By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

Social consciousness is the new buzzword in the business world with many companies touting how they are making a difference either environmentally or socially. But how do consumers know that a business is actually making good on these promises? Well, if they are like Kentwood’s Valley City Electronic Recycling (VCER), they go through the rigorous process to be B Corp certified.

“Valley City Electronic Recycling is an electronic recycling and data security company,” said VCER President Jason Kehr. “I have always believed in what B Corp stands for and thought that our company would fit very nicely under that umbrella.”

B Corporation or B Lab certification is a private certification issued to for-profit companies by B Lab, a global nonprofit organization. Through its certification process, companies must not only show that they are reaching its social and environmental goals, but show it is having an overall positive impact. 

“We qualified by taking the B Corp assessment test as the first step,” Kehr said. “The test covers various components of your organization: your social and environmental advocacy, your work force development and how you conserve resources.”

Because local businesses tend to be more socially and environmentally aware, one of the biggest advocates for B Corp certification has been LocalFirst. 

“B Corp is certification that businesses can achieve by taking assessments that measure their social, environmental and community impact and they can use that when marketing their project or service and it really shows the community, their customers, their stakeholders that the business is committed to social and environmental responsibility with their operations and business practices,” said Hanna Schulze, development manager for LocalFirst.

B Corp has a set of performance standards and legal structures that assures a consumer that what a company says it is doing is what it is doing.

“When you go into a store and you see a million types of ketchup, many of which say ‘all natural.’ But what does that mean?” Schulze said. “But when you see one that says certified organic, there are certain standards that a food item has to hit or have to be in order to be certified as organic by the USDA.  You are making a decision knowing what is in that food. B Corp certification is similar to that.”

Valley City Electronic Recycling set its sights on becoming a B Corp since through its work process the company was already achieving many of its environmental and social goals. Of course the very nature of the company, recycling electronic components, helps the environment.

“We have always employed the people, planet, profit model of business and it fits very nicely in our industry but it is also evident in some of the other things we do as a company, one being hiring returning citizens,” Kehr said. 

Valley City Electronic Recycling is among an elite group since there are only about a couple dozen B Corps in Michigan, of which 19 are located in West Michigan. To remain in that group, Valley City will have to go through recertification every three years. 

“It’s good for our customers in a sense that it further educates our customers in the community as to what our core values are as a company and how those core values drive our business,” Kehr said. “It is really an educational play for the community. They don’t even know that recycling electrics is even a thing. They know they shouldn’t throw it in the landfill but at the same time they don’t know what those outlets are and B Corp will help us get that info out to more people.”

To learn more about Valley City Electronic Reycycling, visit valleycityer.com. For more about B Corps, visit LocalFirst’s website localfirst.com.