Our journey to become a certified B Corporation

The beginning

Back in 2007 I was co-founder of an ethical design-for-print studio in Bristol, and we focused on sustainable print. We scrutinised every piece of work we produced; from its purpose, to the way we designed it, to the printers we worked with. We believed that by getting sustainable printing right, everything else that was good business would flow from there.

When I moved to the Lakes and founded Lil Creative Studio I continued that journey, using creativity to tread lightly on this world. But Cumbria is a very different place to Bristol. I quickly realised that sustainable print was not something people were consciously thinking about. Instead the focus in Cumbria is on community; on the people we work with, the places we call home, and the connections that hold it all together.

As the studio grew, so did the questions:

Was focusing on sustainability really enough?
Were our decisions truly matching the values we talked about?
How could we make sure our impact was more than just being green?

These questions sent us down a path that eventually led to B Corporation (B Corp) certification. Not because we needed a credential, but because we wanted clarity, accountability, and a way to measure whether our work was genuinely contributing to something bigger.

The problems we wanted to solve

The creative industry is full of possibility, but also full of contradictions. Beautiful ideas can create unnecessary waste. Sustainable design is often vague, subjective, or sprinkled into proposals like decoration. Small studios like ours can operate with good intentions, but without a structured way to track their impact.

If we were going to talk about sustainability, not only did we need to live it but we also needed to prove it.

That realisation led us down a winding path of learning, unlearning, refining, and rebuilding how we work. We started with a simple question. How do we make sure our design practice genuinely reduces harm and contributes to something better?

From there our journey unfolded bit by bit.

2015 : Sustainable Print (our first step)

Drawing on earlier experience in ethical print, we created our own sustainable print rating system. It helped clients make better choices and set the tone for what Lil Creative Studio would become.

2018 : Green Hosting

As our work shifted towards digital design, we moved our hosting to an ethical, UK-based green provider. Thereby aligning our digital footprint with our print values.

2020 : Green Small Business Certification

Our first formal environmental management framework. It gave us structure and accountability, helping us build sustainable practices into the everyday running of the studio.

2021 : Understanding the Digital Footprint

A comment during our Green Small Business certification process lit a spark: the digital world isn’t inherently “green”. We began diving into low-carbon digital design and embedding it into every website we build.

2022 : Joining Design Declares

The pandemic opened the door to a wider community of designers rethinking their impact. Becoming a Design Declares signatory pushed us to think bigger, collaborate more, and share what we were learning.

2024 : Becoming a Certified B Corporation

After years of refining our practice, B Corp became the natural next step. Our certification, with a focus on Resource Conservation, recognises the environmental benefits of our sustainable design approach.

The B Corp Process: what it actually looked like

People often ask, “was the B Corp process hard?”, and the honest answer is YES!

We became a Certified B Corporation in October 2024, but the journey actually began back in 2020 when I first stumbled across B Corp online. I was so excited to discover a global community of businesses thinking about impact in a way that felt completely aligned with our own values. I signed up immediately and opened the certification dashboard… and then promptly shut it again.

Anyone who has ever peeked inside the B Corp assessment will know the feeling. It’s a lot. I tried to make sense of it myself and quickly realised I was totally out of my depth. Then B Corp offered two free support days for small businesses, and I jumped at the chance. I worked with a certifier to walk through the assessment, which helped enormously. I finished those two days with 60.3 points and a clear message: “You can gain your 80 points, but only once the right processes and formal structures are in place.” This was a bit of a wake-up call. Behind the scenes, the business needed some work.

So we got to work. We formalised processes, we wrote policies, and we signed up to commitments that reflected who we were becoming. We examined how we operate; from our carbon footprint, to the decisions we make, to how we show up for our community. Much of it was about documenting things we had always done instinctively, while other parts pushed us to rethink areas we already thought we had nailed.

Even so, the process remained overwhelming. We needed structure, momentum, and accountability. So in 2023, I joined a cohort specifically designed to help small businesses move through the certification journey. That was the shift we needed, and we finally submitted everything in June 2024.

In October 2024, we were certified with a score of 85.9, with particular strength in Resource Conservation.

What changed for us (and what stayed the same)

Unsurprisingly, becoming a B Corp didn’t magically turn us into a different kind of studio, but it did help us see ourselves more clearly. It also helped others understand who we are, what we value, and how we can best support them.

Things that deepened:

Our commitment to low-impact print became even more rooted
Our focus on creating energy-efficient websites sharpened
We became more intentional about reducing our digital footprint
We strengthened our relationships with ethical suppliers
Accessibility and inclusive design took on even greater importance
And our work with purpose-led organisations felt more aligned than ever.

And then there were the things that stayed exactly the same:

Our belief that design should always feel human
Our love for local collaboration
Our desire to help small organisations make a big impact
And our mission to put people and planet first.

B Corp didn’t make us a different studio, but it did help us become a better version of the one we already were.

What this means for the work we create

For clients, our B Corp accreditation is a thread that runs through every project.

It means:

websites are designed to be low carbon, fast, and accessible
brands are created with sustainability woven into the process
print materials are environmentally responsible sourced
all projects are delivered transparently, ethically, and collaboratively

It also means we approach your purpose with the same care we apply to ours.

There is a quote from Saul Bass that I love. “I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”

We are not here just to make beautiful things, we are here to make meaningful things.

What’s next on our B Corp journey?

Becoming certified is not a finish line. You have to recertify every three years, and you are expected to show real progress each time. And with B Corp launching the new, and even more rigorous, certification framework in 2025 the bar is only getting higher. Eek!

We have already started reviewing what we need to do for recertification. And I won’t lie, if it felt like a lot before, it’s even more overwhelming now. The new framework requires an ongoing strategy of reflection, updates, and continuous improvement across all areas. In 2026 we are going to knuckle down and set out our new path.

But as I mentioned earlier, the best part of being certified is the B Corp community. We are part of a lovely group of businesses navigating the new framework together, sharing knowledge, and supporting each other. To me, this community of businesses – wanting to do business in a better way – is what B Corp is really all about.

Claire Steele
founder Lil Creative Studio

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