B Corp Club: How is real estate progressing?

Are you part of the B Corp club? A small but growing number of UK real estate businesses can say yes – and more are expected to follow this year writes EG.

“It is definitely a growing trend,” says Mark Robinson, property director and co-founder of investment manager Ellandi, one of the latest additions to this global movement of 6,200 companies and counting that are receiving accreditation for their social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

B Lab – the non-profit network which operates the B Corp accreditation process – aims to harness the power of business to positively impact workers, communities, customers and the planet. Certification requires would-be B Corps to meet rigorous social and environmental standards, assessed by B Lab, which has a UK arm that is registered as a charity. It’s an exacting, evidence-based, multi-stage process with a stringent scoring system, and one that can take 18 months or even longer.

Just ask any of its newest members from the UK real estate sector. Along with Ellandi, they include London-based investor and developer W.RE, real estate and construction consultancy TFT and planning and design consultancy Marrons, part of legal and professional services group Ampa.  No, really – do ask them. Because being part of B Corp is also about getting the word out to others.

“It’s not a competition, it’s a community,” says Helen Hay, group head of culture and sustainability at Ampa, which began the process back in 2019.

Mat Lown, TFT’s head of ESG, agrees: “We benefited before we were even certified – other B Corps in our sector and others were helpful in advising us on the process, and that’s something we’re already doing for others embarking on the journey.”

An early adopter was Igloo Regeneration, becoming a B Corp back in 2016, while Portman became the first landed estate to gain accreditation last September.

Blue-ribbon status

Some 1,149 UK-headquartered businesses have achieved B Corp status, but EG could find fewer than 40 from the real estate sector.

Larger propcos from the quoted sector and institutional investors are notably absent – perhaps an indication that it is less suited to businesses with more complex shareholder and stakeholder responsibilities. The top agents are also absent.

So why do businesses in the club place so much value on it?

“It is globally recognised, it has that blue-ribbon status,” says Robinson of the movement, which was founded in the US in 2006 by Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan and Andrew Kassoy, three friends with backgrounds in business, banking and private equity.

Moreover, its ethos feeds into everything Ellandi does, Robinson says – from improving its paternity leave to making sure that every new investor it works with is aligned with its values, from investing in an internship programme that pays the minimum wage to creating town centres that work for their communities as well as for investors. “We had to prove to the outside world that we do what we think we do,” Robinson adds.

Importantly, it is also a repeated accreditation: certified B Corps must update their impact assessment and verify their updated score every three years, or after a change of control. Once a B Corp does not mean always a B Corp – just take the example of BrewDog. Less than two years after its accreditation, the beer brand parted company with B Corp in December following a BBC documentary about its workplace culture.

There is an expectation that B Corps will not only live up to B Corp standards but continually improve. For example, Hay says that Ampa has made good progress on its use of green energy, “but there’s more that we can do to get to net zero”.

“We have used carbon offsetting, but for us that is not solving a problem. So we are looking at how we truly get to net zero,” she says.

For Brian Mullin, partner and head of Marrons Planning, the benefits of B Corp status are manifold

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One of the most important is the emphasis it places on looking after your workforce – particularly in the context of Ampa’s rapidly growing “house of brands” model, which Marrons joined in 2021 (when Ampa’s B Corp accreditation was pending).

“In terms of attracting and retaining people, B Corp status is a no-brainer,” he says. “Creating an environment that encourages people to stay with you is really important, and our retention rates have been excellent. It’s a powerful tool for us.”

In fact, Ampa achieved its highest score for how it treats its people, including its approach to pay and reward, its wellbeing initiatives and benefits, and embedding professional development support and opportunities across the group of brands.

“We go after the best talent. These days, when you’re interviewing people, it’s you who is being interviewed as a business. You have to promote your business to the market, and [B Corp] gives us a real advantage,” Mullin says.

It’s also a powerful tool when it comes to pitching for work, underlining Ampa’s ethos of being both “purposeful and profitable”.

Real estate’s role

There is also a more heavyweight answer to why firms in the real estate sector are joining the B Corp movement – and why more are expected to follow – and that is the unique role of the built environment in tackling the climate change emergency,

“It’s the real estate industry that is going to deliver carbon net zero,” says Mullin. “We have seen the government’s policy targets change from 2030 to 2050, which is pretty depressing stuff. It means that we as an industry need to make the move.”

Lown agrees: “Our industry is made up of so many moving parts – a wider understanding of sustainability is essential for us to work together better and have a better chance of positive change as an industry,” he says.

With so much riding on businesses doing good and so much responsibility weighing on real estate to mitigate climate change, becoming a B Corp looks bang on trend. Hay says that B Lab has been recruiting in the UK to give it greater capacity to work through the process with pending B Corps, so the process is likely to speed up.

“If everyone becomes B Corps, we can stop talking about ESG because it’s just the way we do things,” says Robinson. Let’s hope that buzz continues.

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