Due to its commitment to goals beyond profit, Muckle Media is now officially a B Corporation organisation. The creative Scottish PR agency joins big name brands such as Beauty Kitchen, BrewDog, Patagonia and The Body Shop in certifying and pledging to deliver impact through its business model.

Programmes including Muckle Media’s Returners to Communications Programme and Kickstart trainee scheme supported the application, along with Living Wage employer status. Transparency within agency operations and a commitment to continued professional development were also important.

B Corp Certification expects high standard, verified performance in a huge range of social and environmental issues from evaluating your organisation’s mission to reviewing employee benefits and evaluating waste disposal. Complete transparency and accountability are required throughout the process, which involves working with an assessor and evidencing a broad selection of ethical business processes.

Maintaining certification is just as rigorous as achieving the status in the first place and requires involvement and dedication from the whole team. By becoming a B-Corp, Muckle Media has committed to continuing to measure, manage, and improve on the positive impact it has on the environment,  employees, clients, the PR community, and all those around us.

Muckle Media MD, Nathalie Agnew said, “Becoming fully B-Corp certified is a fantastic achievement that the entire team is incredibly proud of. We also appreciate that with this comes a responsibility to fulfil our ongoing commitment and dedication to continuously improve our social and environmental standards. Our pledges to environmental, social and corporate governance issues are at the heart of our business and underpin our strategy for significant growth this year.”

“It has been a lengthy process to get to this point and we recognise that this is only the start of our B-Corp journey. We have a long way to go to achieve our impact ambitions, but we are delighted to become part of this prestigious group of leading organisations that have also reached B-Corp status and are paving the way in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.”

The initial assessment requires a minimum verified score of 80 points to continue with the process, thereafter any gaps are considered to be a work in progress and areas to focus on going forward.

As listed on www.bcorporation.net, in order to achieve certification, a company must:

• Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing a risk review.
• Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.
• Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.

The certification comes as Muckle Media continues to grow with two new hires. Katie Palmer recently joined the agency as an Account Director from Hollicom with experience in luxury brands, whilst Louise Gowans has joined the team as an Account Manager after working at DC Thomson as a Picture Editor.