Integrity: Being the same in every environment. Consistent. Honest & Good. Being whole. Undivided. Always the same. Reliable.
Larry Nickel, my high school music teacher, taught me to evaluate music by the integrity of the sound, was the tone or library of songs consistent? My all time favorite boss handed me a copper token carved with the word integrity on my last day working with her. I carried it in my change purse for years.
I think it’s my favorite word. (Dear Tim, If a Pyrrha necklace that says Integrity shows up under our christmas tree I wouldn’t be sad).
Danielle Braun Kauffman, lead therapist at our health collective, has taught our team and leadership about the importance of being trauma informed. How predictability, safety and choice are mandatory elements within good relationships (and we think good business and leadership too). There is no more predictable person, or business, than the one with integrity.
It takes time to give integrity enough space to really show up, and turns out that sometimes, if one dedicates years to the process, one could even get certified “integrous.” It’s one thing to tell you that we provide our employees with a decent wage and working environment, that we donate our resources to our community and beyond, that we’re mindful about the choices we make when it comes to carbon footprint, but it’s another to have someone else say it.
We are now a certified BCorp company.
In short, that means that this rigorous third party non-profit test agency put us to the grind and stood us up next to a high standard and deemed us a BENEFIT to the world. That our employees, community and planet is better off for having us in it.
They tested our salaries
They tested how much electricity and water we use
They tested our waste levels
They tested our benefit plans and our employee policies
They tested our generosity
They tested our willingness to respond to clients
They tested our suppliers and how we choose them
They tested our involvement in the community
They tested our legal structures
And after they tested us and our documentation on approximately 500 elements related to doing business, they tested us again. To ensure we remained consistent.
And so, during what is certain to go down as the most challenging year of our collective lives thus far, we have managed to accomplish this feat and be the first salon in canada to be certified, joining the ranks a some of our business icons like: Patagonia, Pyrrha (remember when I mentioned this earlier to Tim?) Ben and Jerry’s, Natura, Seventh Generation, Sundial, & TenTree to name a few. If this is the first time you’ve heard of Bcorp, we think you’ll start to notice that label popping up more regularly. Gap and Banana Republic have recently announced their pursuit of the label, and we happen to know our friends at Fieldhouse are working towards this as well.
It’s been difficult to celebrate this achievement during a season where we’re not able to gather, but please celebrate with us by engaging in our “Force For Good” campaign. Details here.
With so much hope for the future, Heidi Epp (co-owner)