What would inspiring and facilitating collective action do for the progress and protection of the B Corp Movement and the world as a whole?
Today on Beyond the B, we welcome business leader, board director, esteemed professor, and pioneer of the B Corp movement in Latin America, Maria Emilia Correa, to discuss her role in bringing B Corp to Latin America and the power of collective action in the B Corp movement. Throughout our conversation, we dig into how Maria’s love for nature led her to B Corp, her role in the creation and evolution of Sistema B, the challenges and victories they’ve faced, and more.
Maria goes on to tell us why she is so focused on scale within the movement and shares some suggestions on how we can strengthen and protect the B Corp movement outside of the standards. She even shares why she is passionate about collective action and what we can do to incorporate more of it into the industry through collaboration.
Listeners will feel inspired to prioritize collective action and learn more about steps they can take to support people, planet, and the economy through the B Corp movement.
What You’ll Learn:
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Discover how Maria Emilia’s early work in conservation evolved into a belief that business could become an agent of positive change.
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Hear how a Method cleaning product led her to discover B Corps and eventually help bring the movement to Latin America.
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Understand why Sistema B adopted a broader theory of change than simply increasing the number of Certified B Corporations.
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Explore why B Corp certification and benefit corporation governance are indispensable tools, yet insufficient for economic systems change.
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Learn how Sistema B engaged entrepreneurs, corporate lawyers, universities, policymakers, and other actors to expand the movement.
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Explore why public policy can create forms of scale that even the largest individual companies cannot achieve.
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Recognize the opportunity created by collective action becoming more central to the new B Corp standards.
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Consider what it means to move from improving individual companies toward changing the systems in which all companies operate.
Quotations:
“Single companies, no matter how perfect they are, are never going to be sufficient for what we want to achieve: a better economy.” — Maria Emilia Correa
“Systemic change has to be pushed from many, many different sides.” — Maria Emilia Correa
“There is no better way to scale a good solution than a good public policy.” — Maria Emilia Correa
“We have to overcome this idea that this is a game of heroes and martyrs of individual companies or individual businesspeople.” — Maria Emilia Correa
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
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Sistema B — Latin American B Corp movement: https://www.sistemab.org/
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Universidad de los Andes — University where Maria Emilia teaches: https://www.uniandes.edu.co/
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B Academics — Global network of educators and researchers working on B Corps and business as a force for good: https://bacademics.org/
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B Lab — Benefit corporation and stakeholder governance / legal requirement: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/about-b-corps/legal-requirements/
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B Lab — New B Corp Standards: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/standards/performance-requirements/
We want to hear from you! Email us at beyond@lifteconomy.com with requests for content, suggestions for future guests, and feedback about our episodes.
B Corp Consultant
Interested in certifying, recertifying, or maximizing the value of your B Corp certification? Learn more about our B Corp consulting services at LIFT Economy: https://www.lifteconomy.com/secrets-of-b-corp-consulting
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Gratitude
Thank you to Corey Lien, Nozomii Torii, and Kirsten G. Bryant for being our monthly contributors at Beyond the B
