A giant ‘B’ behind B Corp Certification arrived in the North East this week as part of a drive to build understanding of the movement.
Representatives from regional companies who are certified B Corps stood with the 6ft ‘B’ at the Angel of the North to celebrate the growing community of businesses who are acting as a force for good. There are now 12 Certified B Corporations, or B Corps in the North East including Robson Laidler Accountants, Rheal Superfoods, Sail Creative, UMi, Berghaus and Space Architecture.
To certify, a company must measure and improve their impact on their workers, customers, community, and the environment. B Corps change their legal articles to consider the impact of their decisions on people and the planet alongside profit. The B stands for ‘benefit for all’.
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March is B Corp Month, and this year’s theme is ‘We go beyond’, celebrating the community of businesses who are going beyond business norms to transform the economic system for the better. The giant ‘B’, usually based in B Lab UK’s office in Whitechapel, London, has been moving across the country to be hosted in over 10 locations this month.
Rosalind Holley, B Lab UK’s director of communications and marketing, said: “The UK B Corp community is one of the fastest growing in the world and represents a passionate group of people using business as a force for good. Yet historically much of this growth has been concentrated around London and the south east. There are amazing businesses going beyond in all corners of the UK, and we wanted to spotlight their impact while helping to drive conversations and understanding about the B Corp movement. This particular big ‘B’ was built to help us accelerate the movement in its early stages back in 2019 and has been living in our offices ever since. In the spirit of ‘reuse and recycle’ we asked the B Corp community to come up with creative ways to bring it to life and we’re excited to see what they do with it.”
Employees at North East property and renewable energy firm The Banks Group smashed their 2022 fundraising target for a specialist children’s cancer charity.
The team at the Durham-headquartered firm chose Neuroblastoma UK as their charity of the year after it was nominated by their colleague Gemma Dickenson in honour of Cara McKay, the daughter of her close friends Tom and Issy McKay, who died in 2020 from the condition when she was just three years old. Having originally aimed to raise around £3,000, the team handed over a £5,000 cheque to the charity, which is dedicated to finding a cure for neuroblastoma and to helping to achieve more positive outcomes for young patients with the disease.
A variety of fundraising activities and events were organised by the Banks team, ranging from Premier League and World Cup sweepstakes, dress down paydays and raffles through to an international picnic day for which staff at Banks’ Meadowfield head office prepared a range of foods. A nine-strong Banks team also took on the Total Warrior event in Leeds.
Tom McKay said: “Cara was a huge fan of Disney, and loved dressing up, imaginative play, telling everyone what to do and the colour pink. Neuroblastoma UK is a charity which is very close to our hearts following her diagnosis in 2017 and Issy and I were absolutely delighted to hear how much the Banks Group team has raised.”
Zafar Zabbar, senior philanthropy and partnerships manager at Neuroblastoma UK, said: “Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Banks Group and many others, we can fund more research projects to help find new, more effective and kinder treatments for children with this devastating disease.”
Gemma Dickenson, contracts director at The Banks Group, said: “Colleagues from every part of the business always get involved with our fundraising activities, and we’re really pleased to be able to give such a great sum to Neuroblastoma UK in honour of a very special little girl.”
The Essity tissue mill in Prudhoe has won a major national award for its investment in developing the skills of employees and the training of its apprentices.
At an awards ceremony in the House of Commons, a team from the mill carried off the Gold Skills Award given annually by the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI). Another Northumberland company, Fourstones Paper Mill, was highly commended in the Sustainable Innovation category.
“This is an incredible achievement and reflects the huge amount of work carried out in the last couple of years by HR manager Clare Stewart and her colleagues at Prudhoe,” said site manager Tony Richards. “Investing in our people has always been important to our business, but this recognition comes after the opening late last year of our new apprentice training academy. “The academy is unique in our region and represents many months of working with qualification awarding bodies to become our own employer training provider. This allows our apprentices to remain on site for the whole of their training and develop real-life skills more effectively than spending long periods of time at college.
“Having our own classrooms and lecturers on-site – along with regular access to the machinery they will eventually end up working on – means our apprentices get the best-possible start to their future careers in manufacturing. This CPI award is an honour not just for Prudhoe but our other five UK paper mills who have all embraced the concept of growing our own talent.”
CPI director general Andrew Large said the annual award recognised a company that has made a significant investment in skills development and training, that benefits not just its own business but has a wider impact on the entire UK paper industry.
The championing of STEM subjects by the North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA) was celebrated as rising stars Lily Turner and Nathaniel Cutler scooped apprentice and graduate awards at an awards ceremony.
Lily, who is a maintenance technician with Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK, won the Geoff Ford MBE apprentice award, sponsored by Gateshead College and Nathaniel an engineering graduate with Komatsu UK, took the graduate award, sponsored by Marelli.
The NEAA Awards 2023 honoured the brightest talent and outstanding achievements of companies and future leaders shaping the North East automotive industry.
While both Lily and Nathaniel received cheques for £1,000 as part of their prize, company winners received a cheque which they will then donate to a STEM engagement programme or local school in support of an automotive or STEM related project, which helps to promote and drive forward careers within the automotive sector.
Lily said: “Working at Nissan as an apprentice has been an extremely exciting opportunity. It is a very supportive environment and there are so many opportunities to progress, particularly for women. In the last year I won the regional apprentice of the year award and in the national final I was highly commended. I want to stay in maintenance and my goal is to work up to management level. I am proof that women in STEM can build a truly fulfilled career in what was, previously, a male dominated industry.”
The awards evening culminated with the outstanding achievement award which was awarded to Nissan’s region senior VP Kevin Fitzpatrick, who retires this month after five decades in the automotive sector.
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