NEWS: Clearly becomes a Certified B Corporation
BATH, 10th November 2021 – Clearly is the latest UK PR agency to achieve B Corporation certification, as it seeks to take the concept of being a ‘responsible business’ to the next level.
The agency, which nears the end of its seventh year in business, becomes only the seventh PR agency in the UK to be accredited B Corp status along with the likes of Milk & Honey, Freuds, and Don’t Dry Wolf.
To certify as a B Corp, Clearly’s entire business practice was assessed and benchmarked against a set of stringent criteria that measured the agency’s impact on the environment, its people, supply chains, customers, and local communities.
Paul MacKenzie-Cummins, Founder and Managing Director at Clearly, stated: “The process we started 11 months and 11 days ago has been the most intense, demanding, rigorous and invasive that we as a business have ever undertaken. But it has also been rewarding, reflective, and remarkable in every way and in equal measure.
“As clichéd as it will invariably sound, this really is the beginning of the journey for us. Gaining accreditation is no mean feat and it is something that me and the team are immensely proud of, but we must improve. We need to continue to rethink and reimagine the environmental and societal impact that we create and consider how we can influence change outside the four walls of our business.”
He added: “With COP26 focusing the world’s attention on the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, coupled with the growing realisation that businesses must learn how to balance purpose and profit, an important question many organisational leaders should be contemplating right now is: To B, or not to be a Certified B Corporation?”
Over the last 12 months, Clearly has implemented a string of initiatives as part of their Environmental and Social Governance Policy (ESG), which also sees the agency gift two per cent of total net revenue to sustainability and social impact initiatives and 10 per cent of each person’s contracted hours allocated to providing pro bono work. One of which is the launch of the South West Creative Collective CIC (Community Interest Company).
“The impact of the pandemic and the introduction of permanent hybrid and remote working practices have conspired to dramatically reduce the number of internship and graduate opportunities for young people to a quarter of what they were pre-March 2020,” MacKenzie-Cummins said.
“This is damaging to their future career prospects and threatens the long-term talent pipelines for agencies seeking this talent too. Each agency who joins the ‘Collective’ commits to providing paid work experience for a minimum of two students each year.”
To date, 15 PR, advertising, design, and digital agencies are onboard with the South West Creative Collective and this will create opportunities for 30 young people over the next 12 months. Clearly wants to increase this figure to 100 by 2023.
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About Clearly
Founded on 1st January 2014, Clearly is a PR, corporate communications, and content marketing agency headquartered in Bath and with a hub in London. Clearly works with over 20 retained clients across the B2B and Professional Services space both in the UK and increasingly the United States.
The company was an early signatory of the Terra Carta Sustainable Markets Initiative launched by HRH The Prince of Wales in January 2021. Paul MacKenzie-Cummins is also a Board Trustee with Julian House – the south west’s largest charity supporting the homeless.
About B Corporations™
Certified B Corporations are for-profit companies that use the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. They meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. To date, there are almost 4,000 B Corps in 150 industries and 74 countries around the world.
