En Serio is now a B Corp certified agency

Amsterdam-based PR agency En Serio is now a B Corp. By achieving the B Corp certification, the tech specialist joins 20 other Dutch marketing and communications agencies including DEPT, Blyde and Heldergroen and around 200 other Dutch companies such as Tony Chocolonely, Dopper, WeTransfer and Triodos. There are currently about 6,500 B Corps worldwide – with Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s and Etsy as some of the most well-known global brands – that use their business as a “force for good.

For En Serio, the B Corp certification is an important milestone and evaluation of the agency’s social and environmental performance. During the intensive certification process, the agency obtained insights and tools to further increase its sustainability and social impact. En Serio completed the certification with 94 points, with solid scores in the areas ‘workers’ and ‘community/social’.

“It felt like a natural step for us to really show that we put people and the planet at the heart of everything we do. B Corp does not accept plans, ambitions or CSR policies. During the certification process, we had to be fully open and transparent and prove that we do what we say,” says Eric Dragt, founder of En Serio.

Ambitious long-term goals

B Corp is by no means the end goal for En Serio. The agency wants to be carbon neutral within 3 years and make its client portfolio sustainable. The agency has already been able to significantly reduce CO2 emissions by moving from an old multi-tenant office building to a new office with an A++ energy label that uses green energy. About making the client portfolio more sustainable, Dragt says the following: “We want to become the go-to PR agency for sustainable tech companies. Therefore, a significant part of our growth will come from clean, climate, impact and sustainable tech clients.”

B Corps in the Netherlands: striking number of agencies, increasingly small organizations

It is striking that about 10% of Dutch B Corps are marketing and communications agencies. As part of En Serio’s certification program, the agency participated in the Building Better Business program of the municipality of Amsterdam. “About half of the participants were creative, marketing and communications agencies, all SMBs and the majority small businesses. And that surprised us in a positive way. Clearly, more and more smaller and services companies are seeing the value of certifications like B Corp and are committing to these high impact standards,” Dragt says.

Inspire customers, International partner agencies and other stakeholders

The agency wants to inspire clients, partner agencies, suppliers and the inner circle to take action as well. “Clients responded extremely positively when we told them about our B Corp plans last year. From these conversations, it was clear that especially the larger, global clients really value having partners and suppliers who are being serious about sustainability. We are happy that we can be an example for other organisations in the ecosystems of our clients.”

“We congratulate Enserio (our PR agency on the Dutch market) on coming so long on the B Corp certification journey. Worldfavor is a sustainability platform enabling businesses worldwide to easily access, share, and leverage business ESG data. Worldfavor was founded on the idea that every person and business can make a difference by making sustainable decisions. Following this vision, it’s critical for all our partners to follow our mission to make sustainability mainstream. We are looking forward to following Enserio’s journey ahead. And we are confident that the B Corp certification will create powerful synergies when it comes to social and environmental impact,” says My Morinder, PR and communications manager at Worldfavor.

Dragt concludes: “I want to show my son that companies can be successful (financially) and good for people and the planet. That even small organizations are capable of making a difference. And that with conscious actions and making better choices every day, everyone can make a positive impact. Together with all other organisations that strive to ‘be and do good’, I am very grateful to be in a position to show the next generation of professionals and entrepreneurs how businesses could and quite frankly should look like.”