The format is dedicated to Benefit Corporation (B Corp™) whose mission is to change the way business drives the world’s transformation towards sustainable thinking and behavior
Sofia, 29 June 2023
DEVIN and Harmonica hosted the first edition of B Corp Café. During the event, the two leading Bulgarian companies shared important information and inspiration about how businesses can transform into a force for good and told how we can all work together for a better future – for people and the planet. The format was dedicated to the Benefit Corporation (B Corp™) movement, whose mission is to change the way business interacts with society and the environment to drive trends toward ongoing sustainable thinking and behavior.
Borislava Nalbantova, Executive Director of DEVIN, and Lyubomir Nokov, partner and Manager of Harmonica, spoke in detail before representatives of business, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions and the media about the steps along the path to certification and explained the motivation behind the decision to become part of the B Corp™ movement.
“The B Corp™ certificate is the highest distinction in the world for companies that follow the path of sustainability and responsibility towards the world. For us, this certificate is a natural stage of our already over 30-year history. We clearly realize that we are all dependent on each other, which makes us responsible to each other and to future generations, which is very important. For us, B Corp™ provides an opportunity to really connect with people thinking alike and sharing the same values and the belief that we, here and now, can make a difference,” said Borislava Nalbantova. “Now that we are a B Corp™, the B Corp Café meet-and-greet is a way to fulfill part of our mission as a corporation for good – namely, to share our experiences and promote this global community, its principles and evaluation criteria. And thus inspire and encourage other Bulgarian companies to take this path. We stand with our names and faces because there is nothing more important than bringing businesses and people together on good topics. “, she said.
Lyubomir Nokov added: “The main goal of B Corp™ is to bring people together and gather like-minded people, and I really hope that together with DEVIN, we will set the pattern and in a year there will be many more Bulgarian companies that will be part of the B Corp™ family. Our mission has always been to set an example that in the food industry things can be done differently, in a better way. Business is one of the most important factors for change to happen in the most effective way. Change is at the individual, political level, and business is the third big and important part of that.”
Certified B Corp™ companies are next-generation businesses that balance their social mission with their profits. To obtain B Corp™ certification, a company must meet extremely high standards of social and environmental performance. At the same time, it needs to change its governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders and demonstrate as much transparency as possible.
The certification of companies in Europe is carried out by the organization B Lab™ Europe, whose representative Nico Gemio was also a participant in the first edition of the B Corp Café and presented the steps for certification as a B Corp™ through a set of standards, policies, tools and business programs.
