirety, including our commitment to multiple stakeholders as demonstrated by our B Corp status, and that we’re able to offer them a stable return on their investment. After all, profitability is an important tenet of sustainability.