What is a B Corp?
At its heart, B Corp is a community of companies committed to an entrepreneurial purpose that goes beyond financial success and, in particular, considers all stakeholders interests. More than 8300 companies are now part of this global group. To become part of B Corp, a company must prove in an “impact assessment” that it has internalized the B Corp philosophy and lives it daily within the company. You need at least 80 out of 200 points. After a lengthy verification process, we completed the B-Impact Assessment with 108.6 points.
You can find our public profile at the following link: bcorporation.net/en-us/vicafe
Here you can find more B Corps: bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/
Why did we decide to become a B Corp?
In our view, B Corp is the only holistic certificate that deals with the entire impact of a company. The assessment is stakeholder-oriented and represents our way of thinking, acting as a company and involving all stakeholder groups in decision-making processes.
It is also the only certificate that gives us access to an active community and thus to “crowd knowledge” that would otherwise have to be gathered from numerous papers, books and discussions. Finally, the B-Impact Assessment offers a structured approach to measuring the company’s impact. We see B Corp as the best approach to tackling the most relevant issues globally.
What does B Corp mean for ViCAFE?
For ViCAFE, being a B Corp means being part of a group of progressive people who share knowledge and experience to build companies that make a positive difference. We see B Corp as the catalyst for this change.
We repeatedly find that as a relatively small company, we have to focus our resources on specific impact topics. The B Corp community now gives us access to exciting companies whose knowledge and experience lie in areas not part of our core activities. For example: logistics or more complex environmental systems for our production plants. At the same time, we are, of course, also happy to share our expertise, such as in sourcing coffee.
What makes ViCAFE a B Corp
B Lab works with so-called “impact business models” which are strategies inherent in the business model that characterize the company’s sustainability. At ViCAFE, we have focused on two models:
- Poverty reduction: We want to help marginalized groups, especially coffee farmers, run their farms economically and ecologically. To this end, we build long-term relationships and work consistently with a Cost+ model, in which we ask all participants in a value chain how much they need to earn to cover running and investment costs and make a profit. In turn, we disclose these prices transparently in our annual Impact Report.
- Local value chains: We are also systematically building local value chains. We know that coffee often has to travel thousands of kilometres to reach our roasting plant. However, we try to work as locally as possible for the other products. In our view, this has a positive impact on our footprint and enables us to build closer and more intimate relationships – both with suppliers and with our customers.
With this in mind, we cordially invite you to become part of this journey. We are always open to critical observations and discussions. Read more about our impact: Impact Report 2022
