Holding Companies Accountable Through Transparency
By allowing a third party such as B Corp to evaluate the business as a whole, this holds brands accountable for what goes on behind the scenes.
Sadly due to mass consumption and keeping up with consumer demands a lot of name brands outsource and do not value transparency.
We see this in the fast fashion industry quite a bit. There is a lot of mistreatment of garment workers, forced labor, unfair wages, and harsh environmental impacts coming from the fast fashion industry.
Today it is common for popular brands to have beautiful crafted “social responsibility” statements on their websites, but most name brands do not carry these values through out the crafting of the garments.
For example, if we look at the Rana Plaza incident popular “American” brands were using this factory in Bangladesh to make their clothes.
However when the factory collapsed and killed over 1,100 garment workers, these big name brands were not held accountable.
Brands who go through the B Corporation process are held to a level of transparency that evaluates the entire process behind the business including materials used to craft the product, how the people are treated through out the supply chain, employee benefits, etc.
By having a third party verify the behind the scenes process, this helps prevent tragedies like Rana Plaza.
B Corporations Help Fight Against Greenwashing
Today consumerism is highly influenced by marketing and unfortunately there are quite a few unethical brands taking advantage of the growing popularity of sustainability.
For example, H&M has been attempting to brand themselves as sustainable & transparent due to certain lines of clothing made from recycled materials.
However, when we look at H&M’s overall business model it relies on consumers viewing clothes as disposable and mass production which is harmful to the planet.
While H&M is using sustainability as a marketing tool, we can clearly see that their business model does not focus on eco-conscious values. This is greenwashing.
Learn more about H&M’s greenwashing in this deep dive!
