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Activist group Clean Creatives and 25 B Corp-certified agencies submitted an official complaint to B Lab this week in a move that formalizes a growing critique of the global nonprofit within the advertising industry.
In a letter, the group asks B Lab to update its certification eligibility rules, a routine process that it’s undergoing over the next year, to disqualify ad and PR agencies that serve fossil fuel clients.
The official complaint follows criticism of Shell’s media business review, culminating in a controversial win for Havas Media. Four Havas-owned agencies—Havas Immerse, Havas Lemz, Havas London and Havas New York—are certified B Corporations.
“We are deeply disappointed by B Lab’s inability to clarify their position on B Corp agencies that take on fossil fuel clients or any B Corp that works with fossil fuel clients,” Chris Norman, co-founder and CEO of B Corp-certified Good Agency, which first initiated the complaint against B Lab, said in a statement. “The current ambiguity, which has enabled Havas to become the main media agency for Shell, undermines the values and behaviors that B Lab claims to uphold.”
Signatories allege that by allowing agencies to achieve or maintain a B Corp certification while working on behalf of companies that make a majority of their profits from the sale of fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change, the group devalues the entire B Corp movement while contradicting the nonprofit’s own requirements for fossil fuel companies seeking certification.
Critics of this movement say that B Lab’s value lies in its narrow mandate to incentivize corporations to consider people and planet alongside profit, using a rigorous measurement system. By banning certain industry relationships outright, the group could prove less successful in its core mandate.
A spokesperson for B Lab Global said it is currently reviewing the four certified Havas agencies’ eligibility based on complaints and expects to conclude its initial review by late December. As part of its process for updating eligibility requirements, B Lab completed an initial round of public consultation late last year and is preparing for a second round in early 2024.
“We want to stress that we’re committed to following due process, which means that we’re not always able to make a quick decision when many would like us to,” the spokesperson said.
A call for clarity, consistency
The complaint focuses on updates to B Corp’s certification eligibility that B Lab made in 2020. It’s one of several updates that the nonprofit has made to its eligibility requirements over the years, which creates special rules around uniquely extractive, predatory, fraud-riddled or otherwise problematic industries. Aside from fossil fuels, it also has unique requirements for Swiss banks, Brazilian agribusinesses, debt collection agencies and prison operators, to name a few.
