Back in 2017 when our founder, Tom was considering what B Corp™ could offer Wholegrain, he didn’t realise that it would be the beginning of a whole new trajectory for his career and business.
Tom and Vineeta founded Wholegrain with the purpose of creating a responsible business that did not negatively impact people or planet. And, as a nine year old web design and build agency in 2017, they had thought that they had achieved that, until one question in the B Corp™ certification left Tom stumped. What is the environmental impact of the products that you manufacture?
Well, what was the carbon emissions of a digital business, and how could we measure it?
Up until that point, most people would have answered zero, nothing, nada, zilch, for this question. Digital and therefore the Internet was green and therefore clean – there were no dirty, smokey emissions to consider, no realms of printed paper destroying trees, no waste, no weight, super light on the go – virtual. Right?
Leaves you feeling a little uneasy to just answer zero doesn’t it.
Now, if you’ve ever gone through our introduction to digital sustainability, you know that this is indeed not the case. The Internet is indeed very much a physical thing with an associated footprint equivalent to that of international aviation and its growing.
Since that day, Wholegrain has been on a mission to accelerate the shift to a greener internet that’s good for people and kinder to the planet by designing human-led, low carbon websites for brands with purpose.
The values of a B Corp™ are ultimately what is at the core of our DNA. So for us, nine years after becoming a B Corp™, the fundamentals are stronger than ever.
We work today for a better tomorrow, creating an Internet that is built for the people, not just the few controlling it.
We work everyday to make a positive impact for people and planet, not only in the focus of our work, but how we run our business.
We understand the value and potential of an economy that benefits people and planet and we champion partners working in this way, alongside ensuring that our ways of working and digital outputs echo this approach also.
We never settle at the bare minimum, we strive for the best in all we do. It’s not good enough to just change your hosting to a renewable energy provider, there’s so much more we can do to reduce the overall impact of your site in the first place to not only benefit they planet through decreased carbon emissions, but also positively impact people through improved performance, accessibility and user experience.
We encourage new voices through how we support our team with development and training, and also how we build out the Wholegrain team through our new recruitment process.
We work as a movement alongside partners and the community. Together we are louder and we can make an impact.
And finally, in everything we do each day we are changing the way business is done, and that’s pretty cool. We’re working with our clients to understand how websites should be built and considered in 2025. We’re educating teams and the community on digital sustainability and the steps we can take, and finally, we’re supporting our own team to work in a supportive and exciting workplace, making a true difference in the world.
Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it? And this all started with that one question in the B Corp™questionnaire – What is the environmental impact of the products that you manufacture? Well today we can confidently say that we do know the environmental impact of the products we manufacture (the websites we build, evolve and maintain) but we also know the benefit of building them in the way we recommend and how it has changed an industry. Thanks B Corp™
Interested in finding out more? Delve back into our archives to read Tom’s business case for B Corp™ five years in
