The theme for this year’s B Corp month is ‘Gen B’ or Generation B – a reminder that alone, we’re a business, but together, we are a movement of businesses that can make a difference in the world. A new generation of businesses that can work towards a better future.
This theme prompted our founder and director to reflect on how different generations perceive their role in sustainability, and how we talk about responsibility in this space.
My family was based near Bournville, Birmingham, and many worked at Cadbury’s, likely to be a B Corp in the day. The Cadbury family provided housing for workers, sports facilities, and apprenticeships for budding engineers. My uncles were both apprentices and played for the Cadbury football team. I’m going to add a caveat here: the 20th century was not bliss for workers & the environment which improved partly by regulations; my reflection here is on the purpose behind some companies at that time.
My Dad, born in the early 1930’s, would have access to many ‘Gen B’ enterprises in the large city of Birmingham and led a relatively sustainable life until his retirement. In the 60 or so years, the world economy drastically changed – Cadbury is now only a brand of a global food conglomerate – and so did his lifestyle as cheap travel, new technologies and cheaper food expanded his horizons.
At around this time, my career in sustainability began, and I was often curious when in public he remarked, “I reuse my plastic bag as my son is into sustainability”. It was somewhat dismissive of the scale of the impacts of his new lifestyle in comparison to saving a plastic bag; there was a sense that, at his age, sustainability was not the place to spend his time or energy. Over the years, I’ve heard older generations express it is for the young to make the change or build the knowledge or skills to do so, as it is their future. But we see from the thousands of companies that drive the B Corp mission on the ground that change can be driven by all generations in the workplace – that there can be an overarching sense of a shared generation of businesses for good (Gen B) that can bring us all together to create a sustainable world.
We see from the thousands of companies that drive the B Corp mission on the ground that change can be driven by all generations in the workplace.”
A story about a close friend and their young daughter helps illustrate how generations can work together. On a food shopping trip, they had a dilemma: organic carrots in plastic or non-organic carrots without packaging—what to do? My friend was troubled by the choice, but for her daughter, it was crystal clear—don’t buy carrots!
Her mother, with the power (the money), listened, processed, and decided not to buy carrots. My friend is a lifelong advocate of sustainability and has driven amazing local change in her community; she didn’t need a lot of convincing that her daughter’s perspective was right. But far too often, there is resistance to the purpose of GEN B’s as a response to these challenges the environmental and social issues, championed by the younger generation along with many longtime campaigners too, as being part of the woke agenda.
The story of my friend illustrates the real meaning of woke – in my words: awakened to a new view of the world – which was present in the Scottish Enlightenment, born in the 1930’s Civil rights movements, even connected with Republican President Abraham Lincoln (who would have thought it!) and going further back to various spiritual and religious figures. I experienced how my father’s generation, as they moved into their 60’s, forgot the wokeness of their youth with age and as energy subsides, and I observe they generally prefer the comfort of conformity and constancy as they become set in their ways. For some, hearing the younger generation’s frustrations may have helped them to reflect on the impact of their decision in their youth or middle age in light of current knowledge – the natural cost of new knowledge.
However, older generations at work or in retirement possess the levers to help Gen B use their new skills and abundant energy to solve the pressing social and environmental challenges. But far too often, there is resistance to the purpose of GEN B’s as a response to these challenges is seen as the woke agenda. GEN B’s see the purpose of business differently, just as my Dad did in Birmingham before the explosion of exploitative consumerism. However, it still requires the older generations, often the managers and leaders in organisations and governments, with the power, resources, and influence to make change possible. They cannot abdicate responsibility to GEN B enterprises, as my Dad alluded to, to drive the transition. We must all pull on the levers of change.
We must all pull on the levers for change.”
Working together, we can support GEN B to bring the change we hope for by who we vote for, what we buy and who from, how and where we travel, and what we eat, etc. Above all is the need to see that it is never too late to make better choices which will involve some financial trade-off and act as an ally to others as they struggle to build a better world. In the end, we are all stewards of this precious, precarious planet. Whatever happens, we will be held accountable by those we leave behind when we are no longer on this earth. I’d rather think, we pushed ourselves to do everything possible with the knowledge we had and prioritise our resources to protect the many, not the few, for today and tomorrow.”
– Paul Adderley, Founder and Director