By Jonas Gehl
CEO Prolog Coffee

To say the least we are excited to share that Prolog is now a B Corp Certified corporation.

In conjunction with this announcement, we want to put some words on the process of becoming B Corp Certified and what this means to Prolog.

Doing business as a force for good

Being certified as a B Corp isn’t a goal, rather it’s documentation that we are on process of working on “doing business as a force for good” and have paved the first part of this road.

The B Corp corporation was founded on a principle of having a positive impact on not only the company itself but for all its beneficiaries – a shift in focus from shareholders to stakeholders.

Similarly, Prolog was founded on a vision of adding to the quality of live by giving our customers better coffee experiences. “Better”, as we believe this work is an ongoing process.

As such, having a focus on beneficiaries outside of the company has always been a key value in Prolog. To a certain extend we believe that if you choose to work with coffee in hospitality you need to have a certain desire to give something good to other people, as coffee only becomes that much more valuable and exciting when you share it with someone else. To be honest, were you only brewing coffee for the sake of the taste itself, working in hospitality quickly becomes burdensome. This is why our slogan is: “To celebrate our love for coffee, we celebrate you”, as it truly is our customers who adds value to what we do.

I vividly remember the first time we were introduced to B Corp in Mexico City five years ago by our good friends from Buna (an amazing coffee company you must check out). On top of Buna radiating an all-over great vibe, it was clear that the work with B Corp had been an inspiring and helpful way to reinforce Buna’s operations. To be frank, after having visited Buna it was clear to us that Prolog had to take up the goal of becoming B Corp certified as well. 5 years fly by fast…

A B-etter methodology

To simplify “stakeholders”, B-Corp has further separated this term into 5 branches: Governance, Workers, Customers, Community and Environment.

As much as B Corp is a vision and a certification, as much is it a methodology to help companies create a sustainable foundation for their operations. While we initially were driven by the desire to “do business for good”, getting the structured framework which B Corp supplies has been a game-changer for Prolog to rapidly rethink the foundation and operations of the company to become stronger, better, and more sustainable.

The process of becoming B Corp Certified has been the gentle push we needed to create our staff handbook, job descriptions, an environmental management system, transparency reports, sustainability reports, make GHG calculations, social and environmental goal settings, calculate attrition rate - just to name a few initiatives.

Why do we share this? Because as much as this has helped the impact of Prolog’s external stakeholders, this process has also helped Prolog as a company to become better aligned with our vision, enhanced our operation, and prepared us for the future. While you certainly don’t have to embark on the journey of becoming B Corp Certified to have these initiatives outlived in your company, we want to use this opportunity to share what this process has sparked in Prolog, and how it might be able to support your company as well.  (After all, the topic of this year’s sustainability report was “Sharing is Caring”.)

In three years, we will undergo a re-assessment of Prolog as a B Corp. In the meantime, we will keep releasing yearly sustainability and transparency reports. Most of all, we will be working on giving our guests and wholesale customers better coffee experiences. This requires constant attention to all of Prolog’s stakeholders, constant work on doing business that benefits all.

To read more about B Corp visit their main website.