This week, Think Beyond’s parent company – Benchmark – released its 2024 Impact Report, marking the latest milestone in the organisation’s B Corp journey and reaffirming its commitment to continuous improvement and leading by example as a better business.
By Aarushi Asawa, Consultant, Think Beyond
Leveraging our expertise in sustainability strategy and impact reporting, Think Beyond led the charge to embed sustainability further across Benchmark, using B Corp as a framework to strengthen purpose and performance across the business.
This second year of reporting represents a significant leap: formalising impact metrics, embedding sustainable operations, uncovering gaps, and telling stories across four distinct businesses within Benchmark.
Since becoming B Corp certified, the focus for Benchmark has been on strengthening its own governance processes and further integrating and delivering improved sustainability performance across the whole group.
In the last year, key progress was made in several areas:
- Sustainability policies reviewed and rolled out
New minimum sourcing standards, sustainable procurement guidance, sustainable travel policy, carbon offsetting guidance and a sustainable food charter.
- Group-wide sustainability governance established
Clear structure, accountability, and collaboration across all Benchmark businesses, with our Sustainability Working Group driving group wide change.
- Sustainable Event Framework
Framework implemented with event sustainability checklist and audits, highlighting progress and improvement areas across each business.
- Bespoke sustainability support for each Benchmark business
Capacity building ensured all teams were equipped to lead on sustainability.
Typically, when we guide clients through sustainability certifications, we can’t speak about the process publicly. So, we thought we’d share a rare peak under the hood of the challenges and lessons of maintaining Benchmark’s B Corp certification.
- The Challenge of Multiple Businesses
Embedding sustainability across any single organisation can be challenging. Doing so across multiple organisations with distinct models and operations is even more complex.
Tailoring the approach to each business, understanding blockers, and finding meaningful ways to show sustainability’s relevance took patience, creativity, and often small wins to build momentum.
- Complexities of Carbon Accounting
Trying to calculate emissions across multiple businesses is a complicated process. Travel patterns, events, and office operations all produced numbers that don’t neatly align.
Yet, despite the challenges, this process was invaluable as it revealed gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement, reminding us that you can’t manage what you don’t measure and to own up what we measure to keep improving.
- Transparency, Honesty, and Purpose
Reporting is not just about presenting successes like a showstopper, it’s about being open about gaps, acknowledging areas for improvement, and clearly articulating the path forward.
This approach strengthens credibility and builds trust, both internally and externally.
- Human Connections and Team Enablement
At the heart of sustainability work is people. Non-transactional relationships, understanding workloads, being empathetic, and helping unblock challenges rather than simply requesting data, were critical.
Enabling the team, rather than directing them, and making clear how their work aligns with broader societal and environmental goals created real purpose. When people feel their efforts matter and understand the role they play in a bigger mission, they thrive.
Overseeing Benchmark’s B Corp compliance reinforced a simple but powerful message: sustainability is a journey, not a tick box exercise.
It’s about people, purpose, and legacy. It’s about helping teams recognise the positive impact they already create, staying connected to the wider world that made it possible, and ensuring the business thrives in a way that supports society, the environment and the bottom line along the way.
The Benchmark Impact Report 2024 captures not just metrics, but the story of a business committed to continuous improvement, collaboration, and meaningful impact, with passion for purpose at the heart of everything the Group does.
If your business is interested in attaining B Corp status or embedding more sustainable business practices more broadly, please contact simon.lucey@thinkbeyond.consulting.
