This week in our B Corporation series we will focus on the B Corporation responses to two subjects of strong interest to us – COVID-19 safety and employee development.
Like the first of the featured corporations AMS has addressed COVID-19 safety in a CDC-based, determined and broad ranging manner. We have published a number of safety blogs on the subject relaying in detail the changes that were made and decisions that were taken. We invite you to read those blogs HERE at our blog page. Also like the featured B Corp, Cabot Creamery, we have had no cases originate in our warehouses as we also got ahead of it early.
The second article features interviews with business leaders from a fairly new Black-owned, Iowa-based B Corp called BLK and Bold, and South Mountain Company, one of the founding B Corps. The article talks about employee development and putting the local community first. AMS has a long and very inspiring history of workforce development and working closely with organizations in the community to hire individuals who have faced obstacles in finding employment. So this subject too is of interest to us.
We hope you enjoy reading about the many things B Corporations do to ‘Be the Change’ and be good for the world.
B Corp Cabot Creamery Leans on Interdependence to Safely Address COVID-19
Stakeholder-Based Adaptations Help Cooperative Manage Distribution Issues in Dairy Industry
“As many of us spend more time in our homes than we previously did, the beginning of this year can seem like a distant past in which we were able to go about our day-to-day lives without fear of the novel coronavirus. But even though the virus had not yet spread through the United States, its effects were being felt in other parts of the world. Noticing the significant toll the coronavirus was taking on countries in Europe and Asia, Cabot Creamery, a Certified B Corporation dairy cooperative based in Vermont, began shifting operations to anticipate its arrival in the United States early in 2020.
“We have been fortunate to not have any COVID-19 cases in any of our plants,” says Bill Beaton, the recently appointed CEO of Cabot. “And that is really because we got ahead of it so early. We jumped on it in February and early March.”
What It Looks Like When Businesses Put Employee Development and Their Local Community First — Even in Challenging Times
How B Corp Certification Improves Impact Strategies in Unexpected Ways
“The thousands of businesses around the world that have joined the Certified B Corporation community since 2008 represent a variety of industries and sizes, but they share a common focus on business success beyond the bottom line. By striving to create benefit for people and planet as well as profit, B Corps also establish strong company values that keep them rooted through turbulent times.
“This year has tested those values, and many B Corps have found new strength in their purpose-driven values and impact strategies. To hear firsthand how B Corp values have provided stability in an ever-changing reality, B The Change spoke with business leaders from BLK & Bold, a Black-owned, Des Moines, Iowa-based specialty coffee and tea roastery and wholesaler launched in 2018, and South Mountain Company, a 45-year-old architecture, engineering, building, and renewable energy business based on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. South Mountain is among the initial founding B Corps, gaining certification in 2008, while BLK & Bold is a newly certified B Corp.”
