GUEST COLUMN:
Kris Ablett
Head of Customer and People
Sero
When organisations pursue accreditations, it’s often because a customer requires it or to strengthen a bid or framework submission. For us at Sero, however, the decision to become a Certified B Corporation didn’t follow that familiar path.
When we first achieved accreditation in early 2021, it wasn’t to meet a procurement specification or unlock a commercial opportunity. In fact, we are rarely asked if we have the certification – something we’d love to see change.
So why do it?
For us, a purpose-driven organisation working to accelerate the transition to zero-carbon homes, becoming a B Corp was never about a badge. It was about accountability: having an independent, rigorous framework that helps ensure we stay true to the values on which we were founded, especially as we grow and investment introduces more voices and more responsibility.
The B Corp movement is a global initiative led by the nonprofit organisation B Lab. To become a B Corp, companies undergo a detailed assessment across five key areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. The accreditation recognises organisations that balance purpose with profit and are legally committed to considering the impact of their decisions on people and the planet, not just shareholders.
It’s also not a one-off achievement. B Corps must recertify every three years, meeting evolving standards that push companies to continuously improve.
For us, this model felt like a natural match, and as B Corp champion for Sero, I genuinely believe that if you treat B Corp as a badge, you’re truly missing an opportunity.
Working with social housing providers to improve homes, ensuring they are energy efficient, healthier and more affordable to power, we already see tangible positive social and environmental outcomes every day.
But with around 18 months before our third B Corp assessment, and with an updated set of global standards on the horizon, we know the accreditation has shaped far more than our customer proposition.
It has influenced who we are as an employer, how we show up in our community, and how we govern ourselves.
Being a B Corp has helped us sharpen our identity as an employer committed to fairness, flexibility and well-being. This includes being a real Living Wage employer and building a genuinely flexible working environment. One that empowers our team to design working patterns around energy levels, personal responsibilities and what helps them produce their best work. Our focus is firmly on outcomes, not hours.
It helps us stay true to who we always set out to be, from everyday decisions like the coffee we buy for the office, to bigger decisions such as ensuring our pension provider is ethical and sustainable.
B Corp has become a tool for alignment, ensuring the choices we make inside the organisation reflect the impact we want to have outside it.
During our last assessment, we scored strongly on our practices and culture, but we realised there were areas where our paperwork hadn’t quite caught up. As a busy and growing SME, we had been so focused on delivery that not every good practice had been formally documented through policies, evidence logs or frameworks.
In true B Corp style, this became an opportunity for improvement rather than a setback. With a new standard to live up to in 18 months, we’re already identifying the areas where we need to get better at now, so that when we come to re-assessment, it truly feels embedded.
This iterative approach: act, evaluate, improve, mirrors how we deliver innovation projects and reflect the broader ethos of the social housing sector, where learning and continuous improvement are at the heart of decarbonisation work.
Wales has a thriving and growing B Corp community spanning sectors from creative industries to manufacturing to technology. We have benefitted enormously from being part of this movement and loved sharing and learning, supporting one another and navigating the challenges of being a business that aims to do good while also doing well.
Through events, discussions and peer support, we’ve found a network of like-minded organisations committed to raising standards and demonstrating leadership in responsible business.
With a new assessment approaching and new global standards being introduced, we are already preparing to not just meet requirements, but to continue the journey we began in 2021. B Corp accreditation helps anchor us to the values we were founded on and ensures that as we scale, those values scale with us.
For us, being a B Corp isn’t a marketing label or a commercial tactic. It’s a commitment, a framework, and a reminder of the responsibility we hold to our customers, employees, community and the environment.
It’s accountability, not accolades, and it continues to shape the kind of business we want to be for the long term.
