The B Corp movement in Ireland
Testimony and invitation by Earth’s Edge
This article hasn’t been updated since Jul 7, 2021. For more up-to-date information, please visit our blog on bcorporation.eu
At Earth’s Edge, we take our customers to some of the most beautiful places in the world, from the summit of Kilimanjaro to the heart of the Khumbu Valley in Nepal. We lead our clients through some of the most incredible scenery on the planet, breathing in the purest mountain air and trekking through remote villages and forests. But the reason we go to these places is the same reason that we want to protect them. We love the unspoiled beauty of this world, and our aim is to explore these places while actively preserving what makes them so special.
From day one, Earth’s Edge was run as a sustainable business. From our base in Ireland, we’ve always led community projects (like running free day hikes for disadvantaged pupils in a Dublin school) and environmental missions (planting three trees for every customer each year). But our journey to becoming a B Corp was one of our proudest moments.
The process made us look at every element of the business. We’ve always been passionate about sustainability, responsible travel and community development. Gaining our B Corp status means that we’re now looking towards our future and setting active goals for how we want to run Earth’s Edge.
Some of our goals now include…
- Becoming 100% carbon neutral
- Becoming a more transparent business
- Growing and increasing our social development projects
- Partnering with other B Corps to increase awareness around businesses responsibility to the community and the environment
That final goal is one of the most important. In Ireland, there aren’t a huge amount of B Corp businesses. We strongly believe that the more B Corps there are, the better. So we want to assist other Irish businesses as best we can, by offering our own stories and support, in order to help as many other companies achieve their own certification. One piece of advice we would give to any business owner considering becoming a B Corp comes from our MD James:
‘My advice would be to simply make a start! You might find that your business is already on the right track. The assessment will only help you improve your social and environmental performance further. I like to look at it like climbing a big mountain, viewed in its entirety, it can seem like an impossible task but broken into parts and taken step by step it is totally achievable.’
We are particularly proud to be the highest rated B Corp in Ireland, but we believe that role also gives us a sense of responsibility towards the Irish business world as a whole. Our Customer Care Champion, Joyce says;
‘It’s a fantastic incentive to keep making strides forward and keep working to improve on everything we’re doing.’
Being a part of the B Corp Climate Collective Race to Net Zero allows us to engage with other B Corps to learn and grow as a business in order to ultimately take positive actions in response to the climate emergency.
We know from our own experience how (rightfully) rigorous the B Corp Impact Assessment process can be, and know how daunting it can seem at the start. Which is why we want to offer our own experiences, and act as a mentor of sorts to anyone who is interested in starting their own journey as B Corp. As a business that has come out the other side, we can assure anyone that it’s most definitely a journey worth taking.
Earth’s Edge is an Irish B Corp, certified in January 2021. This account gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
