Case Study: B Lab Australia and New Zealand

Creating procurement pathways for impactful businesses

Background

B Lab is the certifying body in Australia and New Zealand for B Corps, or ‘Benefit Corporations’— companies that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

B Lab goes beyond that too–they’re a driving force to improve the entire economic system by addressing barriers that prevent businesses from addressing the world’s stickiest challenges.

B Lab wanted to understand how they could advocate and enable corporates and governments to procure their goods and services from B Corps. Purpose Made worked in partnership with Point Advisory.

The Challenge

Social procurement is when organisations buy goods or services that generate positive value for society.

While it is a growing trend, many structural barriers still exist to prevent businesses and governments from prioritising businesses whose products and services have a positive impact on communities and the planet.

Key questions:

How could B Lab support B Corps to win more work from corporate and governments?
How can it help B Corps demonstrate the value proposition of their social and environmental impact?
How could it catalyse change in the system to encourage more social procurement?

The Process

Alongside Point Advisory, Purpose Made conducted interviews with existing B Corps to understand their challenges in demonstrating their impact to businesses and corporates as well as from buyers to identify their needs and desires.

We also conducted workshops with the B Lab team to leverage their existing knowledge and test the hypotheses and solutions.

In parallel, the team conducted research to ensure the solutions design was custom-fit to the organisation and aligned with the broader system.

The Outcome

To overcome the challenge of getting more buyers to procure from B Corps, the team first needed to identify the barriers.

Through qualitative and quantitative research, we were able to identify key themes for both buyers and B Corps. Through systems-level mapping, quick-win solutions and broader breakthroughs were identified and added to a roadmap and implementation plan.