Australian-owned specialist research agency Honeycomb Strategy has announced that it has achieved B Corp Certification following a rigorous two-year vetting process.
B Corp businesses meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. The envision a better economic system where businesses can benefit people, communities and the planet and measure their success based on the positive impact they create.
Honeycomb joins just a handful of research companies in Australia who are B Corp certified and the agency is hoping to lead by example and encourage others in the industry to become B Corps.
To become a B Corp, Honeycomb had to pass a rigorous requirements process that requires a company to score at least 80 points across five areas: governance, workers, community, environment and customers.
For Honeycomb, while high standards in equitable hiring practices, pay parity across genders, and processes in place to assist team members with maintaining a healthy work-life balance were already established, the environmental and social considerations inspired the team to do more.
“Having a team that is motivated to have a strong positive impact made the B Corp certification process one of self-reflection and growth. It allowed us to really think about where we want to go as a business and identify who we want to become along the way. While fundamentally the actions and behaviours needed to secure certification were already aligned with how Honeycomb operated, it forced the business to document and systemise what best practice looked like. It has set us up to scale with these values in mind, ensuring we stay true to what’s most important to us,” Honeycomb strategy founder, Renata Freund, said.
Honeycomb now joins around 750 B Corps in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and will be required to re-certify every three years, as a commitment to continuous improvement.
“We are extremely proud to now be a Certified B Corp. It’s a natural extension of our values and who we are as a team. Our mission as a business has always been clear: to do great work for great brands while leaving a positive impact along the way. Embedding B Corp into the fundamentals of our business operations only further solidifies our focus into the future,” Freund said.
“We believe in leading by example. By holding ourselves to high standards, we hope to inspire other agencies to also do the same and join the B Corp movement. It can only benefit the industry as a whole when we lift the benchmark for social and environmental impact and make it a non-negotiable for how agencies operate. It should be a race to the top, not a race to the bottom. Constantly challenging ourselves to be and do better. We are excited to now be part of a global community that shares this sentiment.”
Honeycomb launched the third wave of its national consumer study on data privacy and brand integrity this year, the Brands Beyond Breaches 2024 – A Brand Playbook for Privacy Protection report. The next phase of this study, called Omnichannel Advantage: Capturing Market Share in the Digital Age, is set to be released in the first quarter of 2025.
