Kent-based Pennard Vets has become the first veterinary practice in Europe to become B Corp certified.
B Corps are companies that meet exceptionally high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. The independent process examines a company’s full range of processes, from supply chain to charitable giving and employee benefits. Other B Corps include Patagonia, The Body Shop, BrewDog, Ben and Jerry’s and Innocent Drinks.
Dr Caroline Collins, from Pennard Vets, which has seven practices in Kent, said: “We’ve always strived to be ethical and minimise our environmental impact as much as possible, and the next step was to become a fully certified sustainable business.
“Ultimately, we exist to benefit our people, the communities we work in and the environment, rather than solely focusing on profit, and becoming a B Corp is the highest level of external recognition of this.
“Becoming employee owned, through an employment ownership trust (EOT), last year was an important part of this aim and immediately after achieving that goal, we set our sights on becoming a B Corp. The accreditation is incredibly thorough and examined every area of the business, as well as all our policies to ensure what we have put in place are robust and impactful.
“We’re extremely proud to achieve B Corp status and there’s no doubt that it will be transformational for the business, in the same way that becoming an EOT has been.”
Operations manager Joy Cole, who led the process, added: “This accreditation has taken a long time to achieve, but throughout the process it opened our eyes to the fact that we were already doing a lot of what was required.
“Very few businesses pass first time, so we were thrilled to score 90 points with our first attempt, 10 more than the minimum of 80 that’s required to pass, and we’re now looking forward to building on this further as we continue to focus on reducing our carbon footprint and making other positive changes, that will benefit our team, our clients and the local community.”
Pennard Vets has seven practices, in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Allington, Borough Green, Langley Park and West Malling. In 2021 Pennard Vets became the largest veterinary practice in the world to become employee-owned.
