Based in Newcastle, Australia, Mezzanine has developed a unique and conscious approach to helping organisations build a meaningful brand through research, insight, strategy, and design. The team consists of strategists, researchers, practitioners, and creatives who seek to empower their clients to pursue purpose in their own organisations.
To celebrate Mezzanine’s B Corp certification, we spoke with the team about the importance of practicing what you preach, choosing sustainable options, and why tenacity is important during the certification process.
Why did you want to become a Certified B Corporation?
It was important for us as a team to demonstrate that we practice what we preach. Internally, it’s so nice to have recognition of our team’s hard work over the years to ensure we’re a conscious business.
It’s something we’re all extremely proud of — the certification is like a little ‘high 5’ for each other!
What makes your B Corp unique as a business?
We feel like we’ve had B Corp ‘DNA’ since we started way back in 2000. We’ve always done business differently, supporting people to have a positive impact in society. This has lead us to develop initiatives like our $10k Project Grants that we give away each year to organisations who have an idea for positive impact, our Impact Program which enables subsidised work to help NFPs and social enterprises with their brand building, our Conscious Brands Assessment Tool that supports organisations on their purpose-driven journey, as well as many more.
Little changes are just as important, like choosing sustainable options, right down to our toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap!
B Corps want to help transform our economy into one that is inclusive, sustainable, and regenerative. What business practice do you want to see become the norm?
We want to see every business operating for a higher purpose beyond profit. When an organisation is driven by purpose, that’s when they get really intentional about having a positive impact in the world. All decision-making becomes purpose-driven rather than profit-driven, and so everything is developed from a new lens with positive intention.
Business needs to lead the change towards a more inclusive, sustainable, and regenerative world — and it starts with asking yourself ‘why’ you exist.
Do you have any tips for aspiring B Corps about the certification process?
It can be a long process and you’ll need tenacity — but that’s the whole point! The idea is to reflect, review, question what you’re doing in different areas of the business, and build better practices… being a conscious business is a long game, there’s no finish line. We’d suggest allocating a B Corp ‘Champion’ internally who can facilitate the process and keep it on track.
A big congratulations to Mezzanine for achieving B Corp certification!
