Oxwash is a Certified B Corporation!
14th November 2022
Sustainability
We are incredibly proud to have achieved a B Corp accreditation and join the incredible international community of like-minded B Corp Certified businesses. It’s been a long and rigorous journey but one that we would recommend to any company that wants to make a positive impact in the world.
What are Certified B Corporations?
Certified B Corporations are companies that underwent specific high-standard assessments for their corporate social and environmental impact. It is a renowned certification granted to the leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Unlike other certifications, B Lab assesses the entire impact of the company; It is a recognition of not just a good product, but of a holistically good business which truly drives a more equitable and regenerative future.
How does the B Assessment work?
Each B Corp must demonstrate certain values. The company is assessed across five categories: governance, workers, community, the environment, and customers. B Lab would ask a company undergoing the assessment a series of questions addressing its impact such as, for example, what percentage of the company is owned by full-time workers, what percentage of the management is from underrepresented populations or how the company monitors its waste production. The process also requires the company to mobilise all of its employees. This journey is a great way to educate and engage the team in the environmental mission, which can bring a lot of satisfaction to the employees as well.
We have been assessed with very high performance across these five categories by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 94.8. The assessment is not just a score though - it also gives us an opportunity to see where Oxwash can do better. It allows us to join the B Impact Assessment platform to identify, track, and learn about improvement opportunities and better practices available.
What does it mean for us?
Being a Certified B Corp also means that we are now legally bound to follow specific environmental and labour policies. All Certified B Corp companies are held to account through continual monitoring and assessment of their impacts. It is also yet another confirmation that Oxwash is in it for the long run, as B Lab requires reassessment and recertification every 3 years.
We are changing our corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders. What we mean by a stakeholder, is everyone who is directly or indirectly affected by our business, including our customers, employees and the environment.
Saying this, we also pledge to exhibit transparency by publishing information about Oxwash's performance and allowing it to be measured against B Lab’s standards. These will be publicly available on our B Corp profile on the B Lab’s website.
Why does it matter to us?
B Corp movement leads the way for us but also for other businesses to start to reduce their impact on the environment and communities. All of the B Corps and their successes show that by collaborating as businesses we can do more!
B Corp Certification assures that companies will be held accountable to the highest standards and become transparent, which effectively prevents greenwashing. B Lab also provides a B Hive platform where with other B Corps we can ask each other questions, share best practices, and hold discussions on targeted forums. Sharing knowledge and resources with each other fosters a our common objective of creating shared value.
Just this month, B Lab is celebrating the mark of 1000 companies joining the B Corp movement. One thousand companies worldwide achieved rigorous qualifications and are willing to share their knowledge with each other - and that’s only the beginning! We are honoured to be one of the first thousand companies which joined the B Corp movement. 1000 is a small number in comparison to the scale of the problem we face, but together with other successful B Corp Certified Businesses, we can inspire others to join us on this journey to create a significantly greater impact on the planet. When a business becomes a B Corp, our community gets bigger, better, bolder and more impactful - every new B Corp certification demonstrates that businesses thrive when they act for people and the planet.
Why does it matter to you?
It’s good for us, but its also great for you. A fact that a business has a B Corp Certification allows you to trust that this company is truly walking the talk (and not greenwashing you), as it has been rigorously assessed. You can trust that at Oxwash we are not greenwashing, we are transparent with our operations, and we pay our workers a living wage. You do not have to take our word for that - you can see all of the certificates and data on our B Corp profile.
More and more consumers want to do good with their consumption habits but they are discouraged by the ever-prevalent greenwashing and PR stunts. When you see this fast fashion brand that claims they are using ‘recycled materials’ but still releases 200 new garments per month or this oil company that ‘encourgaes you to reduce your carbon footprint’... well you feel like you don’t know what to do or who to trust anymore. Contrarirly, all Certified B Corporations are lawfully obliged to obey to high environmental and labour standards, as well as to be fully transparent. This gives you all the information you need to make an informed purchase decision and feel like you are consuming true to your values, without being lied to.
What’s next?
We are so proud to be able to call ourselves the world’s only B-Corp laundry platform! We hold Oxwash accountable to the highest standards as we continue to scale. We are going to be assessed by B Lab regularly, to renew the certification every 3 years. You can monitor our progress and assessments on our B Corp profile.
This is not the end of the story and our efforts will not be stopping with our B Corp certification. As we continually strive to improve our environmental credentials, we have recently announced two other ambitious projects we've been working on. At Oxwash have published our Carbon removal certificate alongside our Net Zero Targets. At Oxwash we have now fully removed all the carbon we emitted in 2021 through innovative carbon removal technologies. We have also set rigorous science-based net zero goals, with an ambitious yet realistic plan to be net zero in our direct use by 2025, and in our value chain emissions by 2028. Read more about these initiatives here.
Related Articles
B Corp™ certified.
Surpassing NHS-grade disinfection.
