How Coast Capital is Matching Canadian Values

When it comes to spending their hard-earned money, Canadian consumers take their buying power seriously. The spending behaviour of Canadians has become increasingly influenced by the personal beliefs and values of Canadian consumers, with 58% of them being more intentional about what companies they spend their money with. Consumers often feel that businesses are not doing enough to provide trustworthy information and combat big issues such as climate change, economic inequality, and more. Organizations are now seeking ways to improve their public image amongst prospective customers, with many of them looking to be approved for B-Corp certification.

The Canadian credit union, Coast Capital, recently recertified its membership in the B Corp community and is working to redefine what good business looks like. As Canada’s largest federal credit union by membership, Coast Capital is proud to be part of the growing B Corp movement - ensuring that their products, practices and profits are impacting positive change. As part of the recertification process, Coast Capital followed a rigorous re-assessment process that evaluates performance in the five impact categories of governance, workers (employees), community, environment, and customers (members).

“Our B Corp certification enables us to leverage leading business practices that will help find meaningful solutions to the growing societal challenges we are facing today," says Maureen Young, VP, Social Purpose at Coast Capital. "By benchmarking against best practices and rigorously measuring our impact, we can play a tangible role in building a better future.”

The B Corp Certification Process

Since 2020, B Lab Global has received more than 6,000 applications from businesses looking to join its global community—with only one in three achieving initial certification. To achieve both the certification and recertification every three years, businesses must earn a B Impact Score of 80 or above. Upon re-certification, Coast Capital achieved a verified score of 112.8, well above the threshold for certification and an 11.8% increase over its 2018 result. The B Impact Score is a result of the business's ability to demonstrate high social and environmental performance.

How Coast Capital Achieved the B-Corp Status

Over the years, Coast Capital is embedding social purpose into its day-to-day operations and throughout every dimension of the business - from the employee experience to member satisfaction, and social contribution. In 2021, Coast Capital’s Social Purpose work included:

• Supported its people by paying 100% of employees a living wage
• Trained 100% of its senior leadership on EDI and anti-racism fundamentals, and 92% of employees on social purpose principles
• Supported 5,850 business members through federal loan deferral programs to help combat challenges born from the pandemic.
• Invested more than $4 million in 117 community programs & organizations in B.C., Alberta, and Ontario, including $300,000 in support of initiatives that address social and
• economic inequity tied to climate change and $65,000 in donations to disaster relief efforts following fires and floods in British Columbia.

“As a financial institution, we have the opportunity to help create a better, more equitable, financial future for our society as a whole. But with this privilege comes responsibility…" says Young. "By remaining aware, transparent, and intentional about how we conduct our operations, we can leverage business as a force for good and encourage others to do the same.”

The company also created a resource for its business members by providing free access to fellow B Corporation, Spring Activator’s Business Resilience Program. This program is an online learning platform designed to assess their business and create a plan to thrive. This resource came as a result of the refreshed corporate values, which were co-created with employee input. With this resource and a new tool, Money Chat, a free online financial assessment and advice tool co-designed with members, Coast Capital has empowered numerous individuals in their personal business and finance abilities.

Written by Emma Whiten with supporting data from Coast Capital