Hive IT are officially a B Corp™!
The journey to become a Certified B Corporation™ began back in 2022 when we first became aware of the movement. We made the decision in 2024 to pursue certification and made it a key business goal last year.
It's been quite the journey - two years of hard work and dedication from everyone here, but along the way, we’ve learned an enormous amount about what it means and what is needed to be counted among businesses that are leading a global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.
We were helped enormously in this process by Better Not Stop, who provided invaluable guidance, advice and helped us understand that certification is only the beginning - we realise there is still a lot we can do as an organisation.
We’ve achieved an impact score of 92 from B Lab, which is well above the minimum requirement of 80. We couldn’t be prouder of this impact score and look to continue to improve year on year.
Verified by B Lab, the not-for-profit behind the B Corp movement, this achievement demonstrates that Hive IT meets the high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability alongside a commitment to goals beyond shareholder value.
Because of the sectors we work in, such as public sector services, education and healthcare, to name a few, there’s a real responsibility attached to what we do. The digital services we design and build often sit close to people’s everyday experiences and lives. Whether that’s helping a user manage their personal health needs, people needing access to vital support, or helping organisations deliver essential services. So, how we work is just as important as what we produce.
Why we chose to do it
The decision to pursue B Corp certification wasn’t driven by a single moment or an impulse decision. It came from ongoing conversations internally about purpose, accountability and the kind of company we want Hive IT to be and to continue being.
Seeing the number of companies we admire - ethical, principled ones who put their employees, customers, the environment and society as a whole at the centre of their organisation - brought home to us both that it was something worthwhile, and that if we were the kind of company we think we are, it had to be something we could achieve.
What the process taught us
One of the largest advantages of the certification process was the reflection it allowed us to understand, and the journey it took us to get here.
We undertook a rigorous B Impact Assessment, where our entire business performance, inside and out, is assessed. The assessment focuses on five key areas, which are:
- Governance: This looks at what we stand for as a business, including our values and how it's accountable to our stakeholders.
- Workers: This measures carefully how well we look after our team members, focusing on pay, benefits, training, career development, safety and working conditions.
- Community: This assesses how we as a business interact with and impact local communities. It takes into account diversity, fairness, inclusion and who we choose to work with.
- Environment: This evaluates how we manage our environmental impact. It focuses on minimising business footprint regarding air, climate, water, land and biodiversity.
- Customers: This assesses how we serve our customers, focusing on the quality of our products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security.
This assessment allowed us to take a step back and look at the organisation in a more holistic way and examine our internal processes with a toothpick comb. It made us think about:
- Why we exist as a company
- One of the conditions of certification is that we change our articles of association to state that our purpose is not just to be successful for our shareholders or employees, but also to have a material positive impact on society and the environment.
- What it means to be ethical
- Crafting an ethical policy that had meaning - that would define who we would and wouldn’t work with and how we’d do it - was unexpectedly challenging and the subject of a great deal of discussion!
- The importance of defining and documenting our approach and policies.
- Certification is about much more than how you act - it means you must have evidence of your actions, but also the principles and policies that underlie that. For most of our eleven years, we’ve relied on our employees and leadership behaving ethically, without documenting what that means. Over the course of three months last year, we created a dozen new policies! Together with our ESG goals and related KPIs.
- How to ensure we continue to monitor and improve our performance on every level
- By creating Environmental, Social and Governance goals and defining how we measure our progress against them, our leadership team is now responsible for monitoring and improving our performance and committed to reporting that information back to everyone at Hive.
What does this mean going forward?
Becoming a B Corp doesn’t change who we are overnight. While this is still a huge step and an amazing milestone to achieve, we’re not perfect and don’t claim to have it all figured out. What it does mean is a much clearer commitment to keep learning, keep improving and keep doing the work behind the scenes to have a positive impact on our team, our community and the planet.
In practical terms, it means that every potential supplier and client will be measured against our policies and principles. We will not work with organisations that do not protect human rights, equality and democratic principles, undermine economic and social justice or harm the environment, wildlife and animals.
You can read more about the commitments we have made in our ethical policy, our ethical marketing policy, our Social & Environmental Goals and our outsourced staffing policy.
The team
This amazing achievement wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and determination from our whole team. This milestone belongs to you.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved together, and we’re even more motivated about what comes next.
A few words from Managing Director, Jonny Rippon:
“Becoming a Certified B Corp™ is a major milestone for Hive IT and a truly proud moment for me personally.
We knew from when we discovered the B Corp movement that it was aligned with our mission and a good fit for Hive. But achieving the standard has been a mission in itself, and we have used the process to frame and improve our social good.
As a founder, it gives me the confidence that as we continue to grow and evolve as a business, we have in place the right principles and practices to continue to be a force for good and support our people, community and the planet.”