London Is The B Corp Capital Of The World – Here’s Why

What do Mulberry, Aspiga, Rathfinny, Blackacre, Elvis & Kresse, Naturalmat, ELEMIS and Country & Town House have in common? We are all proud British B Corps, meaning we align profit with people and the planet.

In 2023, we became the world’s first glossy magazine to achieve B Corp accreditation, with C&TH Editorial Director Lucy Cleland summarising the impetus as follows: ‘We don’t presume anything so hubristic as wanting to change the world, but we do find ourselves in an environment that promotes vast over-consumption of stuff and a constant need for the new over everything. We therefore hope to use whatever influence we have to tweak our editorial messaging towards a more considered lifestyle, spotlighting people, products and brands that sing of a less extractive and damaging future – and to do it in a beautiful, optimistic and inspirational way.’

London-based Blackacre is one of the world’s only B Corp certified jewellery houses.

Short for ‘Benefit for all Corporations’, B Corp is an accreditation awarded to businesses who want to make profit but also want to do good in the world, across the wellbeing of people and the planet. Demanding accountability and transparency, it’s not just a sustainability buzzword: it’s an ethical disruption of the economic systems that rule our society, with the hopes of shifting the behaviour, structure and culture of capitalism (that’s the end goal for B Corp, anyway).

Back when we achieved our certification in 2023, London already boasted the highest concentration of B Corp businesses than any other city in the world with 700 – and a new report from B Lab UK reveals the British capital is still going strong, now boasting more than 1,000 of the country’s 2,600 B Corp businesses. Examples include fellow media brand The Guardian as well as Lucky Saint, Chilly’s, DASH Water, Hawksmoor, DAME, Pizza Pilgrims and plenty more across various sectors.

London is the certified B Corp capital of the world, beating out fellow big players like New York City, Amsterdam and Milan due to a combination of factors – not least the effective promotion of B Lab UK and its hero accredited brands like Innocent Drinks and The Body Shop. The British capital is a major global business and financial centre, giving B Corps access to investors increasingly interested in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria and Impact Investing. In layman’s terms, a business being B Corp accredited de-risks the investment; you already know by definition that it is transparent, well-governed, ethical and purpose-led.

Somerset-based Mulberry achieved its B Corp certification in 2024.

But the accreditation process is rigorous. As Lucy wrote in 2023, ‘It was at least two years’ work, some financial outlay on consultancy fees, ensuring London living wages were being paid and for enhancing policies such as maternity leave, and a microscopic look under every stone of the business to see what lurked beneath and could be improved upon in terms of social and environmental impact.’

B Lab has a free B Impact Assessment (BIA) tool, which more than 300,000 businesses have plotted their data into. But an immediately low score demands a multi-year improvement journey, with only 20,000 businesses going on to formally apply for B Corp accreditation, and only around 10,000 companies across the globe achieving the certification.

In the end C&TH achieved a B Impact Assessment (BIA) score of 92.3 (compare that to the average business’ score of around 50 points). But: ‘Points are hard won,’ Lucy wrote, ‘crushed like pills into halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths even as you eke them out by making your business kinder, more equitable, more socially impactful and better for the environment; not perfect, of course, but absolutely striving for higher standards.’ Once a company achieves B Corp, it becomes a legally binding contract, with the business amending their Articles of Association. Each business must also publish its own impact report; you can read ours here.

Every year C&TH Editorial Director Lucy Cleland (right) hosts Journey to Zero, a day-long sustainability summit.

So why keep striving for such a stringent label? Because as well as being better for people and the planet, B Corps have the potential to drive sustained economic growth – and a new report published by B Lab UK (the non-profit behind the UK B Corp movement) proves it. In the UK, B Corps have an average turnover growth of 20 percent – seven times higher than other UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

The report details this across several metrics including growth, investment and resilience, as well as creating significant positive impact on the environment and for employees. On average SME B Corps have an 11 percent employee headcount growth (compared to just two percent for average UK SMEs).

This growth is down to various reasons, from being more attractive to investors to people shifting their attention to ethical businesses and seeking out the right labels. As of 2025, 200,000 UK workers are employed by a B Corp, with the 2,600 accredited businesses boasting a combined annual turnover of £38 billion across 120 different industries.

British model and environmental activist Lily Cole was the 2024 cover star for C&TH’s annual Regeneration issue.

C&TH began its B Corp journey after the Covid-19 pandemic (which ‘afforded us that particular time to ask ourselves what we could do better,’ Lucy writes), but we joined a long legacy of resilient businesses: 93 percent of B Corps weathered that tumultuous storm, compared to 84 percent of UK businesses as a whole.

And the environmental impact (the reason many businesses set out to become a B Corp in the first place): since 2022, UK B Corps have collectively saved 20 billion litres of water. At C&TH, we’ve addressed our own climate impact multifariously, altering everything from our business travel to our office recycling, our content to the paper we print it on.

It’s all an effort to feel a part of a better future, and a celebratory ethos is ingrained into our mission – whether that’s hotels with sustainability in their DNA, fellow brands reckoning with their industry’s adverse impacts on the environment (C&TH is joined by luxury brands like Chloé, Sézane and GANNI in the B Corp club), or simply reports like this.

B Lab UK launched in January 2015, following the US arm’s launch in 2006. One decade in, the UK is home to the largest B Corp community in the world – and C&TH is proud to be a part of it.