Celebrating B Corp & Women's History Month

Ocean First   Jul 05, 2022

All throughout March, we’re swinging our doors wide open and inviting you in to see what goes on #BehindtheB. Being a B Corp is something we’re really proud of, so for the month of March, we’ll be sharing what our certification means to us and why it matters. So here is your invitation to come on in and find out what's Behind the B. ⁠
Come Have A Look...

What's #BehindtheB? Being a B Corp means valuing your workers, customers, environment, and community as much as your profits (or more!) — and having corporate governance that keeps those values in place. All throughout March, we’ll be showing you how the B Corp community is bringing benefit to all.

Have a look at our B Impact Assessment, see how our customers influence our business decisions, dive into our environmental responsibility, and see the impact we are making within our own community.

Tune into our story on Instagram and Facebook all month long as we’ll be spotlighting other B Corp’s within our community as well as showcasing the awesome women behind our B in celebration of Women’s History Month.

This International Women’s Day, we’re shining a spotlight on all the women that make Ocean First the company it is today. It’s a spotlight that isn’t just being turned on for one day – it’s been on since we can remember, and we don’t plan to ever turn it off.

We are proud to say that women make up over half of our workforce and dominate our leadership circle. Beyond this blog, please visit our social media throughout the month to get to know these women better.

What do you enjoy most about working for Ocean First?

" I love our community and the friendships that are built based on shared travel experiences, shared training experiences, shared work experiences and shared life experiences. Some of my most cherished friendships have come from OF and I will be eternally grateful for that." - Amy Christopher

"It is so refreshing to work for a company that cares about the well-being of the environment!  We all make an incredible team and have the same passion for protecting what we love." - Kelly Dananay

"I love being surrounded by some of the most passionate and inspiring individuals I have ever met! Our company is full of conscious and adventurous earth shakers, and I couldn't be more proud to share our messages and research out into the world." - Meghan Quinn
Who is a female that has shaped your journey and why did she inspire you?

"I was telling my story of being a treasure hunter and shark lover to a guy in a bar one day in the late 1990's. He turned to me and said, “Hey would you like a job”? I said, what is it? He told me I would be a production assistant for a National Geographic special and in charge of all of the diving. I said sure. I showed up and to my surprise the show was about Sylvia Earle and the Aquarius Underwater Habitat in the Florida Keys. I spent a week with her diving every day and sharing breakfast, lunch and dinner. We dove in the habitat together and played underwater football with a coconut. The team played Jimmy Buffet for us underwater and tried to scare us with the soundtrack to Jaws as well. We both said ” Bring the sharks, we want to see them”! Anyway, at the end of it all, I had my last dinner with her and told her I wanted to work with sharks, to help them. I asked her what should I do? She said, Mikki, find your superpower and go out there to be a voice for the sharks. Make a difference. Just do it, whatever that looks like. I thought, “Wow, if she can do this, I can too.” - Mikki McComb-Kobza

What Fellow B Corp Do You Love To Support? "I am a big fan of Patagonia. I love everything I've ever purchased from them. My Black Hole gear has seen me through some times! I also love LifeStraw. My LifeStraw water bottle has kept me from needing to drink bottled water in more than a few places." - Chrissy Frederick

Transparency

The term ‘responsible business’ is used a lot. But as a business, who are we actually being responsible to? Our fellow #BCorp Certified community commits to being responsible towards our workers, customers, communities, and the planet. And we prove it by making our impact report available to the public.⁠

Click here to see our current score and visit the link in our bio to see our detailed 2018 Impact Report. Our 2021 recertification is in the evaluation queue and we are shooting for an 8 point increase in our score! ⁠

Patagonia is popularly referred to as the most well-known B Corp and is recognized by the women in our staff as their favorite B brand. We recognize we are in different industries, but we are inspired by Patagonia’s 151.5 Impact Score. ⁠Over the next 3 years as we look towards our 2024 recertification, with the help of our newly instated ‘B Keeper’ and ‘B Team’ we’re extremely motivated to continue to improve our score and the way we do business. ⁠

Customers

Without our customers, we're nothing. Making a positive difference in their lives is our top priority, and we work hard to consider what they want — not just what will make us a profit. And we listen when they let us know how to do better. That’s one of our main #BCorp commitments.

“Ocean First returns to Roatan, Honduras for our second annual Coral Restoration workshop/experience in October 2022 after an enormously successful inaugural event in October 2021. All participants praised this adventure as a unique opportunity for hands-on contribution to restoring the reef ecosystem and emphatically encouraged Ocean First to offer this trip annually. We agreed and are thrilled to offer our divers another experience to learn about coral propagation, cleaning baby corals, and planting coral crops to help revive coral reefs that have been damaged due to a variety of causes. Our divers felt an enormous sense of satisfaction and pride at their work. Not only did their efforts directly contribute to a healthier reef, they also learned a great deal about the marine ecosystem as a whole. This adventure is currently sold out and we are considering adding another to the calendar. Stay tuned for more trips like this in the future from Ocean First!” - Amy Christopher, Director of Travel. ⁠

Environment

Without a planet, there’s no business, period. That’s why all #BCorps are asked to monitor key things like their water and energy use and waste disposal processes. We are also 3 times more likely to use 100% low-impact renewable energy in comparison to ordinary businesses. ⁠

We partner with Arcadia to help us monitor our energy usage and purchase Renewable Energy Certificates so that our building can operate off green power generated by the wind and sun.⁠

Aclymate is a carbon offsetting app we use to track emissions from our company vehicle and flights for our trip leaders. It allows us to purchase offsets for these emissions and keeps us accountable as a climate leader. In the coming years, we are aiming to be able to offset all carbon emissions for our employees and customers so that we are able to explore our beautiful planet with 0 negative impact.⁠

We are proud to be an Eco-Cycle Green Star Business which is a network of businesses that are committed to being sustainability leaders in their industry. This impressive group of organizations is demonstrating that innovation and collaboration can create meaningful and sustainable change.⁠

These amazing partners contribute to our score of 16.5 in the Environment section of the B Impact Assessment which is far above the 4.2 benchmark score for our country, sector and business size range.

Community

Every business on the planet exists within a community. That's why B Corps are committed to giving back. Last year prior to Q3, our Founder & CVO, increased our paid volunteer time off to 60 hours per employee. We are proud to report that in just half the year, our Ocean First staff recorded a total of 616 hours volunteering with local organizations!

This year we are excited to be focusing our philanthropy & volunteer efforts on three local non-profits in our community voted by our staff; the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, Garden to Table, and Protect Our Winters.

While these are our main focus for 2022, we will continue to support our community and have actively have been volunteering with Conscious Alliance for the Marshall Fire relief efforts, Nature’s Educators, Ocean First Institute, and more.

Join us on Saturday, April 23rd as we do our part to clean up our backyard in celebration of Earth Month. Our annual highway cleanup for our sponsored portion of the diagonal highway has been a tradition in our community for the past 15 years! in observance of Earth Month. Stay tuned for more event information and details for our B Corp prize giveaways!

Conclusion

The month is over, but the work is far from done. We’ve only started scratching the surface of all that goes #BehindtheB! Our commitment as a #BCorp is to keep on learning and working in community to fulfill the vision of an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. So stay tuned for future updates about our journey and get in touch with us with your ideas and suggestions so we can build a better world today, together.