Becoming a B Corp

We’re firm believers in the power of digital to not just change the world, but to make it a better place. That’s why we couldn’t be prouder to be a Certified B Corp™ . DEPT® became a Certified B Corp in October 2021 and in our first year of achieving the certification, we were recognised as one of the Best for the World™ B Corps of 2022 in Governance. This puts us in the top 5% of B Corps in our size group around the world.

Becoming a B Corp was confirmation that, together, we are building an agency that has a positive impact on our people, our clients, the planet and society at large.

As a B Corp, DEPT® has joined a community of 5,000+ businesses across the world – and across all industries – seeking to use their business as a force for good, dedicated to balancing purpose and profit. This collective includes Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, Rituals and Allbirds, to name a few of our favourites.

Becoming (and staying) a B Corp is not easy

Our B Corp Certification keeps us accountable to our #goodcompany goals. We are asked to assess our performance every three years across five key areas of impact: workers, clients, governance, community, and the environment. We are also legally committed to consider the impact of our business across those five areas and pass a questionnaire of negative risks.

DEPT® is proud of our score of 89.2 points on our initial certification, and we’re excited to work on expanding the scope of our certification to the teams we’ve brought on board since 2021, as well as increasing our performance over time.

Our B Corp Certification and the B Impact Assessment allow us to better communicate, assess, and improve our impact. It helps us to build a roadmap for positive impact, from our employees to our office waste, our supply chain to our clients.

So, what prompted us to invest so much in this certification?

In short, our Depsters. Our B Corp journey began as an employee suggestion that sparked a company-wide initiative to take on the hefty responsibility of measuring, documenting and codifying our impact.

Now, we’re working hard to ensure that our #goodcompany goals and ambitions are integrated into our day-to-day work. You can read more about all of our initiatives and progress in our Impact Reports:

Download our 2022 Impact Report
Download our 2021 Impact Report
Download our 2020 Impact Report

What does it mean for DEPT®?

When we first set off to become a B Corp, we thought we were in pretty good shape. We had just become a Climate Neutral Certified, and had worked on a number of exciting impact projects with clients such as Patagonia, Indigo AG, JustDiggit and Ireland’s HSE. For these reasons, we thought we were already a good company. But — plot twist! — turns out that we could be a lot better.

Becoming a B Corp forced us to think about how to make our Impact Strategy more effective and take a 360-degree view to be a good company. It also showed us that, although we had already made some significant strides, truly being a good company requires dedication towards an ongoing mission to improve DEPT® from the inside out. We continue to be guided by our Impact Strategy, developed in 2020 to focus across three main pillars: Climate; Clients; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I).

Becoming a B Corp has been far more than simply an exercise of ticking a box or earning a badge. It represents an ongoing journey of improvement and growth. Throughout that journey, we now know that our dedication and commitment to moving our impact strategy forward has to be unwavering, our culture must continue to evolve, and we have a critical role to play as a responsible steward, particularly of emerging technology such as AI.