Three minute read
Poppy’s is now the first London funeral director to become a certified B Corporation! We are delighted to be joining thousands of businesses — large and small, across the world — in being recognised for putting care for people and planet at the heart of our work.
There are so many benefits to being a certified B Corporation — for our clients, our team, our community and our environment. Here are just five…
Benefit one: It has made us more eco-conscious.
Every business and every sector has to play its part in cutting carbon emissions and protecting the natural environment.
Becoming a certified B Corporation has made all of us at Poppy’s increasingly aware of the small things we can all do to cut waste, reuse materials and reduce the use of harmful chemicals. Check out seven changes we’ve made in this gallery.
Where we can, we share what we’ve learnt with clients and our local community too. This helps everyone to make greener choices.
Benefit two: Our staff know they are valued.
Being a certified B Corporation is about much more than greening your operations, important as that is. It means treating your staff well and helping them to flourish in their roles.
This is nothing new. Poppy’s is a person-centred business. We couldn’t do anything without caring, compassionate and capable people on our team!
As a certified B Corporation, we make sure that all staff have access to the support they need through a benefits package, provide an employee assistance programme and pay everyone above the London Living Wage.
More than that, team members can have a stake in the business through an employee share scheme and we all share responsibility for achieving Poppy’s social and environmental goals.
Benefit three: It roots us in our local community.
We’ve always been locally owned, aimed to recruit local staff and supported the community we’re in.
But being certified as a B Corporation has meant going even further to demonstrate the different, creative ways we engage with the people around us in Tooting and Sheen.
For example, we host open days for anyone in the local community to come along (the next one is on 9 May!), offer training and talks to local healthcare professionals, carers and community groups, and join in with local events wherever we can.
Poppy’s team members also have time allocated during work hours to volunteer with another organisation of their choice. So far, this has included a nearby school, local hospice and wildlife conservation in our neighbourhood.
Benefit four: It can help raise everyone’s game.
Yes, we’re the first and only B Corporation certified funeral director in London, and only the third in the UK, but we don’t want it to stay that way for long.
We’ve shown that it is possible for a funeral directors to achieve B Corporation standards —even though the process isn’t easy.
We hope our announcement is a spur to many others to aim for B Corp certification too and we’re always happy to share what we’ve learned along the way.
Benefit five: It’s an independent, trustworthy guarantee.
Why bother becoming B Corporation certified? We could make all of these positive changes anyway without putting a label on them!
Well, yes, we could, and we have. Many of these things have been part of Poppy’s DNA since the beginning. They didn’t need to change once we started the B Corp process.
But becoming a B Corporation means that we are held to a rigorous, external, trustworthy standard for what we do and how we do it. It pushes us to go further, to do more, to keep on trying.
We hope it increases your confidence that when you pick up the phone to Poppy’s, pop in and see us, or get in touch via our website, that we are doing everything we can to care for our team, our community, our environment and, of course, for you.
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