Used Kitchen Exchange (UKE) has revealed that it has been awarded certification as a B Corporation, and become the first kitchen company in the world to achieve this. The privately owned UK company has joined a growing number of companies reinventing business by pursuing purpose as well as profit. UKE has been certified by B Lab, the not-for-profit behind the B Corp movement, as having met social and environmental standards that represent its commitment to goals outside of shareholder profit.
The B Corp certification addresses the entirety of a business’ operations and covers five key impact areas of governance, workers, community, environment and customers. Applicants are required to reach a benchmark score of over 80 while providing evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices relating to energy supplies, waste and water use, worker compensation, diversity and corporate transparency. To complete the certification, the company will legally embed their commitment to purpose beyond profit in their company articles.
UKE is now part of a community of over 3,800 businesses globally who have certified as B Corps. The B Corp community in the UK comprises over 450 companies and includes well-known brands such as The Guardian, Innocent, Patagonia, The Body Shop, and Abel & Cole.
Helen Lord, founder of UKE, pictured with co-director Phil Lord, said: "Being awarded B Corp certification is without doubt UKE’s most meaningful business achievement to date and further justifies our place as the sustainability partner of choice to the KBB sector. Balancing profit and planet has always been at the heart of what we do, and to have received global recognition for this is incredible. Not only do we take responsibility for our impact on the world around us, our vision from the outset has been to support and promote sustainability within our industry. To this end we have invested heavily in providing our partner showrooms and manufacturers with verifiable and quantifiable environmental savings when selling a new kitchen. With over 11 million kgs of carbon saved so far and new initiatives in the pipeline, we cannot wait to see what can be achieved moving forward."
