Sustainability comes at a price

When I was a partner at a startup/scale-up that sold supplies made of recycled ocean plastics to retail businesses, we were keen to show the world how compliant we were.

Years ago, we secured FSC certification when we focused on wooden products. However, as we recognised the significant market for plastic products, we made a strategic shift. We researched the incumbent suppliers, identified better plastics (yes, some plastics are less harmful than others), established a reliable supply chain, and propelled ourselves into the Big League.

We also believed that it would be crucial to become B-Corp certified. We could only become the trusted supplier we wanted to be with that certification. For a small organisation like ours, it took a lot of hours and energy to have all the boxes ticked, all the documents in place, and all people singing from the same hymn sheet. But it took a toll on the organisation: it took away focus from the everyday operations review process had significant delays, and looking back, it seems every Tom, Dick and Harry is B-Corp certified.

The alternative route might have been to forget about this at that stage of the organisation, providing supply chain transparency to the retail multinationals that were serious about procuring from us and documenting everything, including regular test reports from reputable industry experts to ensure there would be no snafus, or that if something went wrong, we would be aware early in the process.

Focus on what is important, not on what is claimed to be important.