The London-based social enterprise, which supports people experiencing homelessness by providing coffee training and skills, scored an impressive 120 points in its B Lab assessment
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A Change Please coffee bar in London’s Victoria, UK | Photo credit: Courtesy of Change Please
London-based Change Please has become a B Corp after scoring 120 points in its B Lab UK assessment.
Founded in 2015 as a coffee cart in London’s Covent Garden, Change Please now operates eight coffee bars in the UK capital and a site in Milton Keynes. The social enterprise uses 100% of profits to help people experiencing homelessness by providing barista training, living-wage employment and offering support across housing, therapy and gaining a bank account.
“Becoming a B Corporation is just another step on our ongoing journey towards a more equitable world, supported by sustainable businesses, focused on innovative and regenerative solutions to some of the world’s fundamental challenges,” said Julian Burnham, National Impact Director and Sustainability Advisor at Change Please.
B Corp certified companies are businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance and are evaluated by B Lab across five impact areas – governance, workers, community, environment and customers.
Candidates must score a minimum of 80 points across impact areas to become B Corp-certified and must recomplete the assessment every three years. The global average for companies undertaking the assessment in 50.9.
Change Please joins a global community more than 6,000 B Corp certified businesses operating across 150 industries and over 80 countries globally. In the UK, fellow coffee businesses
Climpson & Sons,
Union Hand Roasted Coffee,
Ozone Coffee Roasters,
Pact Coffee, and
Origin Coffee have all certified as B Corps in recent years.