David Garbous is a specialist in food marketing and the creator of the B Corp training course at Hectar. He is convinced that a company that makes a commitment to its stakeholders for society and the environment enters into a virtuous circle and that a common frame of reference makes it possible to move towards sustainable growth.
To train with Hectar is to choose to undertake in the agricultural sector by taking into account a triple economic, social and environmental performance. These demanding commitments are more meaningful if their results are evaluated. This is the role of the B Corp certification. David Garbous, a specialist in agri-food marketing, will accompany the learners and entrepreneurs in this process.
The B Corp (Benefit Corporation) certification was born in the 2000s at the initiative of a group of American entrepreneurs who wanted the ethical values they had integrated into their company to be perpetuated over time. They therefore had the idea of developing a tool to evaluate the impact that a company produces on society and the environment. The aim is to work towards equitable, inclusive and regenerative growth through operational commitments with an ethical dimension. This is how the BIA (Beneficial Impact Assessment) was born. In France, 140 companies have been certified to date.
To commit to a B Corp certification is to undertake a reflection on its concrete performance in social and environmental matters, to set objectives for the future while imposing a high level of transparency. The BIA is an extremely precise matrix which, through a series of specific questions, makes it possible to evaluate the positive and negative impacts that the company produces on society and the environment. It therefore makes it possible to evaluate performance on the basis of a common reference framework and operational criteria, while respecting the specificities of the markets and sectors of activity of the companies. For example, in the case of an agricultural enterprise, questions on the resources used by the farm, energy and inputs, and effluents must be answered precisely. On the basis of its assessment, the company must make commitments that will be monitored three years later. Finally, there is a principle of transparency as the company's impact score is public.
Consumers will be increasingly attentive to the impact of agriculture, a key lever for the ecological transition. The B Corp approach forces a company's teams to ask questions about its externalities, to consider the company in its global ecosystem with all its interdependencies and complexity. Furthermore, being transparent allows a company to stand out in the eyes of its customers, and is therefore a lever for development. Finally, entering a B Corp process means joining a community of companies within which good practices are exchanged; it also means entering a company project because working towards B Corp certification can be an opportunity to formulate its raison d'être. In short, it is entering a virtuous circle that is a source of progress.
