Community and sustainability are central to our mission at The Commons.
Community and sustainability are central to our mission at The Commons.
We are committed to continuously learning to better our social and environmental impact and be proactive toward the issues of greatest importance to our colleagues, members and communities. Over two years, we’ve reviewed our business operations and scrutinised all systems and policies, to improve how we run The Commons, how we treat our members, how we help and support our community, how we minimise our impact on the environment and most importantly how we treat our staff and the workers in our supply chain.
Therefore, we are proud to announce that The Commons is now B Corp Certified. Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose and create a more sustainable and inclusive economy.
Read on to discover what it means to be a B Corp.
What is a Certified B Corp?
Certified B Corporations (B Corps) are part of an initiative from B Lab, a not-for-profit that serves a global movement of people using profits and growth as a means to a greater end. Certified B Corporations have achieved the highest qualifications of social and environmental performance and a commitment to balance profit and purpose.
The B Corp community works toward reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities and the creation of high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose; they are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
We join more than 3,500 B Corps worldwide in approximately 150 industries, including:
Kathmandu, Aesop, Ben and Jerry’s, Who Gives a Crap, Patagonia, T2, Koala, Keep Cup & Allbirds, that use business as a force for good.
What does it mean to be B Corp Certified?
Here’s a snapshot of what The Commons is currently doing, and the changes we’ve made to help us achieve B Corp status:
Environmental:
Sustainability and environmental consciousness are part of the building blocks that make up The Commons, so we give our members easy options to make sustainable decisions in their daily lives in all our spaces.
Including:
- Investing in carbon offsets and 100% renewable energy with solar and wind technologies
- Actively working towards carbon neutrality
- Recycling & Paper Bins
- No single-use plastic within all our locations
- Biophilic design and indoor plants to absorb more CO2
- Encourage alternative modes of transportation
- Coffee ground recycling
- Locally-sourced supplies, including Who Gives a Crap toilet paper, Almo Milk, Thank You hand soaps, Kua coffee...
- Events and educational resources for sustainability
- Recycled printer cartridges
- LED lights that work on sensors
People & Recruitment
- The Commons leadership team is 70% female
- Flexible hours and locations for support staff
- High staff retention, with all staff retained during the pandemic
- In-house promotions
- Pay awards
- Creation of new roles and responsibilities for staff as our team grows
- Employee perks, including supporting study, training and further education, workplace wellness, healthcare support and opportunities to travel
- Our recruitment strategies ensure we are hiring team members of all ages, backgrounds and identities
Scholarship program
Community is central to our mission and we know that our community extends past our doors. For this reason, we offer multiple membership scholarships within our spaces and have plans to widen our reach as we grow. The Commons is proud to sponsor great not-for-profit and social enterprises across Sydney and Melbourne.
Some of our current scholarship members include The Global Women’s Project, Mi Vote, One Plate, Kua and Co Ground.
As The Commons expands, so does our scholarship program. Since its inception, The Commons Scholarship Program has contributed over $840,000 to organisations committed to changing the world.
What’s next?
Even with all the progress we’ve made, there is always more we can do. Our B Corp journey will continue to shift as we learn more strategies to reduce our impact on the planet and increase our value to the community.
To maintain our B Corp certified status, we must verify and update our score every three years, measuring our performance and improvement in five categories: governance, workers, customers, community, and the environment. The assessment makes sure we continue to meet the highest standards of transparency and legal accountability. Our assessment report is available here for a transparent look into how we are running our business.