The term B Corp stands for ‘B Corporation’ and is run by a global not-for-profit organisation, B Lab. Their assessment helps companies to ensure their operations benefit people, communities, and the planet rather than existing solely for shareholder profit.
B Corp certified companies must prove the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance and are transparent and accountable. We need to evidence how we take care of our staff, work towards a more inclusive supply chain and take corporate social responsibility to the next level. The certification covers our policies and practices with regards to our community, customers, environment, governance, and our workers.
Below are just a few examples of improvements we’ve already made as part of our B Corp journey:
• Redefined our Exodus Travels Foundation’s vision to focus more on the regeneration of communities and the natural world.
• Supported more grass roots initiatives in local communities through our Exodus Travels Foundation, such as providing employment for women at eco-cafes on popular trekking routes in Nepal.
• Reviewed and re-focused how we take a nature positive approach, ensuring that we put biodiversity gain through conservation at the heart of our decision-making, trip design and our work in destination communities.
• Improved our parental leave policy – we greatly enhanced paternity pay for new parents to give them a stronger financial footing at a time of significant life change.
• Introduced new policies including an ethical marketing policy and an ethical procurement policy. These are being embedded within the business to ensure all teams better understand how their roles align with our principles and practices.
• Conducted a review and analysis of each of our trip’s carbon footprint and published these figures on our website.
• Provided staff with more opportunities to use their annual paid volunteering days.
• Produced our second Annual Impact Report that takes a look at our progress towards the environmental and social goals set out in our People, Places and Planet plan and details the financial performance of the Exodus Travels Foundation.
• Created a staff committee, the Adventure Representative Committee (ARC), that meets monthly to gather feedback from all departments and support company-wide events that help build our culture and team engagement.
After 50-years of delivering world-class adventures, we know better than most how awe-inspiring, horizon-expanding, and life-enriching travel can be. And it’s part of our mission to do things as responsibly as possible, without damaging the environment or disrupting local communities. In fact, we work with local guides, restaurants, and guest houses to positively impact their communities and to help you get closer to the heart and soul of the destinations that we travel to.
Being a B Corp further demonstrates our commitment to delivering incredible adventures that are not just for profit, but for the benefit of our beautiful planet and all that inhabit it. The fact that we have been independently verified to meet some of the highest standards possible should give you that extra reassurance of our aim to provide the most responsibly-run adventure holidays.
We’re not resting here.
The B Corp framework has provided us with a roadmap of improvements we want to make across the business to create even more positive impact on the environment, wider society and our people.
