We kicked off 2020 with great news – Evergreen earned recognition as a Certified B Corporation and gained admittance to a small but mighty group of companies seeking to use business to make positive change in the world.

If you’re not familiar with this global movement, B Corps, certified by the nonprofit B Lab, meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability to all of their stakeholders. We’re now among 3,200 Certified B Corporations in over 71 countries, across 150 industries.

The push to become a B Corp came from our team members, who saw how our work in energy and resource efficiency was making a real change for individuals and businesses in communities across the region. Once I learned more, I saw how the philosophy is compatible with the founding mission of our company—to create and deliver exceptional efficiency programs and services that sustain our planet and delight our clients. Simply said, it reflects the high value we place on our clients, our community, our employees, and the environment.

I’ve known for quite some time that what we’re doing at Evergreen is unique. With purpose at the center of our business, for 22+ years we’ve been helping utilities and energy organizations motivate their customers to be energy efficient and meet sustainability goals. Building on a foundation based on relationships and service, we make ourselves an extension of our clients’ team to put people and results first. Focusing on profits and shareholder value were always a byproduct of our commitment to serving clients.

The path to becoming a B Corp has been a rigorous and revealing experience. It spurred us to formalize many of our unwritten practices and policies, establish a solid sustainability policy and a virtual office stewardship policy. We launched a code of conduct for our supply chain to make sure our values are aligned, and we purchased renewable energy credits to match energy use associated with our business with an equal amount of renewable energy.  We are a better company as a result of this certification process.

We know there’s more to do and we still have room to grow and improve. Adhering to these standards will help us continually improve as a company—and deepen our impact by helping communities use and manage energy wisely and meet social and environmental sustainability goals.