Bird & Blend Tea Co, the indie tea mixologists boasting 100+ flavours of tea, today announced that it has been certified as a B Corporation (B Corp), furthering the Company’s commitment toward operating its business as a force for good, and not solely focused on the business P&L.
Gaining certification is tough. The process assesses all areas of the business and it’s taken Bird & Blend 18 months to finalise B Corp status. The accreditation, managed by non-profit organisation, B Lab, saw the company’s social and environmental performance measured.
Bird & Blend went through a rigorous review of the impact of their operations and business model on their workers, customers, communities, and environment, and had to meet a minimum verified score on the B Impact Assessment.
Mike Turner, Co-Founder Bird & Blend Tea Co. said, “On the assessment, the business scored 90.1. The average score for an ordinary business is 51. 80 is the threshold for passing – and so our score is a real achievement for our whole team. Collectively we are very proud to now be a member of the B Corp community and the rigorous process we’ve undertaken to get here means that as a business we are better already.”
He continued, “This is the first major certification that the brand has pursued, and we decided to go for it because we knew that B Lab would shine a light across all aspects of the business and push for improvement, both during the certification process and on an ongoing basis.”
A core value of Bird & Blend has been sustainability and social responsibility from day one, with a commitment to ‘no waste’ and ‘environmental responsibility’ as top priority. As a business they are committed to taking climate action to reduce the impact that the business has on the environment, they seek responsible consumption and production whenever it is possible and society impact is also top of the agenda, with each of its retail outlets chosen to be situated in a community and used as a platform to give back to chariTEA.
Turner concluded, “Krisi Smith and I co-founded the business 10 years ago, and we’ve been determined to be about more than just profits. We were a bit disheartened by most certification schemes but decided 2 years ago that B Corp seemed to be a bit different. It seemed like it could really help us to measure how we’re performing outside of the P&L – and more importantly, how to keep improving that.
And this is just the start… We scored 90.1 this time but are already working on improvements to boost this at the next audit in 3 years time!”
Bird & Blend is joining a network of 400 B Corps in the UK.
