Therapy, heatwaves, and a jigsaw treasure-hunt: Explore’s approach to B Lab’s new standards
With a pressing deadline to meet the new EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) Directive, adventure travel company Explore was determined to be among the first cohort of companies to recertify under B Lab’s new standards (V2). Explore’s head of sustainability Hannah Methven sat down with B Lab UK’s engagement manager Chloe Ibrahim to share the team’s game plan, and how an unusual alliance helped them succeed, despite this summer’s heatwave.
For a company that brokers adventure for a living, Explore approached its B Corp recertification with some trepidation. The 45-year-old tour operator first certified under B Lab’s previous standards after nearly two years of work. But this time, the bar was higher, the scope broader, and the team was racing to meet the EU deadline.
We came away thinking, “Wow, they’ve definitely made it harder this time,” says Methven. But after a five-hour call on the hottest day of the year, fuelled by a determination to prove the company’s impact—and plenty of ice creams—the team came away feeling more optimistic about the outcome. And rightly so: Explore was among the first 20 businesses to certify under B Lab’s new standards, and one of only two companies in the travel industry to do so.
Raising the bar across the board
Under B Lab’s new standards, businesses must demonstrate action and progress across all seven Impact Topics. For Explore, the process highlighted two areas in particular where more formal processes were needed: Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) and Human Rights.
“That's not to say we weren't already aware of these areas and working on them in the background,” says Methven. “But we didn't have formal processes in place.”
The team took a methodical approach. A core team of three met weekly, with support from colleagues across the business, helping to spread the workload and ensure no one person felt overwhelmed.
An unlikely alliance
Explore’s most valuable support came from an unlikely source: its competitors. Through Travel by B Corp, a group of UK B Corps in the travel sector, four global tour operators found themselves working towards the same ECGT deadline. Every other Monday, they met to compare notes.
“We called it our therapy session,” says Methven. The group pooled B Lab guidance and their own experiences in a shared document. With similar operations and supply chains, the companies often faced the same questions, making it mutually beneficial to work together to gather evidence and formulate responses.
The supply chain question
For a global tour operator, some of the biggest challenges lie beyond its direct operations. Explore works through local partners, known as ground agents, who employ its tour leaders, drivers and guides, and arrange accommodation. “We're quite far removed from a lot of people who are contributing to our product,” says Methven.
Previously, supplier contracts asked partners whether they paid minimum and living wages. Explore now maps wage levels country by country and asks suppliers what their lowest-paid employee earns, helping to identify potential gaps.
“Operating in Vietnam is obviously very different to operating in France or Peru. But previously we weren’t taking that next step to identify who wasn’t paying a minimum or living wage in their respective countries, and more importantly, why.”
These conversations weren't always comfortable. “It was vital for us to clarify that we're all on a learning journey together. It actually helped us to build deeper relationships with our suppliers, and ask, ‘How can we help you?’
As part of recertification, Explore also developed a new human rights risk assessment. Its next ambition is to address specific issues destination by destination, feeding into its Year 3 progress plans.
No ordinary celebration
Methven’s advice to B Corps facing the new standards is practical: assign an owner and a deadline to every requirement, involve colleagues early, and take thorough notes during the audit call so improvements can begin before the report arrives. Above all, find companies facing similar challenges. “Find your community among businesses similar to yours where you can, because there’s so much you can learn from each other.”
She also values the clarity the standards provide about what comes next. With the first year requirements complete, she already knows what Explore needs to achieve by year three. “The weeks are going to fly by,” she says. “But I know where I want us to be in six months' time, and where we ultimately need to be in three years time.”
Explore’s internal strapline is ‘be better than yesterday’, and Methven sees the new standards as a way to hold the company to that commitment. The team’s celebrations reflected the same ethos. When confirmation of its recertification arrived, staff marked the occasion with a bus-stop-sized poster, cut into jigsaw pieces and hidden around the office. Colleagues found the pieces and reassembled them, one by one, on a glass wall.
“We could have just sent an email, but that didn’t really feel very B Corp to me” she says.