Field Journal

Becoming B Corp certified is a very big deal for an apparel company. B Corporations (the ‘B’ stands for Benefits) are companies who voluntarily meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and sustainability. Here, Finisterre’s founder Tom Kay talks to Sidetracked about getting the certification and what it means for the future of Finisterre.

Back in 2003, you started Finisterre with an idea of social responsibility, and responsibility to the people who buy the clothes and the people who work for you. How important was that right from the very start?
Yeah, really important. I laid down our founding commitments to people and for our products, and I suppose when you start and you have a vision, you go and put a mark in the sand. We’ve lived and breathed it every day for the last 15 years. We’ve had it on our posters, on our walls, all over the place, these founding commitments.

It was always the purpose behind the brand. I wanted to address this sort of sustainability agenda that I didn’t really feel was prevalent in the industry – or anywhere at all, actually – at the time. And so it’s always been at the heart of what we do, and it’s a great place to go to work and a great culture.

When we started out, we gave a percentage of profits to Surfers Against Sewage. And it’s taken a few different tacks, I suppose, but we’ve always aimed for this way of running a business and staying true to our founding.

And as the business has grown, what have been the challenges to maintain that initial culture? How do you keep control of it?
When we won the Observer Ethical Business Award in 2008, it was quite a big deal for us because we’d been going for five years and we were just trucking hard. To get an accolade like that from such a publication really put us out there. Back then, trying to get recycled polyester for your insulated jackets was hard, and you had to commit – you couldn’t get less than 2,000m.

It’s easy to talk to people and have an ideological view of the brand and what we stand for, but obviously, behind the scenes you’ve got to make the numbers add up. There’s financial pressure; you’ve got mouths to feed and bills to pay. It still is quite hard now, but back then it was really, really hard. We were starting a brand with this kind of agenda from nothing. As soon as you have an agenda that’s vaguely pioneering or challenging, you’re shutting off a lot of the doors that open to businesses who aren’t doing that. We’ve had 15 years, and financially it’s been a tough time for us – and I think that demonstrates our commitment to the way we’re running the business.

So it has been tough, but the more you commit to it and the more you believe in it – and the people who work here believe in it – the more it breeds self-belief. It brings a confidence that this is the way we want to do things, because we want to be involved in a business that does things like that.

Why was B Corp something that you’re interested in? There are other organisations that include certification, so what was it about B Corp that made you think: ‘that’s the one we want to adhere to, that’s the one that we want to join’?
That’s a good question. There are things like Certified Organic Cotton – if you’re in that world of organic cotton, you know about it. You know all the farming, you know about the associations, but actually when I tried to find an umbrella organisation that we could hopefully be part of we had to go through a rigorous process. By being a part of that, it scoops all the good stuff we’re doing into the screening process. And there’s also a cross-sector element I think is important. You can be a baby clothing company, you can be an outdoor clothing company, you can be a smoothie company – whatever, it’s important to be diverse.

The altered Articles of Association was the biggest thing for me. That’s legally binding. We had to go to our lawyers to get an altered Articles of Association and get board approval. It’s not like: ‘here’s a rubber stamp’. We as directors are legally committed to having a long-term view on how we impact communities, our customers, suppliers, the environment, our people. In the last ten years there’s been a lot of bandwagon-jumping and greenwashing going on, but this stringent legal process strips all that away.

So it’s quite a hardcore commitment – an affirmation, really, of the last 15 years – but it’s also given us the stuff to work towards for the future. There are loads of areas that we’re just starting to get into now where we can improve. And that’s been a really good thing about the B Corp certification.

Right. All organisations can improve; all businesses, all people, can improve. Is there a support network behind it that helps things as well?
You’ve got the B Corp guys and a community behind it. I haven’t really tucked into it because it’s all quite new, but if I were to go and see someone that got a good score in an area that I didn’t, we could ask: ‘how did it work?’, ‘what do you guys do?’. There’s definitely that kind of sharing of information, which is seen as a good thing. If the brand is going new places and new people are discovering it, it’s very easy for people to become cynical about us, saying, ‘Well, you say this but are you doing it?’ And this is a real stamp of commitment to all that stuff.

Regarding the brands moving forward, how do you see Finisterre in terms of its audience and where it’s going to be heading in the next five years or so?
It’s an exciting stage for us, as it feels like it’s just the beginning. We’ve had 15 years, but we’re really bedding in. I suppose we are like a teenager – you know, starting to work out who we are. We’ve been through some adolescent years and some tough years. We’re starting to get into our stride, who we are and what we can do. And so I think it’s always about having a real purpose behind the brand, a good place for people to work, and have a great culture. We’ve got those ambitions there; we’d like people to know about it.

So we are on a growth journey; we’re looking at selected stores in key locations, places where people go and experience the brand, really soak up what we’re about. And, you know, just widening our community.