April 14, 2015: Kitchener, Canada & Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Today, Sarona Asset Management Inc. was recognized for creating the most positive overall social and environmental impact by the non-profit B Lab with the release of the fourth annual ‘B Corp Best for the World’ list. The ‘B Corp Best for the World’ list honours businesses that earned an overall score in the top 10% of more than 1,200 Certified B Corporations from over 120 industries on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment. Honourees were recognized among micro, small, and mid-sized businesses around the globe.
The B Corp ‘Best for the World List’ sets the gold standard for high impact companies and demonstrates that any type of company can use business as a force for good. It has inspired the Best for NYC campaign, the first municipal public-private impact partnership in the world to support businesses to create more high-quality jobs and improve the quality of life in local neighbourhoods, all while strengthening their bottom-line.
Gerhard Pries, Sarona’s CEO based in Canada, was delighted when he said: “It is significant for us, our team and all our stakeholders that our efforts to deliver ‘Growth that Matters’ is recognised by an organisation such as B Lab”.
Sarona is a private equity firm, investing growth capital in companies and private equity funds in frontier and emerging markets. Through its strategy of partnering with local private equity firms, Sarona is able to help build companies that deliver excellent risk-adjusted returns while creating a positive social and environmental impact.
Sarona and its predecessors have developed a wealth of experience and knowledge through 60 years of private investments in frontier and emerging markets. The company is based in Kitchener, Canada, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact:
| Gerhard Pries Managing Partner and CEO Sarona Asset Management gpries@saronafund.com +1 519 883 7557 |
The ‘Best for the World’ companies come from 49 different industries such as manufacturing, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and finance. 37% of honourees are based outside the US, with companies operating in emerging markets such as Afghanistan, The Republic of Korea, and Brazil (full list available at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net)
“Today’s honourees inspire all companies to compete not only to be best in the world, but best for the world. We hope many will take the first step by using the B Impact Assessment to measure and manage their impact with as much rigor as their profit,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder of B Lab, the non-profit organization that certifies B Corporations and governs the independent third party standard used to generate the comparable assessment of corporate impact.
Each honoured company is a Certified B Corporation. These companies use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and have met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Today there are over 1,200 Certified B Corporations, across 121 industries and 38 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business. Any company can measure and manage social and environmental performance at bimpactassessment.net.
B Lab is a non-profit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good. Its vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world and society will enjoy prosperity for all for the long term.
B Lab drives this systemic change by: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing benefit corporation legislation to give business leaders the freedom to create value for society as well as shareholders; 3) helping businesses measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance with the free B Impact Assessment; 4) driving capital to impact investments through use of its B Analytics and GIIRS Ratings platform.
For more information, visit www.bcorporation.net.
