Better Business: what 2021 taught us

WeTransfer has been doing good for over a decade and a B Corp for more than a year now and here’s what we’ve learned along the way

Damian BradfieldCCO at WeTransferDecember 15, 2021

It’s no secret that WeTransfer has long been committed to using business as a force for good. But with us now being B Corp certified for over a year and 2021 drawing to a close, it feels like a good time to reflect on what we’ve learned.

There have been many great achievements this year, watch this video to discover some of them.

Some of my highlights include:

Us becoming climate neutral - this was a big deal!
Giving up 30% of our advertising inventory (around 10 billion impressions - I know we’ve been doing this for a decade but it's worth repeating)
Committing more than €1m to the Supporting Act Foundation and charitable causes
Planting more than 100,000 trees - thats around 1km of forest and restored 67,000 square feet of kelp
Supporting nearly 2,000 families with environmental initiatives

But these milestones don’t tell the whole story, there have been some challenges too. Being a business that strives to be socially responsible is seldom without its difficulties, as the scope of where you can potentially put your focus can be broad.

We need to give even more time and energy to diversity & inclusion, and sustainability and climate change.

What I’ve seen this year is that it’s been way tougher than I thought to get people internally to think about being a B Corp and what this means practically, something I think a lot of companies can relate to. In a Covid-19 world where physical contact with colleagues is still limited and busy schedules persist, ensuring important topics get the attention they deserve has never been more important.

We need to give even more time and energy to diversity & inclusion, and sustainability and climate change during the upcoming year.

How we as a company engage with both internal and external stakeholders at all levels, so they are fully motivated to actively participate in making positive changes a reality, has never been more important. This is something that we’ll continue to work on to ensure we hold ourselves accountable to being a force for good.

We’re committed for the long haul, as we know that what marks B Corp organizations out from other companies is that they work together to go beyond intent into demonstrable, measurable actions.

Taking a purpose-led approach is an ongoing journey, and we’ll continue to keep taking our learnings as we go and applying them wherever we can.

Thanks for joining us so far and here’s to always aspiring to do better.

Fact check: what is a B Corp?

Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

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Better Business: what 2021 taught us

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