COLLECTIVE ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER! Impressions from Nordic B Together, September 2025

Those were some of the actions that the B Corp industry tribes brought to the table when asked what changes they want to drive in their industries.

Conversation starters from Fredericia, Næste, 50 Degrees North, Blue Lagoon, Impact Agency Fabrik, &Robin, Jespers Torvekøkken, Tekla, MINI A TURE, Skandinavisk,Yrolí and Summa Equity shared experiences and opened conversations around questions like: “What changes do we want to see in our industries?” And  “How can we act and use our voices to create the impact we aim for?”

Many conversations circled around how to educate consumers and to “HELP PEOPLE TO STOP BUYING CHEAP SHIT” as the Design/Building/Furniture tribe made clear. But the messages to the system were also clear – for instance from the Fashion and Textile tribe – whose message was “REGULATE US!”.

That message was echoed by the Food and Drink tribe who also called for “LESS BUT BETTER REGULATION” and for a transition to “LOCAL, SEASONAL AND SLOW” food production. The Finance and Investment tribe called for a requirement to “DISCLOSE HARMFUL EXTERNALITIES”, but also to focus on “FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL” as a tool for change.

Whether you are in the same tribe or not, there is so much to learn from, collaborate on – and to fight for – across the community. One example was when members of the Hospitality and Travel tribe spontaneously joined forces with the Beauty and Personal Care tribe to discuss what unites them across their industries. Potentials for collaboration were identified such as sharing knowledge on future trends (i.e. the measurement and use of data), using the knowledge of their supply chains to understand the local and environmental context within their operations, defining the role of quality, standards and competition, and also getting closer to their common goal of wanting to educate consumers and providing transparency. Because, as some participants shared, “as a service provider we are at the mercy of the hotels, and you, (as a hotel) are at the mercy of your clients, so it ends up with the end consumer.” B Corps share a strong motivation to “lift each other up” and use the “benefits and potential of collaboration with other B Corps.”

Some B Corps want more regulation, others less, but better regulation. In her conclusion on why the B Corp movement is so effective in driving change, Gitte Rosholm concluded, “And the good news is that to drive change we do not need to agree on everything. In a way it is less important exactly which change you want to drive because we need loads of different people with loads of different issues, because social change is an eco-system”.

She explained, “Social change needs different people filling different roles, applying their different skills and advocating for change. It needs big fish and small fish, the ambition of CEOs and start-up founders, the idealism of sustainability professionals, the analytical minds of scientists and engineers, the creativity of communicators and the people skills of HR professionals, it even needs lawyers and accountants. It needs your radical flank, but it needs your moderate flank as well”

There is something rather unique about the B Corp community. Meeting another B Corp is like meeting a friend you did not know you had. Businesses that commit to purpose and stakeholder governance and voluntarily meet high standards of environmental and social performance have a lot in common. So conversations are easy and can quickly go deep.

In the impact topic workshops, B Corps like Summa Equity, Hevea, Kaffe Bueno, Wehlers, ZeroMission, Goodwings, 24slides, Youpret, D_b_Journey, Folks, Icebug and Søren Jensen Consulting Engineers shared their experiences working within the topics from B Lab’s new standards.

Conversations went from the importance of responsible marketing, to the challenges in changing consumer behaviours and understanding that buying sustainable products is not accessible to all. And from inspiration on how to achieve real circularity, managing waste, pricing, putting people and fairness first, tackling new recruitment dilemmas and cultural inclusion in an age of artificial intelligence, having nature as a stakeholder in all companies, to discussing if the system is too broken or if changing it one profitable and responsible business at a time is how we rebuild trust in business as part of the solution, not just part of the problem.

B Corps don’t shy away from discussing big hairy dilemmas: Not wanting people to buy more stuff, yet wanting them to buy from your company… Considering if your products are strictly ‘needed’ or if they are substituting more harmful products… But also agreement to fight overconsumption, and to right-size your company – being mindful of how much it should grow.

As one participant asked: “If all businesses were like ours, would we then be okay?”

And another asked “Even if we don’t want people to buy more, isn’t it better when a B Corp grows than when a conventional business grows?”

Juliette  Caulkins from B Lab Europe congratulated the Nordic community and the B Corps for being one of B Lab’s “front-running regions and growing tremendously” and reflected on how ”Sustainability has gone from a differentiator in 2015 to an expectation in 2025”.

And from this realisation, Juliette asked the question, “In a fragmented world, how do we lead with global responsibility and local resilience—without losing our sense of direction or purpose?”, and she added more dilemmas to the agenda:

“How do you execute long-term sustainability transitions inside a system still addicted to short-term metrics? How do you navigate supply chains that stretch across oceans but are fraying under geopolitical pressure?”

Those were the words of Niina Aagaard, Head of Communication at the Nordic Council of Ministers, as she introduced the vision of the Nordic region becoming the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030, and the role business can play in making that happen.

She encouraged the crowd not only to collaborate across the region, but also to use their right to vote in their national contexts on the topics where they want to see change. The Nordic voice can be a shortcut to get there. And she also reminded us that the Nordics may be small in size, but together the countries represent one of the largest economies in the world.

In a guided meditation and visioning session, participants visualized a meaningful future, and noted their reflections on the values, roles, and relationships that make communities thrive and created a shared visual of the group’s collective vision.

With the help of artificial intelligence insights were synthesized into a draft manifesto (see below), capturing the community’s shared aspirations for the future. B Lab Nordics promised to use our human intelligence to review all the input and evaluate the manifesto generated by the Nordic B Corp community:

What stands out is the strong alignment within the B Corp community around values of inclusivity, compassion, honesty, and integrity, aligned with nature and responsibility for each other and the world.

The manifesto highlights the need for a culture of transformation built on positivity, possibility, and openness to change. At its core it is a vision where people and planet thrive together, supported by individuals and businesses willing to reframe, learn, and grow. Co-creation is central, where collective effort generates impact greater than its parts.

A few themes that could have been highlighted more in the manifesto are the need to balance challenge and support and stability and change — creating safety and fostering trust to experiment with bold steps forward, and supporting businesses in finding pathways to change.

The B Corp Consulting tribe brought a coordinated set of messages back from their workshop on the change they want to see in their industry and how to take collective action to make it happen:

INSPIRE by example

ACT by example

SHOW your example

LEAD by example

B the example

WIN by example

And as a little afterthought to this collection of impressions from Nordic B Together, AI is the talk of town everywhere these days, and obviously also featured in many of the conversations at Nordic B Together 2025. It also created one of life’s little fun and magical moments when a baffled AI notetaker interrupted the Consulting tribe plenary presentation.

Watch it here: