What is B Corp? And what does it mean for sustainable tea?
Discover how Axxent Masters in Tea, through B Corp sustainable tea, contributes to people, nature and community.
What is a B Corp?
You may have come across the term B Corp more and more often. But what does it actually mean?
A B Corp (Certified B Corporation) is a company that proves profit and positive impact can go hand in hand.
Companies are assessed on seven impact topics and must achieve a minimum score in each area. These seven topics are:
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Environment – impact on the environment and climate
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Workers – wellbeing, safety and growth of employees
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Community – contribution to local communities and economies
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Customers – value and fairness towards customers
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Governance – transparency and good governance
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Purpose – social mission and long-term vision
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Impact Management – measuring and improving impact
A company that meets the standards across all these areas earns the right to call itself a B Corp. This means, for example, ensuring fair working conditions for employees, investing in local communities, reducing CO₂ emissions, and communicating transparently with customers.
Why Axxent Masters in Tea became a B Corp
Tea is more than just a product. It is deeply connected to nature, people and communities. By joining the B Corp movement, we want to show that we make conscious choices throughout the entire value chain.
This begins on the tea fields in Sri Lanka, where we work with hand-picked methods and ensure local processing and packaging. It continues in the way we collaborate and make decisions in our offices. In this way, we create employment, contribute to the quality of our teas, and ensure that more value remains within the local economy. We do this with our brands Tea of Life, Bradley’s and Sunleaf.
For us, B Corp is not a label to put on packaging, but a way of building a sustainable, future-proof tea sector.
How does Axxent Masters in Tea score?
In April 2024, we received our certificate with a B Impact Score of 104.4. To put this in perspective: the minimum score required is 80, while the average score for businesses worldwide is around 50. This shows that we are on the right track but also that there is always room to improve further.
For our partners, this means working with a company that has been independently assessed on sustainability and social impact. In both hospitality and retail, this is becoming increasingly important, as customers expect businesses to demonstrate how they contribute to a better world.
Fair Grounds Foundation
Alongside our B Corp certification, we also have our own initiative: the Fair Grounds Foundation. For every kilo of tea sold, a contribution goes directly to projects in Sri Lanka. These range from providing school materials and extra lessons in ICT and English, to setting up pharmacies and schools. Farmers are also supported with training programmes, and beehives are introduced to strengthen biodiversity. Our contributions through the Fair Grounds Foundation make a real difference in the communities where our tea originates.
B Corp as a compass for the future
For us, B Corp is not an endpoint, but a compass. It helps us to continuously reflect on the choices we make. Whether it concerns packaging materials, transport, or the way we collaborate with our partners we want to improve a little every day.
Want to learn more about sustainable B Corp tea?
Read more about B Corp or discover our B Corp-certified tea brands: Bradley’s, Tea of Life & Sunleaf.