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Cambridge founder: B Corp is not an ‘award’
Paris-based Cambridge Public House recently became the world’s first bar to achieve B Corp status – but co-founder Hugo Gallou isn’t in it for the accolades.
Sustainability might be common practice in the bar world these days, but getting recognised with a B Corp certification is an industry first.
“We didn’t aim to be the first, we just aimed to be B Corp. We happened to be the first to apply it,” said Gallou.
The process began 18 months ago, with Gallou explaining that it takes a lot more than ditching plastic straws or working with seasonal ingredients. “It’s related to everything. The environmental part of it is only one-fifth – 20% of the points are awarded for the environment. The rest is based on human resources (HR), transparency with numbers, ethics, the way you work with NGOs [non-governmental organisations], or redistribute part of the profits – stuff like that.”
Gallou called the journey a “humbling” experience, especially in the bar industry, where distinctions like being ‘one of the best establishments in the world’ and the awards that come with it can create egos.
For those thinking of applying, he acknowledged the learning you gain on the way: “When you apply, you will have to change a few things in your company – probably a lot of things. And only for the good. They look at the whole thing: that salaries are evenly distributed through genders or by age. It helps you to identify issues, which you can correct to get points – it’s really an education.
“Don’t be afraid of the amount of hours because it’s going to be rewarding at the end – financially, because you’ve really sorted out your company and staff retention and happiness. These things are invaluable. There is definitely value there. It is completely different to being a ‘sustainable bar’ – it’s so much more than that.”
The Cambridge started with an entry score of 55. To be B Corp-certified, businesses need a minimum score of 80, which it surpassed with an impact score of 88.1.
Gallou said: “When applying for B Corp, quite a few boxes or different elements need to be checked. Then they give you a theoretical score. It took us roughly nine months to implement all of the improvements required to break the threshold score.
“It is tough. I think B Corp is especially hard for smaller companies. We’re a company of eight employees. It’s really tiny. We don’t have admins, we don’t have a HR department or a finance department. It’s just me and my partner, and the rest of the bartenders, so it was really tough to achieve.”
“The [B Corp] framework is really clear. It helped us to categorise our actions – like: ‘OK, this is not just because we are nice, it is for transparency.’ We communicated for months: the results of our income, the tax charges, the company and how much we are all earning. Everyone is aware of how much we are making or losing, in good times and bad times. People are used to it now and there’s no shame in it.”
Community plan
Last year, Cambridge committed to a community plan where the team would take on some of the 17 objectives underlined by the United Nations. The bar narrowed it down to three objectives, with teams of three tasked with tackling one each, based on education, humans and environment.
Gallou explained: “As international bartenders, you get to travel a lot. We were saying: ‘Well, we do sustainable stuff, but at the same time, we keep flying around the world, so saving a few ice cubes here and there is not going to do anything.’
“It’s great we recycle but it’s pointless when we are flying constantly. Since we are going to be playing the game of takeovers, playing the game of marketing and being invited to different conferences and the rest, we might as well do some education, training and working with local bartenders while trying to be involved in the local community. Hopefully we would raise awareness on different subjects.”
For the second edition of the community plan, the bar will continue its trips abroad to places such as Mexico and South Korea to host different bartending schools and masterclasses.
Previously, the trips were just one-offs, but Gallou thinks the bar can do it better and make a longer-lasting impact by returning to these countries every six months or so – “refining the process from last year”, he says.
Gallou added: “B Corp is not an award. Doing it for us, or for marketing – we don’t care. It’s not about diminishing the value of whoever might be the second or third bar to get the credit. If people want to join, it’s great. We just did it earlier. The point is to be B Corp-certified, rather than being the first.
“We have marketing for many other aspects. We don’t need the certificate – it’s just that we feel better when we do it.”
On helping or showing other bars how to gain the accreditation, he added: “Hopefully we can do a few masterclasses or presentations to explain how we’ve done it. When you change the values of your company, you don’t go back to the old ways the following year. Once you set your objectives and start tracking Co2 consumption and emissions, and you know how much you’re spending: there’s no going back.”
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