Our Impact
As architects and decision-makers, we are responsible for the social impact we create - in both immediate and present circumstances, as well as on a wider scale and towards the future. MOTIV is a registered Benefit Corporation in British Columbia - this means we consider social and environmental impact in addition to profit in our decision making process. Whether it is the materials we use, the people and organizations we support, or the sharing of resources and ideas - we strive to find avenues where our design practice and small business can create the greatest benefit.
MOTIV achieved its JUST Label in May 2024 and B Corp Certification in August 2024 to prove out our efforts - for ourselves and to lead by example for others.
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B Corp Certification is a business designation achieved when an organization proves it meets high standards of social and environmental impact, measured through verified and current performance. B Corp has been a long-standing goal of MOTIV’s since its inception, and we have been steadily building up our practice and policies to achieve it to our greatest ability – finally applying for it in 2024.
To accomplish B Corp, a company must:
- Achieve a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above – indicators of the assessment cover a company’s inner workings, such as employee benefits, diversity, and equity, to its wider impact, such as supply chain practices, community action, and charitable giving.
- Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.
- Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.
See our B Corp Certification here!
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Just is a voluntary corporate transparency label created by the International Living Future Institute. Similar to a nutrition label, the Just label measures organizations through a social justice and equity lens, and makes this information publicly available. It is a transparency platform for organizations to disclose their operations, including how they treat their employees and where they make financial and community investments.
To obtain a Just label, a company must:
- Report on a range of organization- and employee-related indicators. The six indicator categories are: diversity and inclusion, equity, employee health, employee benefits, stewardship, and purchasing and supply chain. Each category outlines measurable accountabilities in which an organization may achieve four levels of performance
- Demonstrate transparency by allowing this information to be publicly available on ILFI’s online database
It is a voluntary disclosure tool with no minimum score; any company seeking transparency can evaluate themselves and use it as a tool to assess how they are doing and project what areas to improve upon. We encourage others to use it! MOTIV applied for our Just label alongside B Corp, with the goal of it reflecting our values and commitments, as well as highlighting where additional effort is needed.
See our Just Lab here!
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What is an Impact Report and why are we doing one?
An impact report is a public facing yearly snapshot of our progress in achieving our impact goals. It provides a checkpoint for us and a window into our operations for others; a tangible consolidation of what our business has accomplished for the year.
It is an opportunity to review our successes and shortcomings of the last year and clearly articulate our strategic goals for the next year and set up the systems to track and measure our progress. While we have always strived to have a positive impact on others and the environment, establishing a benchmark as to where we are at a certain point in time triggers a higher consciousness and accountability.
We believe good data will drive good decisions - both ours and others’ as our impact becomes a more significant part of the measurable value we bring to our work.
