Why We Pursued B Corporation Certification
It began over a glass of wine, as most things that matter do.
It had become increasingly important to run our business, Et Fille Wines, in a manner that was environmentally and socially responsible. How could we raise the bar and more thoughtfully consider the impact our business had? I was discussing this over a glass of Pinot Noir with a friend, also a Willamette Valley winery owner, and he asked if I had ever considered applying for B Corporation certification. Stemming from that question, there are three reasons we pursued this third-party accreditation.
First, after my dad died and my daughter was born, I became more deeply rooted in honoring what came before me and focused on doing what I could to make the future better for my daughter’s generation. As a winery, we are inevitably tied to our land, our community, and the environment - it is our responsibility to leave them in a better place for our children. More concretely, we have articulated that in the form of our commitments: to Sustainable Winemaking, Community, and Diversity and Equity. Having an outside party evaluate our practices was a way to ensure these commitments are more than words, but were tied to real life operations. We saw this as a way to raise the bar from commitment to practice.
Second, many of us have emerged from the turmoil of pandemic life questioning our purpose. Much of this has been about articulating why we exist, characterized in Simon Sinek’s TedTalk. Sometimes, though, finding our how can be as important as finding our why. When I left biotechnology for wine, I worried that I would not be connected to the greater meaning of being in a business committed to fulfilling unmet medical needs for patients. I mean, we’re just making wine, not bringing cancer drugs to patients, right? However, I believe it is not just what we do or why we do it, but how we do it. If we run our businesses, and our lives, through the lens of environmental and social responsibility, we can create a better slice of our own microeconomic world. For example, we as a business can support suppliers and businesses owned by underrepresented communities, thereby normalizing who owns businesses in our ecosystem.
Third, we used to think our business was too small to pursue becoming a certified B Corp. What we have learned is that there’s no such thing as too small to measure our impact. Even as a small family business, we can set up processes and decisions that prioritize our social and environmental impact.
What does this mean to you as a wine drinker? I believe that by choosing to spend our hard-earned dollars on companies that have practices that align with our values, we can all support environmental and social responsibility. The bottom line: when you support businesses that do good, it feels good. And, beyond that feeling, it has a very real impact on building the kind of world we’d be proud to leave behind for our children. While going through the certification process was challenging, being able to use our business as a force for good is priceless.