A Message From Our Founders
“We’re proud to announce that CANOPY became a B CorpTM in August 2023—a huge accomplishment for everyone on our team. B Corps meet high standards of social and environmental impact. As a rare B Corp in the coworking space sector, we rank among progressive businesses leading the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system.
We created CANOPY to offer sustainable, design-forward spaces where members can do their best work with minimal impact. Now that we’re a committed member of the B Corp community, the rigorous standards that underpin B Corp Certification will continue to shape how we define success in our business operations while valuing people, including our staff and members, the broader community we serve, and the planet.
This achievement would not have been possible without the support of our inspiring members. Thank you. We’re excited to be taking this journey together.”
– Steve Mohebi, Yves Béhar, and Amir Mortazavi
What’s a B Corp, and why is this certification meaningful?
Since the late 1970s, corporate governance practices have focused on the purpose of business as maximizing shareholder value in the form of financial profit. More recently, the definition of business success has expanded to include the values of stakeholders—workers, customers, communities, and the environment.
More businesses are adopting an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental, and economic, known as “triple-bottom-line” thinking, fueling the proliferation of a new organizational form: the Certified B Corporation, where “B” stands for “Benefit for All.”
B Corp Certification indicates that a business meets high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency to create a positive impact. It considers various factors, including employee benefits, charitable giving, supply chain practices, and input materials, through the lens of fostering an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet.
CANOPY’s pathway to becoming a Certified B Corp
Certified B Corporations are social enterprises verified by the nonprofit organization B LabTM, which grades and certifies companies according to the value they create for non-shareholding stakeholders.
To achieve certification:
- We demonstrated high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.
- We made a legal commitment by changing our corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
- We were transparent, allowing information about our performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available via their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website and in this Journal post.
Assessing CANOPY’s impacts as a business
B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. CANOPY was assessed as a business in the real estate development industry—a sector typically offering services with a significant ecological footprint—and the rigorous process to achieve and maintain certification engaged CANOPY’s entire team. Considering our company size and profile, B Lab’s verification process reviewed documentation of our business model and information about our operations, structure, and various work processes.
- On average, every office worker contributes approximately one carbon tonne a year. We partner with diversified carbon portfolio platform CNaught to purchase high-quality offsets designed to maximize impact, mitigate risk, and foster innovation. A portfolio approach to offsets is recommended by the World Economic Forum; CNaught’s portfolio embodies the science-based best practices laid out in Oxford’s Principles for Carbon Offsetting.Previously, we offset our estimated carbon footprint of more than 487 tonnes, which includes operations and a liberal estimate of member commutes, with an investment in Sea Trees, a global platform for reforestation, and another 800 tonnes by supporting the Jacundá Forest Reserve project through Cool Effect. This funding has improved the conservation of the rainforest in Brazil, created jobs, housing, and improved the quality of life for its local population. We planted trees in Beirut made possible by donating to SUGi, and gathered a community of CANOPY volunteers to reforest our backyard in SF’s Outer Sunset neighborhood by planting trees through Friends of the Urban Forest.
- Our Climate Positive Event Series is carefully crafted to cover all realms of sustainability from textiles to reforestation. We hold space for important environmental conversations to arise by asking all the right questions and bringing the most influential speakers. Past Climate Positive Events include: Beyond Meat with Seth Goldman; Empowering Brands and People to Take Direction Action to Reverse Climate Change; and SF Design Week: The Plastic Stream.
- All CANOPY shared office spaces are equipped with compost, recycling, and furniture made to last to reduce waste. The majority of our spaces are fueled by 100% renewable wind and solar energy through Clean Power SF. Additionally, our team offsets all business travel to override our flight emissions.
How CANOPY scored
Businesses must score 80 or above to qualify for B Corp Certification. Based on the B Impact AssessmentTM, Canopy Space Inc. earned an overall score of 99.9—a score we were very pleased with, especially considering the median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9.
Here’s the breakdown of our 99.9 score by sector, which you can see in more detail on CANOPY’s B Corp profile.
- Governance 14.7
Governance evaluates a company’s overall mission, engagement around its social and environmental impact, ethics, and transparency. This section also evaluates the ability of a company to protect its mission and formally consider stakeholders in decision-making through its structure or corporate governing documents. - Workers 19.3
The Workers section evaluates a company’s contributions to its employees’ financial security, health and safety, wellness, career development, engagement, and satisfaction. This section recognizes business models designed to benefit workers, such as companies with workforce development programs to support individuals with barriers to employment. - Community 25.1
Community evaluates a company’s engagement with and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires from, and sources from. Topics include diversity, equity and inclusion, economic impact, civic engagement, charitable giving, and supply chain management. - Environment 37.7
‘Environment’ evaluates a company’s overall environmental management practices and impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity, including the direct effect of operations, supply chain, and distribution channels. This section also recognizes companies with environmentally innovative production processes and those selling products or services with a positive environmental impact. - Customers 3.0
‘Customers’ evaluates a company’s stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels. This section recognizes products or services designed to address a particular social problem for or through its customers, such as arts and media products, serving underserved customers, and services that improve the social impact of other businesses or organizations
The Declaration of Interdependence
All B Corps sign the Declaration of Interdependence as part of their certification, committing to embody the values of the B Corp community and work towards our collective vision of business as a force for good.
“WE ENVISION A GLOBAL ECONOMY THAT USES BUSINESS AS A FORCE FOR GOOD. THIS ECONOMY IS COMPRISED OF A NEW TYPE OF CORPORATION—THE B CORPORATION—WHICH IS PURPOSE-DRIVEN AND CREATES BENEFIT FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS, NOT JUST SHAREHOLDERS. AS B CORPORATIONS AND LEADERS OF THIS EMERGING ECONOMY, WE BELIEVE: THAT WE MUST BE THE CHANGE WE SEEK IN THE WORLD. THAT ALL BUSINESS OUGHT TO BE CONDUCTED AS IF PEOPLE AND PLACE MATTER. THAT, THROUGH THEIR PRODUCTS, PRACTICES, AND PROFITS, BUSINESSES SHOULD ASPIRE TO DO NO HARM AND BENEFIT ALL. TO DO SO REQUIRES THAT WE ACT WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT WE ARE EACH DEPENDENT UPON ANOTHER AND THUS RESPONSIBLE FOR EACH OTHER AND FUTURE GENERATIONS.”
What’s next for CANOPY?
Creating a better future is a team effort. The B Corp movement strives to change our economic system and the rules of the game by developing standards, policies, tools, and programs that shift the behavior, culture, and structure of capitalism.
We hope our pledge will inspire you to consider joining us in addressing society’s most critical challenges and realizing our collective vision of an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy that works for everyone.
You can learn more about the B Corp Community and B Corp Certification here. If you have any questions or would like some pointers on becoming B Corp certified, our member services team would be thrilled to share insights. Feel free to ask us in person or send us a note: members@canopy.space.
