We became a B Corp

On July 3, 2019, New Kind became a B Corporation, joining a global community of companies that use business as a force for good. 

A third-party organization, B Lab, certified us — following an assessment of our social and environmental performance. The assessment evaluates how we interact with team members, customers, community, and environment. We hold ourselves to a high (and now verified) standard of conduct. 

Why it matters to us

Becoming a B Corp is a statement of our values. A tangible expression of the impact we seek to create, and the principles we hold dear: openness and transparency, employee empowerment, diversity and inclusiveness, responsible corporate governance, environmental stewardship to name a few. It’s also an evolution of our open source roots and the design-driven approach we’ve developed over the last decade. 

For much of the last decade we’ve sought to help answer a single question for our clients: How do we use brand-building to grow a healthy business? 

Finding the answer means swimming through the messy, meaning-filled details of how customers and employees engage with companies. 

It’s a human process. Filled with biases, subjectivity, logic, and intuition. The only way through it is an actively managed process of iterative prototyping and learning. In other words, brand-building is about changing meaning at organizational scale. 

Being a B Corp is a symbol to us, our clients, and our community that it takes a human-centric company to run a human-centric process. 

Why it matters to our clients

What if we married the service-mindedness of purpose-driven companies with the scale-ready nature of tech companies?

Generally, purpose-driven companies are often very good at speaking in human terms. Tech companies are often very good at scaling. If you want to grow, integrating the benefits of both approaches is the way to go.

Sales, marketing, and people development — they all benefit from keeping a human focus. As one of our favorite New Kind expressions says: it’s not only about what your products can do, but about what people can do with your products.

Customers care about products that do their job. Employees care about making progress and seeing that their work matters. Both care about an effective and inspiring experience.

So here’s the goal — infuse business activities with a human, meaning-filled foundation. Our B Corp status will serve as an ever-present reminder of how we build brands at the intersection of humanity and technology.

“No company can exist in a community that’s failing.”

These are the inspiring words of our friend Kevin Trapani, CEO of The Redwoods Group, a purpose-driven insurance provider and Certified B Corp in its own right. Redwoods reminds us every day that building a thriving business and building a thriving community can, and should, go hand-in-hand.

With this certification, we’re honored to join the ranks of the more than 2,500 fellow B Corps spread across more than 50 countries worldwide, and to do our part to help create a more inclusive and sustainable economy that creates a shared prosperity for all.

To our fellow B Corp community: New Kind has much to contribute and much to learn. Thank you for welcoming us.