As you might have seen from the our messaging, TAP has just been awarded B Corp certification. As a specialist communications agency in world agriculture we are counted among businesses that are leading a global movement for an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy. We know more will follow in our important sector.
We specialise in communication at the highest levels with some of the world’s top agricultural and environmental businesses. So it was only right that we categorically looked at what we were and where we were going.
The process is complex and I am immensely proud of the team who have helped with the application.
We started this journey over 2 years ago and I don’t mind admitting that the process has been very hard at times.
I suppose that is why there are only 7,000 B Corps worldwide. We have changed the legal structure of our business, staff and external contracts have been rewritten and the business audited. It has reinforced our belief of what we want to be as individuals and as a business. We have a clear framework for the future.
Over the last couple of years I have seen the organisations that have managed to achieve B Corp certification and I can now understand their delight at having completed the process. Knowing the complexity and importance of the process, we thought it only right to announce the journey once it had been successfully completed. Anything else would have seemed like benefitting from a goal yet to be achieved.
There is such an immense job to be done regarding our environment and I am sure that business will play its part. We are coming into an age when “profit first” organisations will be avoided by choice and green washing is being sniffed out a mile away. The application process has taught me that responsibility and profitability are not “oil and water” and actually getting the balance right can be in sync with a profitable and fulfilling organisation.
You could argue that it is a crucial part of business development and brand strategy.
The most satisfying thing for me about this whole process? We had been, through choice, already doing many things right.
Where we did need direction, the process has guided us and we have changed for the better. We will keep evolving and making our offering even more effective and inviting for our clients.
With short-termism being such a large part of today’s politics, it has been clear to me for a while that business is going to have to lead the way on this one and at TAP we are very much “walking the walk”. If you would really like your business to become more of a force for good (whilst pushing forward), then please seriously consider committing to a sustainability scheme and if you are really committed, start the application process. It doesn’t matter that it takes time, it does matter that you start the journey.
To celebrate (and a bit of fun), we have produced AI generated avatars of team TAP. See how we turned out!
Sarah Riley, Agronomic Content Specialist, Bayer
David Sanchez, Product Manager, ADAMA Iberia
Gary Rush, Senior Marketing Manager, Agrii
Colleen Shaw, Global Communications Leader, Nuseed
Emma Ralph, Managing Director, Interagro