We’re proud to share that Sapio Research is now a certified B Corp™, officially joining the global community of businesses using business as a force for good.
We were certified in January 2026, scoring 83.6 on the B Impact Assessment – above the 80 required for certification, and significantly higher than the current median of 50.9 for all businesses that complete the assessment.
But the number isn’t the story. The story is the ten years of work behind it.
We sat down with Jessica Bunce, co-founder and COO of Sapio Research, to talk through what the journey looked like, what the certification means, and what comes next.
Our journey to B Corp
In 2016, we opened our doors with a commitment to give back
When Jane Hales, Guy Washer, Andrew White, and Jessica Bunce founded Sapio Research in August 2016, the ambition was never just to build a profitable agency.
The founding team committed from the start to giving back through pro bono research work.
But the early years had a way of reshaping priorities. “You don’t really anticipate how much a new business will consume you. The first few years are just: have we got customers, have we got a steady flow of income, have we got good cash flow?” said Jessica.
That doesn’t mean the intention went away. “We still wanted to give back. We still wanted to do something beyond just us,” she said. That instinct is what eventually brought B Corp into the conversation.
In 2020, we completed our first B Impact assessment
Every B Corp journey starts somewhere.
We started with a score of 43.3, well below the 80 needed to certify. But more useful than any score we could have hoped for.
It showed us exactly where we needed to improve, and that became our roadmap.
In 2021, we launched our Charity Research Giveaway, and signed the MRS Net Zero Pledge
Our annual Charity Research Giveaway offers a charity or not-for-profit organisation free professional market research – helping them understand their audiences, measure their impact, or build the evidence base they need to grow.
It remains one of the initiatives we’re most proud of, and one that consistently delights our team.
And in August 2021, we signed the MRS Climate Pledge. We began measuring our carbon footprint and introduced practical steps across the team to reduce our environmental impact day-to-day.
In 2022, we formed our Sustainability and Charities Committee
In January 2022, we formalised our commitment to sustainability with a dedicated internal committee – tracking our environmental impact, coordinating volunteering, and embedding responsible practices across the business.
That same year, the team took part in our first company volunteering day, and our score moved from 43.3 to 57.8.
In 2023, we established our long-term partnership with Hestia
In March 2023, we began our official charity partnership with Hestia, a leading charity supporting survivors of modern slavery and domestic abuse.
Our team has since supported Hestia through volunteering and research, with a focus on their children and families programme.
Our score also reached 66 that year, keeping us firmly on track.
In 2025, we crossed the finish line
Certification was confirmed in January 2026!
“Knowing you’re part of a larger collective, and being able to proudly display that B Corp logo makes it all worth it!”
– Jessica Bunce
In 2024, our score reached 79.9. “I realised we were very close and, we’ve just got to make that extra push now,” said Jessica.
In 2025, we became an accredited Living Wage employer – a commitment we’d always adhered to, but only recently pursued the official certification for.
And by the end of the year, we achieved our B lab certified score of 83.6 across five areas:
Customers: 2.0 – data privacy, ethical marketing, and client stewardship
Workers: 36.1 – financial security, health and wellbeing, career development, and team satisfaction
Community: 22.9 – charitable giving, diversity and inclusion, and supply chain management
Governance: 16.7 – our mission-locked structure, ethics, and transparency
Environment: 5.7 – an area we’re actively working to improve
What does working with a B Corp certified agency feel like?
Think of it as an added layer of assurance.
For our future clients it means you’re working with a partner that understands your objectives and believes in a sustainable way of doing business. This certification symbolises that purpose is given the same weight as profit in our decision making.
For instance, take us as an example: There are quite a lot of our clients and partners in the industry that are already B Corp certified. So, in many ways, it also helps us align more with our current clients. We know who we’re working with, and how we fit into a larger ecosystem.
There’s a very practical reason B Corps tend to work with other B Corps — when both parties hold the certification, you already know you’re aligned on things like modern slavery, procurement, and how people are treated throughout the supply chain.
Myth buster: B Corp is just about the environment!
Jessica’s heard it before, “I spoke to somebody the other day, and they said it was just greenwashing. To which I replied, that’s just one very small part of it.”
The way to think of it is that it’s every touch point or stakeholder that you come into contact with — that’s what B Corp is concerned about.
The environment is one part.
Then there’s your supply chain, not just your team or your employees, it’s contractors, freelancers, anyone that works with you. And governance as well, the structures that allow all of it to happen in practice.
“It’s essentially involved with everything!” said Jessica.
Thinking about going for B Corp certification?
Here are a few tips from Jessica:
→ Do the first assessment, even if you’re nowhere near ready.
“If you’re considering it, definitely do the first assessment, even if you’re below the certification mark – it really gives you a good idea of what you need to work on”, said Jessica.
→ Write things down.
“We were doing a lot of things, but we just hadn’t written them into a formal policy”, said Jessica. Document your existing practices around procurement, training, and supporting people. Formalising what you already do is often quicker than you’d expect.
→ Don’t rush it.
“Make sure that your values are aligned with what the B Corp values are – and if it fits, that’s great”, said Jessica. But be realistic about the resource involved, especially as a small business.
→ Make sure the policies are real “There’s no point writing it down and then not doing it – just doing a sort of tick-box exercise. It’s really important that they’re embedded into what you actually do as a business, because that’s the whole point.”, said Jessica.
Why bother getting certified if you’re already doing the right things?
Jessica was initially sceptical about whether the certification added anything the business wasn’t already doing on its own. Here’s how her thinking changed:
“It’s a bit like a wedding. You’re going to be together and love one another regardless of whether you get married or not. But it’s that opportunity to celebrate with your community, to proudly talk about this commitment that you’ve made – and know that it is a commitment, and that you are therefore going to work much harder to keep it that way,” she said.
“You don’t have to become a B Corp. You can do all of those things without getting a B Corp certification. But what B Corp does give you is that community and that accountability – you have to keep improving and it gives you the backing and the platform to get others involved, and advocate for change,” said Jessica.
