After a long, rigorous assessment, Hawksmoor is now a certified B Corp, joining a global community of businesses audited and proven to meet high environmental and social standards, accountability, and transparency.
Certified B Corporations are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Unlike other certifications for businesses, B Corp is unique in that it measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact.
This is one of our most significant achievements. 16 years ago, we set out to start a business/open a restaurant that we could be proud of. Of course, that meant great food, drink and service, but it also meant conducting ourselves with integrity and trying to do something positive.
“B Corp certification is like a global kite mark for businesses like ours, and is an extremely high bar – as far as we know no other UK restaurant group has achieved it.”
Not only does B Corp certification verify those high ethical standards, it also requires a commitment to constant improvement, with companies required to re-certify every three years.
It’s a great feeling joining a group of businesses who are trying to play a part in changing things for the better, and knowing that so many other businesses in the UK restaurant industry are doing likewise. Many of them are already on the journey towards B Corp status, and we hope many more join us. There’s also so much more for us to do, and we’re really excited about the next few years.
B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, Hawksmoor had to:
- Demonstrate high social and environmental performance
- Make a legal commitment by changing our corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders
- Exhibit transparency by allowing information about our performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on our B Corp profile
B Corps are by definition also focused on continuous improvement, leading to their long-term resiliency.
B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. The process to achieve and maintain certification is rigorous and required us to engage with people from across the company in a coordinated effort over years of working to achieve the business we wanted to see in action.
We are extremely grateful to our teams, our guests and the communities we work in for supporting us to get here and help us create something special with Hawksmoor. Here’s to the next sixteen years!
