Advertising giant Havas London must be stripped of its B Corp status if its sister agency keeps its global contract with Shell, the founder of another B Corp accredited agency has said.
Havas London and five other Havas agencies are currently the subjects of a formal investigation by B Lab, the gatekeeper of the coveted B Corp accreditation, after its sister agency, Havas, signed a global contract to place advertisements for Shell.
Now, with the result of that investigation expected within a fortnight, Chris Norman MBE, the founder and CEO of Good Agency, has told City A.M. that all four of the French media behemoth’s B Corp-accredited agencies should have their status revoked or the accreditation will lose its value.
“By taking fees from agencies that work with high polluting clients, B Lab failed to recognise the sacrifices that we made – and continue to make – to maintain our B Corp status,” he said.
“All of us are making sacrifices [like turning down work and clients] based on the standards that B Lab has set out. And to allow companies in that are not making those same sacrifices is incredibly damaging for the accreditation.”
‘Disappointing’ complaints process
In recent years the “B Corp” – short for B Corporation – accreditation has become a much sought after independent affirmation that a firm meets the highest environmental and governance practices.
Companies pay B Lab to conduct a rigorous assessment of their business that often takes several years. If they are judged meet a certain score, they will then be confirmed as a “B Corp”.
In 2018, Havas London became the first major advertising firm to hold the accreditation. But their place as an industry pioneer was thrown into doubt in January after B Lab announced a 90-day investigation into all the group’s agencies with B Corp status, after receiving a “significant” number of complaints from other accredited agencies.
Norman’s Southwark-based Good Agency, which employs over 60 people and works with big name clients like the RSPB, the London Business School and Justgiving, was one of the complainants. And since the investigation was launched, B Lab has delayed the result of its investigation by a further 90 days, taking the amount of time B Lab has spent assessing the sustainability of Havas agencies’ B Corp to over nine months.
“It’s been deeply disappointing,” Norman said. “We first lodged an official complaint in October… we’re now in July and still there has been no decision”.
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But with the verdict expected in a matter of days, Norman, who was awarded an MBE in this year’s New Years Honours List, said: “Ultimately, you should only get a B Corp if you’re prepared to sacrifice the clients and business you’re going after… that’s the whole point of it.
“We nearly didn’t apply for B Corp because we were worried that companies would get the accreditation and then think, ‘job done’.”
He said that if Havas is allowed to keep working with Shell, and the other agencies keep their accreditations, “we will continue to unbearable for B Lab”.
He added: “Our role is to really agitate internally and try and rally support. We are used to campaigning. It hasn’t got to the level of campaigning that we tend to do, but I imagine it’s going to escalate. We’re in this for the long game.”
Havas London declined to comment. B Lab UK did not respond to a request for comment.