eCommerce fulfilment provider SCEND has become one of the few UK third-party logistics (3PL) companies to receive B Corp Certification from B Lab.
The accreditation independently verifies businesses against rigorous standards covering social and environmental performance, governance, and accountability. Among the UK’s estimated 3,500 logistics and fulfilment operators, only a small proportion hold B Corp status. SCEND achieved a B Impact Assessment score of 93.7, well above the qualification threshold of 80.
The certification covers governance, employee practices, environmental impact, and community engagement, requiring demonstrable outcomes rather than stated policies, and is subject to ongoing reassessment as businesses grow. It sits alongside SCEND’s existing ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications adding another layer of external verification to an operational framework that was already being held to account.
“There’s a version of growth that looks good on a spreadsheet and not much else,” said Jack Crumpton, Co-Founder of SCEND.
“We didn’t set out in 2017 to become a B Corp – we just made decisions we could defend to ourselves. B Corp is the external audit of whether we actually did. The fact that fulfilment as a sector is so under-represented in the certification tells you something about how far it has to go, and we’d rather be part of changing that than waiting for it to change.”
One shift the certification process made tangible was how SCEND measures success. Revenue growth remained important, but it was no longer the only metric that mattered. Client satisfaction, employee wellbeing, and supplier due diligence became equally central – alongside the development of shared values that could be embedded across the business and felt at every level of it.
SCEND worked with B Corp specialists
The Pollinators throughout the certification process. “Logistics has such an important role to play in shaping more responsible supply chains, and SCEND’s curiosity about the certification translated into practical changes with real impact across the business. Their commitment to doing business with greater transparency, accountability and care really aligned with our own values,” said a representative from the firm.
The sector isn’t typically associated with this kind of accountability. For SCEND, the certification reflects a longer-term commitment to how the business is run, not simply a milestone to mark. What began as a regional operation has grown into a business with international reach, and the same principles that shaped it then are now being held to an internationally recognised standard.
B Corp Certification represents a point of accountability for what comes next: growth that holds itself to something.
