A Year of B Corp: What It Means to Do Business Better

A year on, as we head into IFTEX 2026, it feels like exactly the right moment to reflect on what that journey has meant, what it required of us, and where it is taking us next.

Why We Pursued B Corp Certification

We had been asking our suppliers the right questions for years: alongside our membership of the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI), we have long advocated responsible sourcing and requested certifications across the three core pillars of Social, Environmental, and Good Agricultural Practice from the farms we work with.

But there came a moment when we started asking ourselves the same questions: What were we doing ourselves to prove our commitment to people and planet? What framework were we using to ensure that we, as a business, were genuinely doing things better?

B Corp answered that question. Its rigorous standards gave us concrete targets, clear goals and practical guidance on how to operate with greater integrity. It was more than a certification. It turned out to be one of the most useful frameworks we have ever applied to our own business.

“This Certification has been on the directors’ wish list for a while now. We learnt a huge amount during the process, and it has turned out to be a very useful framework for how we can do business better.” Millie Seagon, Director, The Flower Hub™

The Process: Nine Months to Submission

We began the B Corp process in earnest in March 2024, having been looking into it for a couple of years. From that starting point, it took around nine months to reach the point of formal submission: a period of deep internal review, policy development, and documentation.

Once a company submits, the verification process begins. B Lab™ checks that you are genuinely doing what you say you are before granting certification. We achieved our Certified B Corporation status in May 2025, under the v1.6 standards, the same year we marked two decades of operation.

We are now working towards recertification under the newly released V2 standards, which, amongst other improvements, such as external verification processes, have aligned with the EU’s ECGT Directive. It is very much a journey – a process of continuous improvement, and one we are fully committed to.

What the Process Required of Us

To achieve certification, we were assessed across five key impact areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers. (B Lab™ has since expanded this to seven pillars under the new standards.)

One of the most valuable aspects of the process was that it made us formalise and document what we were already doing, and then take many of those things to the next level. A lot of the requirements were already happening in practice; they simply needed structure, clarity, and governance.

Some of the significant changes we made as part of the process included:

• Rewriting and expanding our employee handbook, giving every team member a single, clear reference point covering everything from our improved Bereavement Leave policy and Grievance procedures to our new Volunteering Policy and Code of Conduct.
• Moving to quarterly company updates for all staff, replacing what had been an annual communication, so that our whole team is consistently informed, involved, and aligned.
• Extending our medical cover, which already included dental and optical add-ons, to apply from a new employee’s first day, rather than after a probationary period.
• Formalising our CSR commitment, with 3% of profits after tax now formally allocated across our three sustainability pillars: Social CSR, Environmental CSR, and Regenerative Horticulture.
• Documenting the Environmental Management Plans of our supplier partners and their sustainability efforts, bringing greater transparency and accountability into our supply chain.
• Changing our business’s legal documentation to reflect our B Corp goals, to ensure this company will always balance profit with purpose and hold itself accountable to people and planet.

What We Are Most Proud Of

The areas we are most proud of are those with the positive steps we could take for the people at the heart of this business: our team.

The Workers and Community pillars of the assessment spoke directly to what matters most to us. Making The Flower Hub™ genuinely the best company to work for in the industry- not only the best company to work with! We are a family. We are not who we are without our incredible team, and the certification gave us the framework to demonstrate that commitment in a structured and accountable way.

What B Corp Means in the Market

We think of B Corp certification as an added layer of confidence for buyers and partners rather than a deal-breaker at this stage. It signals that when you work with The Flower Hub™, you are working with a business that offers more than just flowers. It is a business that takes its responsibilities seriously and holds itself to an externally verified standard.

As the industry continues to evolve and buyers continue to align their sourcing with their own sustainability values, that signal will carry more and more weight. We are investing in that direction now because we believe it is the right direction, and the businesses that lead on this will be the ones the industry relies on most in the years ahead.

The Journey Continues

Achieving B Corp certification was never the finish line. What it gave us was a clearer sense of where we are going and a more structured way of getting there.

We are now working through the new V2 standards, which is now made up of 7 pillars. Our CSR projects, our Regenerative Horticulture working groups with our growers, and our ongoing work with farming partners across Kenya are all part of the same continuous journey.

B Corp is not a solo mission. It is about being part of a movement. It is a growing community of businesses that believes doing business better by people and planet is both possible and urgent. We are proud to be part of that community, and we look forward to continuing to build on it.

If you are visiting IFTEX 2026, our team will be at stand D5.02. We would love to discuss this, and more, in person

Find out more about The Flower Hub™ and our sustainability journey: www.theflowerhub.com