As we’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, Motherlove is extremely proud to be a Certified B Corporation member. Since 2015, we’ve been one of over 2,000 companies that meet rigorous standards for social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. These values have been ingrained with us here at Motherlove since our founding nearly 30 years ago. Now, we are taking concrete steps to ensure that these remain an integral part of Motherlove as we grow.
Motherlove is able to ensure these values remain constant thanks, in part, to the recent passage of the Colorado legislation, HB17-1200, which made it easier for Colorado companies to become Public Benefit Corporations. Often times confused with a Certified B Corporations, a Public Benefit Corporation writes the values most crucial to their mission into their articles of incorporation. When making business decisions, a Benefit Corporation is legally responsible to consider its shareholders, as well as the impact of their decisions on the well-being of their customers, employees, suppliers, community and environment.
On Monday, April 10, Motherlove’s Chief Operating Officer, Henry Mouton testified in front of the Colorado’s Senate and House of Representatives in support of HB17-1200. He talked about the importance of being a Certified B Corporation for the past two years and expanded to say, “Now it is important for us to take the next step, to convert to a Public Benefit Corporation, in order to ‘bake’ our mission legally into the DNA of the company. Not only do we want to make a statement about the importance of mission-based companies to society as whole, but we also want to make sure that if the company sells, our mission lives on.”
Rest assured, Motherlove has no plans to sell, but we are glad to have the values we hold so dear to us – being environmentally and socially responsible – be a legal part of our company.
On June 6, HB17-1200 was signed into law and Motherlove is taking the next steps to officially become a Public Benefit Corporation.