Credit: The cooks at COOK
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Red was raised in 30 different foster homes and served his first prison sentence at 15. Now he works for COOK, the frozen food company I co-founded. He was attending a church-run drop-in centre when we recruited him, and now says: “My life’s been turned around. Things are just good in every area of my life.”
Since 2013, COOK has been certified as a B Corporation, which means that we seek to create value for everyone, not just shareholders. We are early on this journey: so far we have been able to employ more than 50 ‘returning citizens’, people on release from prison or other institutions. This saves the state substantial costs, strengthens our communities, and has a priceless effect on individual lives. We also run our business using renewable energy, support independent retailers, pay the Living Wage, and we share 5% of our annual profit with employees.
I seek – even if I’m really, really bad at it – to follow the teachings of Jesus. That means I believe in giving people like Red a second chance, in taking good care of creation, and benefiting whole communities, not just shareholders.
Business has an extraordinary power to shape a world in which we can all thrive – but it would lack integrity for me to create wealth while stripping value from our precious communities, from our beautiful planet, or from families, the foundation of our society.
There are more than 2,500 B Corps around the world, 1 and their number is increasing. To be certified as a B Corp companies have to pass a rigorous test every two years to prove they meet tough standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. 2
B Corps are a new, superior version of the limited liability company. The limited liability company is the most powerful vehicle invented by mankind. It is how we organise the capital that shapes the world and invents the future. But the structure we use was invented to help the owners of tall ships manage risk – and their liability was unlimited. When investors wanted to limit liability, they had to apply for a licence from the government, who only granted it if they were satisfied that there was a meaningful public benefit in exchange for society taking on the liability.
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