Beneficial State Bank Honored as ‘Best for the World", Creating Greatest Overall Positive Social and Environmental Impact
Oakland, CA (PRWEB) May 20, 2015 -- Beneficial State Bank was recognized for creating the most positive overall social and environmental impact by the nonprofit B Lab with the release of the fourth annual ‘B Corp Best for the World’ list. The ‘B Corp Best for the World’ list honors businesses that earned an overall score in the top 10% of more than 1,200 Certified B Corporations from over 120 industries on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company's impact on its workers, community, and the environment. Honorees were recognized among micro, small, and mid-sized businesses around the globe.
The B Corp ‘Best for the World List’ sets the gold standard for high impact companies and demonstrates that any type of company can use business as a force for good. The list has inspired the Best for NYC campaign, the first municipal public-private impact partnership in the world to encourage businesses to create more high quality jobs and improve the quality of life in local neighborhoods, all while strengthening their bottom-line.
Beneficial State Bank is a triple bottom-line financial institution that believes money should serve people, not the other way around. We’re building a better future with our customers by building a better banking system that we call Beneficial Banking. The future we’re creating together will strengthen our local communities, improve quality of life for each of us, and be reflected in widespread gains in social equity and environmental renewal. Founded in 2007, we offer fair and transparent banking products and services to individuals, nonprofits and businesses, and will soon be offering the first, B Corporation Credit Card.
"The B Corp community continues to rise in strength and is an extremely important touchstone for us. We are inspired to keep up with its call to action and humbled to receive this recognition, with awareness that we can always improve. Onward!” stated Co-CEO and Co-founder, Kat Taylor.
Additional 2015 Best For the World Honorees include Echale a Tu Casa, a social housing production company in Mexico, Oliberte, a Canadian premium leather goods company that sustainably sources its materials from and manufactures in Africa to create pathways out of poverty. The 120 ‘Best for the World’ companies come from 49 different industries such as manufacturing, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and finance. 37% of honorees are based outside the US, with companies operating in emerging markets such as Afghanistan, The Republic of Korea, and Brazil. (Full list at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net)
“These honorees inspire all companies to compete not only to be best in the world, but best for the world. We hope many will take the first step by using the B Impact Assessment to measure and manage their impact with as much rigor as their profit,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder of B Lab, the nonprofit organization that certifies B Corporations and governs the independent third party standard used to generate the comparable assessment of corporate impact.
B Lab simultaneously released separate lists recognizing the companies ‘Best for the Environment’ (environmental impact), ‘Best for Community’ (community impact), and ‘Best for Workers’ (employee impact) which can be found at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net. A total of 350 companies were named 2015 Best For the World Honorees, including King Arthur Flour, Natura, d.light designs, New Belgium Brewery and Cooperative Home Care Associates. The 2015 Best for the World Honorees represent nearly one-third of all B Corps, displaying a wide range of excellence throughout the community.
Each honored company is a Certified B Corporation. These companies use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and have met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Today there are over 1,200 Certified B Corporations, across 121 industries and 38 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business. Any company can measure and manage social and environmental performance at bimpactassessment.net.
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Beneficial State Bank is an FDIC-insured Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and certified B Corporation that serves businesses, nonprofits, and individuals. Beneficial State answers to a triple bottom-line measuring its financial, social, and environmental impact to meet the needs of its communities. Beneficial State has a unique ownership structure-- its profits can only be distributed to Beneficial State Foundation to support our communities and the environment. The bank is headquartered in Oakland, California with branches in Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon and loan production offices in Sacramento and Santa Rosa, California. For more information, visit http://www.beneficialstate.com.
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good. Its vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world and society will enjoy prosperity for all for the long term. B Lab drives this systemic change by: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing benefit corporation legislation to give business leaders the freedom to create value for society as well as shareholders; 3) helping businesses measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance with the free B Impact Assessment; 4) driving capital to impact investments through use of its B Analytics and GIIRS Ratings platform. For more information, visit http://www.bcorporation.net.
Andrea Walker, Beneficial State Bank, http://www.beneficialstate.com, +1 5108461119, [email protected]
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