We believe that pursuing profit and purpose, in equal parts, is the obvious thing to do for our business. Not only does it help with attracting and retaining talent that’s aligned with our values, it also solidifies our commitment to our clients and their results. This, in turn, helps us grow organically through our reputation, referrals, and recognition. Most importantly, it helps us sleep at night.
Since our beginnings in 2016, our co-founders, Nat and Richard, envisioned establishing a business that is committed to transparent and responsible business practices that treat our team, clients, community, and the environment with respect, appreciation, and dignity.
We also recognize that our business practices need to evolve over time as our global definition of “doing the responsible thing as businesses” also evolves. And in order for us to be able to “do the right things” (check out what those are in the Impact Highlights below), Hyphen has to be effective and profitable.
So, to us, purpose and profitability have never been mutually exclusive. Which is why, 7 years into our journey as a professional services firm and exactly 1 year ago today, we submitted our application to become a B Corp.
Today, we’re celebrating being an official B Corp! 🎉
Being one of 24 firms in the marketing agency space certified as a B Corp in Canada (as of 2024) is a significant achievement and important milestone in our commitment to being a responsible firm.
Hyphen’s B Corp Score
Hyphen earned an overall B Corp score of 86.1 out of a possible 200. The minimum passing score is 80, and the median score for ordinary businesses is 50.9 (according to B Lab).
You can review our thorough breakdown here, and we will be publishing it on our website in the future.
There’s a lot of room for improvement, and we love a challenge! To maintain our B Corp status, we will have to recertify every 3 years. This includes providing evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices relating to energy supplies, waste and water use, worker compensation, diversity, and corporate transparency.
We will continue to make improvements and consider our overall impact in our work and business decisions to drive progress and meaningful changes for our team, clients, and community.
As a result, we aim to continuously work on increasing our B Corp score in an effort to become the most impactful creative professional services firm. It’s a journey!
Why B Corp for Hyphen?
Talk is cheap, and we like to walk our talk.
What is a B Corporation (B Corp)?
B Corps envision a world where businesses lead the way in transforming the global economy to make it more equitable, sustainable, and human.
B Corp certification is run by B Lab, a not-for-profit. It has rigorous social and environmental standards that represent a commitment to goals outside of shareholder profit.
The B Corp certification addresses the entirety of a business’ operations and covers key impact areas, including Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers.
Every three years, B Corps must recertify to retain their certification.
Hyphen’s Impact Highlights
Evidence of our commitment to B Corp values can already be found throughout our work, DEI efforts, career development programs, and robust ethics and anti-corruption practices. For example:
- Governance: We take good governance seriously, which includes having a written code of ethics and whistleblower policy.
- Workers: We focus on employee well-being, which includes providing our team with supplementary healthcare coverage and annual budgets for external professional development.
- Community: We are actively involved in volunteering and charitable giving, which includes paid time off for our team for community service and our membership in 1% for the Planet since 2020.
- Environment: We proactively monitor and minimize our environmental impact, which includes stated objectives and quantifiable targets for environmental aspects of our operations.
- Customers: We are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for our customers, which includes ongoing measurement of customer satisfaction and formal quality control mechanisms.
Feeling aligned with our values?
The best way to create a more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy is together, which means collaborating with other companies like yours that are keen to take a more responsible and meaningful approach to business.
When partnering with Hyphen, you can be confident that you are working with a team dedicated to making a lasting difference for your business and for the world. Together, we will set an example of how meaningful relationships and thoughtful marketing practices can create positive and lasting change.
PS: Special thanks to Ben Thorne of Enriched Horizons for expertly guiding us through the B Corp process and helping us achieve this goal. Without Ben, it would have taken us years to navigate the application and certification process.
