Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Liverpool, Manchester and London based media owner OPEN Media have joined the global community of over 6,000 companies committed to the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
Mike Smith, CEO of OPEN Media told us “OPEN Media is incredibly proud to announce our B Corp certification to our community, clients and partners. We’ve worked really hard throughout this process and our commitment to our values has shone through. It’s been an incredible journey and education piece for myself and the team. This is just the start for us, and we look forward to continuously improving on our score and helping other new and potential B Corps on their journeys.”
They join the ranks with some notable brands such as The Guardian, innocent, Patagonia, The Body Shop & Graze.
The B Corp certification recognises businesses for meeting strict social and environmental standards that are assessed across five separate areas including governance, workers, community, environment and customers. The out of home industry is categorised as a service with a significant environmental footprint, so to be the first media owner to achieve this certification represents a shift in the way the sector views the challenges of sustainability, signalling a shift towards greater accountability and transparency in the sector.
This news comes off the back of OPEN Media initiatives to embed sustainable practices in the out-of-home industry including: powering down all screens between the hours of 12am-6am, running industry-first live carbon tracked campaigns and offering offsetting to all their clients where necessary via their offsetting partner Ecologi.
To date, they have offset over 97 tonnes of carbon, planted 6,110 trees and supported 11 projects across the globe ranging from wind power to rainforest protection. As well as focusing on the environment, their workers aspect of the impact report scored highly, as a result of policies such as offering all staff paid volunteering and wellness days every quarter and access to personal development funds.
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