Building a better world | Attaining B Corp certification for bol
Behind the Screens with Kirsten
After two years of dedication, information gathering and hard work, bol.com is now in proud possession of a B Corp certification. Sustainability Programme Manager Kirsten, was involved from the very start of the process. The result is a key milestone for her as well as the entire bol.com organisation. “As a commercial organisation, bol.com isn’t usually associated with sustainability. And that’s why it’s so amazing we’ve been able to take these steps, because we can now show that we too want to make the world a little better.”
A sustainable mission
“The aim of B Corp is to encourage enterprises to actively contribute to social and environmental well-being. During the certification process you create a framework which you then use to assess yourself as a company. After all, how do you know how environmentally friendly your distribution centre really is? How do you work with your suppliers? And what about your CO2 emissions? How diverse is your team? And does the company donate to charitable organisations? We’ve had all these issues, and more, top of mind for the past two years.”
Before Kirsten joined bol.com, she worked for large commercial organisations such as Ahold and Gall & Gall. Sustainability has been a common thread in her life since she was a student. “I always wanted to do ‘something’ with sustainability. I realised this when I was working on my graduate thesis and later when I found myself involved in various other projects alongside my full-time job. And after my children were born, this topic became even more important to me.”
Changing attitudes within eCommerce
When Kirsten transferred to bol.com’s Commercial Excellence department four years ago, she embarked on a valuable learning period . “I was very happy with my new role and colleagues, but at the same time I found myself in a very materialistic world. So many products and so much packaging, did I really want to be part of this? I talked to my manager about my concerns and indicated that I wanted to contribute to making the commercial sector more sustainable.”
People listened and Kirsten’s ideas were taken seriously. After she completed a temporary project and a sustainability course at the Harvard Business School Online, she joined bol.com’s sustainability team. This is where she started the B Corp project, from scratch. “Sustainability is my passion, and I’m so happy that I have the opportunity to follow my heart at bol.com. It seems that every one within the organisation longs for change and there’s a tremendous drive to try new things. So, after some initial doubts, our team was given complete freedom to work on gaining B Corp certification and as a company we’re now fully committed. This gives me loads of positive energy.”
“Attaining this certification is a first benchmark: this is where we are now. We have to keep working to improve and make our organisation and processes more sustainable.”
The route to a B Corp certification
Kirsten has done a great deal of research over the past two years. “It was a substantial challenge to clarify our position on the B Corp rating and on which areas we needed to improve. For example, we found out we were already on track in terms of inclusiveness and leadership. There was room for improvement in other areas, which led to discussions with various departments and stakeholders within the organisation.”
“Sustainability is an important theme at bol.com, so fortunately, I quickly found that many doors opened for me. One of the longest but most informative projects was the collaboration with our partner Ahold Delhaize. Together we ensured that our B Corp goals are officially incorporated into our articles of association. And this is required for certification, so it was a key milestone in the whole project.”
What does the future hold?
The project doesn’t end now we have gained the B Corp certification, Kirsten explains: “We consider this a first benchmark: this is where we are now. We have to keep working to improve and make our organisation and processes more sustainable. We will recertify in three years’ time, and our ambition is to rate even higher than we do now.”
Will Kirsten remain involved with B Corp? “At the moment I’m working on a new and important theme for bol.com: reducing our CO2 emissions, and our Scope 1, 2 and 3 reporting. I’ll certainly continue to be involved with B Corp, but someone else will take the lead for the next phase. I still have the drive to do something good in this area, and I’m glad we have a good team to achieve this.”